About Peter McNamara
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Peter McNamara was born and educated in Sydney's Western Suburbs where he still currently resides with his family. He currently works as a freelance composer and academic educator at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where he is a casual lecturer. He is also an active cricket umpire for the New South Wales Cricket Umpires and Scorers Association and the Camden District Cricket Umpires Association in the NSW Premier Cricket Competition and the Camden District Cricket Association. As a junior, Peter McNamara played cricket against former Australian Captain Michael Clarke, and with former international spin bowler Jason Krejza, international batsman Ben Rohrer and current Mayor of Fairfield City Council Frank Carbone.
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Biography
Peter McNamara is an established award-winning Sydney-based experimental composer. Born and educated in Sydney’s Western Suburbs, his work is particularly influenced by landscapes and the physics of the natural world and universe, and extends across a wide variety of musical genres including orchestral, chamber, electronic, installation and film composition. Between 1999 and 2011 he studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with composers such as Michael Smetanin, Božidar Kos and Trevor Pearce, graduating with a PhD. He is currently an academic lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the Excelsia College in Sydney and a co-artistic director of the Sideband Collective.
McNamara’s works have appeared at numerous international events including the 2008, 2010 and 2013 ISCM World New Music Days and the 2008, 2009 and 2011 Gaudeamus Music Weeks in The Netherlands, performed by leading international orchestras, ensembles and soloists including Ensemble Modern, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Insomnio, Orchestra Victoria, Elision, Ensemble Nomad, Orkest de Ereprijs, Ensemble Offspring, the Tokyo Sinfonietta, Ensemble Phace, the Stroma Ensemble and Sydney Symphony soloist Shefali Pryor.
McNamara has a growing number of works published by Wirripang Pty Ltd and Alexander Street Press. He also has a growing number of commissions from various artistic bodies and ensembles nationally and internationally. This includes Perpetual Inertia for the Dutch Orchestra and Ensemble Academy, Der Ost-Westspiegel for international accordion virtuoso James Crabb and The German Hills for Ensemble Offspring. In 2006 and 2012, he was the composer-in-residence at the Campbelltown Arts Centre.
McNamara’s work has also been commercially recorded by Australian virtuoso performers Claire Edwardes (The Styx, Kammerklang 2009) and Alicia Crossley (Duo-Generare, Duo-Blockstix 2017). He also co-initiated with fellow composers Tristan Coelho and Brad Gill the commercial CD recording projects Sideband in 2014, Sideband: The In-between in 2018, and Sideband: From the Depths in 2020, containing recordings of his chamber and electronic works Voltage, Cadenza II, Amplitude, White Noise, Voice of the Depths and At the Melting of the Snow.
McNamara numerous awards include the 2015 APRA Professional Development Award, the Gallipoli Songs Prize in 2014 (The General’s Garden), second place at the 2011 Young Composers Meeting with Orkest de Ereprijs (Cross Modifications), the 2008 2MBS-FM composition award for Orchestra (Modes of Deception), the 2007 Betty Amsden Award for Orchestra (Auftauchen der Nacht) and second place in the 2007 Asian Composers League Young Composers Awards (Landscape of Diffracted Colours). McNamara also received a High Credit from the Lepo Sumera International Composition Contest in 2003 for his orchestral work Shadows of Fallacy.
Interview
Click here to listen to the free podcast interview conducted with Peter McNamara by Peggy Polias for the Making Conversation project in 2016, or listen on Apple Podcasts.
Reviews
Gwen Bennett, The Music Trust - Sideband. Music by Coelho, Gill, Kos, McNamara and Williams
Andrew Aronowicz, Limelight Magazine - Sideband: Visceral performances embrace the shock of the Australian new
Peter Leung, classikON - Vast range of tone colours in Sideband’s first CD
Clive O'Connell, O'Connell the Music blog - Sweet and Low
Kieran Welch, CutCommon - the in-between
Alan Holley, classikON - 2 New CD Reviews | Peter McNamara | Danae Killian
Publishers
Wirripang Pty Ltd | The Australian Music Centre | Score Exchange
Qualifications
Doctor of Philosophy - Sydney Conservatorium of Music (2008-11) [Thesis online]
Masters of Music (Composition) - Sydney Conservatorium of Music (2004-6)
Bachelor of Music Honours (Compostion) - Sydney Conservatorium of Music (1999-2002)
Peter McNamara's academic CV can be viewed here.
Articles written by Peter McNamara
Contrasting Approaches: The Continued Relevance of Pre-recorded Live Electronics in Australian Music - Musicology Australia Vol 38
Contrasting Approaches - 2018 Australasian Computer Music Conference Proceedings
Freedom within the Prism - Resonate Magazine
A Strategy of Exposure - Resonate Magazine
Writing for the Fisher's Ghost Orchestra - Orchestral Outlook
Articles about Peter McNamara
The Centenary of the Con (Book) | Peter McNamara, Aaron Kenny and Jeremy Rose win APRA PDAs | Gallipoli Songs-And the Winners Are...
