Wise Music Group is pleased to announce a global exclusive publishing deal between Australian composer Paul Stanhope and Wise Music G. Schirmer Australia Pty Ltd.
Through his prolific and varied body of work, Paul Stanhope has established himself as one of the key voices in modern Australian contemporary music. Stanhope combines his mastery of traditional Western and modernist techniques into a refreshingly unique and engaging personal style. Ranging anywhere from sardonic wit, to lyricism and rhythmic exuberance, his music has great variety and a very mature sense of narrative and humour.
Stanhope’s reputation as an excellent orchestral, solo, chamber and choral composer has been reinforced by his numerous awards such as the Charles Mackerras Scholarship, first place in the Toru Takemitsu Composition Prize, the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award, two Sidney Myer Creative Fellowships, the David H. Trible Memorial Symphonic Prize, and seven Art Music Work of the Year awards.
His work explores themes of reconciliation, particularly through major collaborations with Australian First Nations musicians and storytellers, as well as through a focus on ecological issues and humanist concerns.
Stanhope’s orchestral works are routinely performed by all the Australian professional and youth orchestras and have been performed throughout the USA, UK, and Europe. His Piccolo Concerto has been performed by the Tasmania, Adelaide and Melbourne Symphony orchestras, and his recent orchestral work Ocean Planet premiered to great acclaim with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2022. He regularly has written for chamber groups such as the Australian Chamber orchestra, the Pavel Haas Quartet, the Atos Piano Trio and the Australian String Quartet, with his three string quartets being some of his most notable works. His large body of choral works has seen performances ranging from school choirs to professional ensembles such as Gondwana Voices, Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, The Song Company, Neuer Kammerchor Berlin and Sydney Chamber Choir.
One of Stanhope’s most ambitious undertakings was the monumental Jandamarra - Sing for the Country: Ngalanybarra Muwayi.u. This collaboration with librettist Steve Hawke and the Bunuba Community resulted in a cantata for large orchestra, choir, children’s choir, solo baritone, narrators, actors and an ensemble of Bunuba singers and dancers. This harrowing story tells the tale of Jandamarra, a member of the Bunuba people in Western Australia, and his resistance against white settlement.
Stanhope has made great strides internationally, with recent highlights being the 2024 world premiere performance of Nyilamum at Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, an Indigenous-led co-composition with Dr Lou Bennett in Bennett’s dja dja wurrung language; and Giving Ground, a work that modernises baroque techniques, that was co-commissioned by the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Philharmonia Baroque (San Fransisco), and had its New York premiere in January 2025.
"Paul Stanhope has attracted significant attention over the last decade or so for large scale works, such as Jandamarra – Sing for the Country and his award-winning Trombone Concerto. Meanwhile, he has been steadily producing a distinguished body of chamber music." - Clive Page, Limelight
About this signing, Paul Stanhope said “I am delighted to begin this journey with Wise Music. I am looking forward to the connections this partnerships may bring in the future and am optimistic there will be great things ahead.”
Jane English, Managing Director of Wise Music Creative Australia said “Paul is an innovative and highly respected composer who has made exceptional contributions to contemporary classical Australian music, with an innovative, unique voice and diverse body of work. We are proud to welcome Paul to our world class Wise Music Australian classical roster.”
Listen to select works from Paul Stanhope's catalogue here:
String Quartet no. 3 ‘From the Kimberley’
Piano Trio no. 1 ‘Dolcissimo Uscignolo’
Giving Ground (String Orchestra)
For further information contact Ben Pierpoint
e:ben.pierpoint@wisemusic.com
m: +61 409 416 415 (Sydney) wisemusicclassical.com