Biography

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Composer, Musician, Researcher (b. 1975, Melbourne, Australia).

Kristian Ireland’s music has received performances across Europe, the U.S., the UK, Australia, and Japan, by leading exponents of contemporary music. Ireland holds a Doctorate and a Master of Arts degree in music composition from Stanford University (California), where he studied primarily with Brian Ferneyhough. He attended Harvard University as a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Music (2009-2010), studying with Chaya Czernowin. He completed a Bachelor of Music in composition at the Victorian College of the Arts (Melbourne) studying primarily with Chris Dench and David L. Young, and at Monash University (Melbourne).

Ireland was an artist in residence at the SWR Experimentalstudio (Südwestrundfunk | Southwest Broadcasting) (Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, 2014-2015), Fondazione Sassi Matera | Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Matera, Italy, 2014), Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf (Germany, 2012), Villa Sträuli (Switzerland, 2012), La Napoule Art Foundation (Côte d’Azur, France, 2011), The Banff Centre (Canada, 2009),  Denkmalschmiede Höfgen (Germany, 2008), a Japan Foundation Artist Fellow (Japan, 2003), a stipendiary of the DAAD (German Academic Exchange) (Berlin, 2013-2014), the Brandenburg Ministry of Science, Research, and Culture (2012), Goethe-Institut (Berlin, 2012), and the SWR Experimentalstudio (Südwestrundfunk) Freiburg, Germany – matrix on tour (Warsaw, Poland, 2012). He was a finalist in Der Staubachpreis Competition at the 2008 Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik. The event is documented in UK-based filmmaker Andrew Chesher’s Knots and Fields, and was broadcast on  hr2-kultur (German radio).

Kristian Ireland’s music featured at the Venice Biennale (Italy), Wien Modern (Austria), Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt (Germany), Giga-Hertz-Preis-Festival at the ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien (Centre for Arts and Media) (Karlsruhe, Germany), Alba New Music Festival (Edinburgh), Centre Acanthes (France), Kalv Festival (Sweden), Asian Composers League Festival (Japan), SMASH International Festival of Contemporary Music (Spain), Wiepersdorf Sommerfest (Germany), All Frontiers (Italy), Melbourne International Arts Festival (Australia), Eavesdropping at The Tank NYC (New York), Poto Festival (Grass Valley, California), Agimus Venezia Autunno (Italy), Internationales Musikfestival Höfgen-Kaditzsch, Rochlitz (Germany), Sommerakademie Schloss Solitude (Germany), City University London (UK), the Philharmonie Luxembourg, Chromas Association of New Music (Tuscany), Casa della Musica (Trieste),  Grosspeter Garage (Basel), CCRMA (California), Hamiltonian Gallery (Washington), CalArts (Los Angeles), ArtSpace Herndon  (Virginia), and at conservatories in Denmark, Norway, Portugal,  and Spain. His music has been performed by ensembles such as the Arditti Quartet, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart,  Ensemble SurPlus, Ensemble Experimental | SWR Experimentalstudio, Ensemble L’arsenale, Quartetto Maurice, Ensemble für Neue Musik Zürich, The Formalist Quartet, Aphids Trio, Speak Percussion, HOW 2, by noted interpreters including Séverine Ballon, Richard Craig, Frank Cox, Chris Gross,  Yasutaka Hemmi, Matt Ingalls, Graeme Jennings, Shino Kataoka,  Deborah Kayser, Yu Kobayashi, Josh Levine, Marshall McGuire, Geoffrey Morris, Peter Neville, Stephen Robinson, Rikuya Terashima, Yasunori Yamaguchi, by conductors James Avery, Steven Loy, Warwick Stengards, Erich Fackert, and Shinji Moriguchi, among others.

Kristian Ireland’s music is published by Edition Gravis (Berlin, Germany) (see the online catalogue), is available on the innova label (American Composers Forum), and has received radio broadcast in Europe, the  U.S., and Australia. Details of his work and activities are documented in Stephen Pleskun’s major publication series A Chronological History of Australian Composers and Their Compositions, volumes 2 – 4 (Xlibris 2012/2014).