2013 ISCM Selection | Mountain Study | Gaudeamus Music Week 2011 | Kammerklang 2009 | Peter McNamara wins a Dutch Commission
2009 Gaudeamus Music Week | Sibelius Composer Awards 2008 | Eighth Classically Melbourne Concert
Peter McNamara is an established award-winning Sydney-based experimental composer. Born and educated in Sydney’s Western Suburbs, his work is particularly influenced by landscapes and the physics of the natural world and universe, and extends across a wide variety of musical genres including orchestral, chamber, electronic, installation and film composition. Between 1999 and 2011 he studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with composers such as Michael Smetanin, Božidar Kos and Trevor Pearce, graduating with a PhD. He is currently an academic lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the Excelsia College in Sydney and a co-artistic director of the Sideband Collective.
McNamara’s works have appeared at numerous international events including the 2008, 2010 and 2013 ISCM World New Music Days and the 2008, 2009 and 2011 Gaudeamus Music Weeks in The Netherlands, performed by leading international orchestras, ensembles and soloists including Ensemble Modern, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Insomnio, Orchestra Victoria, Elision, Ensemble Nomad, Orkest de Ereprijs, Ensemble Offspring, the Tokyo Sinfonietta, Ensemble Phace, the Stroma Ensemble and Sydney Symphony soloist Shefali Pryor.
McNamara has a growing number of works published by Wirripang Pty Ltd and Alexander Street Press. He also has a growing number of commissions from various artistic bodies and ensembles nationally and internationally. This includes Perpetual Inertia for the Dutch Orchestra and Ensemble Academy, Der Ost-Westspiegel for international accordion virtuoso James Crabb and The German Hills for Ensemble Offspring. In 2006 and 2012, he was the composer-in-residence at the Campbelltown Arts Centre.
McNamara’s work has also been commercially recorded by Australian virtuoso performers Claire Edwardes (The Styx, Kammerklang 2009) and Alicia Crossley (Duo-Generare, Duo-Blockstix 2017). He also co-initiated with fellow composers Tristan Coelho and Brad Gill the commercial CD recording projects Sideband in 2014, Sideband: The In-between in 2018, and Sideband: From the Depths in 2020, containing recordings of his chamber and electronic works Voltage, Cadenza II, Amplitude, White Noise, Voice of the Depths and At the Melting of the Snow.
McNamara numerous awards include the 2015 APRA Professional Development Award, the Gallipoli Songs Prize in 2014 (The General’s Garden), second place at the 2011 Young Composers Meeting with Orkest de Ereprijs (Cross Modifications), the 2008 2MBS-FM composition award for Orchestra (Modes of Deception), the 2007 Betty Amsden Award for Orchestra (Auftauchen der Nacht) and second place in the 2007 Asian Composers League Young Composers Awards (Landscape of Diffracted Colours). McNamara also received a High Credit from the Lepo Sumera International Composition Contest in 2003 for his orchestral work Shadows of Fallacy.
Interview
Click here to listen to the free podcast interview conducted with Peter McNamara by Peggy Polias for the Making Conversation project in 2016, or listen on Apple Podcasts.
Reviews
Gwen Bennett, The Music Trust - Sideband. Music by Coelho, Gill, Kos, McNamara and Williams
Andrew Aronowicz, Limelight Magazine - Sideband: Visceral performances embrace the shock of the Australian new
Peter Leung, classikON - Vast range of tone colours in Sideband’s first CD
Clive O'Connell, O'Connell the Music blog - Sweet and Low
Kieran Welch, CutCommon - the in-between
Alan Holley, classikON - 2 New CD Reviews | Peter McNamara | Danae Killian
Publishers
Wirripang Pty Ltd | The Australian Music Centre | Score Exchange
Qualifications
Doctor of Philosophy - Sydney Conservatorium of Music (2008-11) [Thesis online]
Masters of Music (Composition) - Sydney Conservatorium of Music (2004-6)
Bachelor of Music Honours (Compostion) - Sydney Conservatorium of Music (1999-2002)
Peter McNamara's academic CV can be viewed here.
Articles written by Peter McNamara
Contrasting Approaches: The Continued Relevance of Pre-recorded Live Electronics in Australian Music - Musicology Australia Vol 38
Contrasting Approaches - 2018 Australasian Computer Music Conference Proceedings
Freedom within the Prism - Resonate Magazine
A Strategy of Exposure - Resonate Magazine
Writing for the Fisher's Ghost Orchestra - Orchestral Outlook
Articles about Peter McNamara
The Centenary of the Con (Book) | Peter McNamara, Aaron Kenny and Jeremy Rose win APRA PDAs | Gallipoli Songs-And the Winners Are...
2013 ISCM Selection | Mountain Study | Gaudeamus Music Week 2011 | Kammerklang 2009 | Peter McNamara wins a Dutch Commission
2009 Gaudeamus Music Week | Sibelius Composer Awards 2008 | Eighth Classically Melbourne Concert