In this intimate recital composer Cyrus Meurant performs his music in its most essential form, alone at the piano. The program will include selections from the ballet Au revoir mon ami and the album Monday to Friday (composed for people living with dementia), alongside a recent composition Distant Cities, inspired by Rimbaud’s Illuminations.
About Cyrus Meurant
A prolific composer and performer, Meurant’s collaborative and theatre works have been performed throughout the world. His music has been described as “dynamic; dreamlike, plaintive and urgent” (Opera Plus, Europe), “moody and evocative” (Dance Australia), “deeply rich” (City News, Canberra), and “hauntingly beautiful” (The Sydney Morning Herald).
He has composed for The Australian Ballet, Divadlo F. X. Šaldy (Czech Republic), NIDA, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, the Australian War Memorial (Flowers of Peace), the National Youth Ballet Company, Dance Makers Collective, Ensemble Signal (USA), Alleyne Dance (UK), Orchestra Victoria, Syzygy Ensemble, Arcadia Winds, and Omega Ensemble. His opera Herakleitos premiered at the Laeiszhalle Hamburg (Germany), whilst his dance works have been performed at venues including the Theater Basel (Switzerland), The Place (UK) and the Sydney Opera House. Meurant also served as arranger for the Helpmann Award winning Reflections on Gallipoli, directed by Neil Armfield and presented by the Australian Chamber Orchestra (Winner for Best Symphony Orchestra Concert).
Meurant’s work for the health sector includes the album Monday to Friday (international finalist for ‘Innovation of the Year – Dementia Solution’ at the Eldercare Innovation Awards in Singapore) and the critically acclaimed theatre work To Whom I May Concern, presented by the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Group Homes Australia in association with Dementia Australia and the University of New South Wales. Albums and EPs include Sonata for solo violin, Sortie, Four Pieces (with saxophonist Andrew Smith), Seul (Secrets of Giza) and The Crossing of a Sea featuring the Syzygy Ensemble (ABC Classic).
Meurant studied composition and violin at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Anne Boyd, Ross Edwards, Matthew Hindson, Richard Meale and Ronald Thomas. He won both the Frank Albert Prize for Music and the Sarah Theresa Makinson Prize for Composition and later studied at the Conservatoire de Paris on a Churchill Fellowship with Frédéric Durieux and at the Royal Academy of Music, London.
Meurant is an Associate Lecturer in Composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Sydney.
ALL COMPOSED BY CYRUS MEURANT
Sortie
Pas de deux
Mneme
Distant Cities (Book I)
Monday III