He conducted research at the Archivio Luigi Nono (Venice, Italy,  2005), the Toho Gakuen School of Music (Tokyo, 2003), the Kyoto  City University of the Arts (Kyoto, 2003), and with the Kyoto  Gagaku Association Ensemble, at the Nishiki-tenmangu shrine  (Kyoto, 2003). He has given lecture and paper presentations at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (Leipzig, Germany), Harvard University, UC Berkeley, USC (Los Angeles), the matrix12 conference of Das Experimentalstudio des SWR (Südwestrundfunk) at the Goethe-Institut (Warsaw, Poland), Dokumentationszentrum NS-Zwangsarbeit | Stiftung Topographie des Terrors (Berlin-Schöneweide, Germany), the 2004 Symposium of the International Musicological Society,  The University of Melbourne, and others.

Ireland participated in masterclasses with Simon Bainbridge, Tristan Murail, and Julio Estrada. He studied piano with Stephen McIntyre and Michael Kieran Harvey, and worked often as a piano accompanist, and as a chamber and orchestral keyboardist.

He is involved in a long-term research project on the history of Ostarbeiter (eastern workers), forced labourers.

He also holds a Cambridge CELTA Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (Level 5 – English for speakers of other languages), University of Cambridge ESOL.

He is a member of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), and the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA).

He is the recipient of numerous international arts fellowships and grants.

HONOURS, AWARDS, and FELLOWSHIPS (Selected List)

2015   SWR Experimentalstudio (Südwestrundfunk | Southwest Broadcasting) Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany – Residency (continuation).
2014   SWR Experimentalstudio (Südwestrundfunk | Southwest Broadcasting) Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany – Residency.
2014   Fondazione Sassi Matera | Arts Promotion Centre Finland – Residency. Matera, Basilicata, Italy.
2013-2014   DAAD (German Academic Exchange) Postdoctoral Research grant. Berlin, Germany.
2012   Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf, Germany – Residency Fellowship.
2012   Brandenburg Ministry of Science, Research, and Culture – Residency Stipend.
2012   Villa Sträuli, Switzerland – Artist Residency.
2012   Experimental Studio SWR Freiburg – matrix12 on tour (Warsaw, Poland) Stipend.
2012   Goethe-Institut, Berlin – Artist Scholarship.
2011   La Napoule Art Foundation, France – Artist Residency Stipend.
2009-10   Harvard University, U.S. – Fellowship.
2009   The Banff Centre, Canada – Residency Fellowship.
2008   Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt (IMD), Germany – Scholarship.
2008   Denkmalschmiede Höfgen, Germany – Artist Residency Stipend.
2008   School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University, U.S. – Graduate Research Opportunity Award.
2008   Australia Council for the Arts – Skills and Arts Development Grant.
2008   Stanford Friends of Music grant.
2007   Centre Acanthes, France – Composition Bursaries.
2005   Sommerakademie Schloss Solitude, Germany – Residency Stipend.
2004-09   Stanford University, U.S. – Fellowship.
2004   Australian Cultural Fund – AbaF Australia Business Arts Foundation grant.
2003   Japan Foundation Fellowship, Japan.
2002   Ian Potter Cultural Trust grant, Australia.
2000   Ian Potter Cultural Trust grant, Australia.
2000   Asian Composers League Festival, Japan – Residency Stipend.
1993   V.C.A.S.S. Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School
Award for Excellence and Commitment to Music.

EDUCATION

2004-2010  Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A) in Music Composition. Stanford University, California, U.S.

2009-2010  Visiting Scholar, Music Composition. Harvard University, Cambridge, U.S.

2004-2006  Master of Arts (M.A.) in Music Composition. Stanford University, California, U.S.

2002  Honours degree of Bachelor of Music (First Class Hons.) in Music Composition. Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

1997-2000  Bachelor of Music Performance (BMus.Perf.) in Music Composition. The Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia.

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