Australian composer Richard Mills celebrates a significant birthday this year.

Please join Wise Music APAC celebrating Maestro Mills' milestone and music.

Having recently stepped down from his decade long tenure as Artistic director and coundutor of Victorian Opera, Mills has been composing with gusto working on a Concerto for Solo Violin, Harp and Strings for the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra; a Double Bass Concerto "Fantastic Bestiary" for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra; a Pentecostal Mass; a Percussion Concerto "Percussion Symphony" for the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra, and the recently completed Missa Brevis for Hugh Lydon, which will have its world premiere in Western Australia in 2025.

Mills’ well known compositions include:

Trumpet Concerto (1982)

Aeolian Caprices (1988)

Seaside Dances After Couplets of E. E. Cummings (1989)

Tenebrae (1992)

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1996)

Double Concerto (2002)

Symphony of Nocturnes (2008)

String Quartet No. 4 Glimpses from My Book of Dada (2010)

Concerto for Two Violins (2018)

Nativity (2021)

The Butterfly Lovers (2022)

Later this month students from ANAM will present Sonata for Brass Quintet at “Sounds of Australia: A New Energy”. This Sonata was commissioned by the Melbourne Brass Ensemble in 1985, who recorded the work in 1988 at Melba Hall. The Sonata is a virtuosic work exploring the style and techniques of the modern brass quintet. Its three movements are sure to delight audiences everywhere.

Early in December Mills will take to the stage as guest conductor with the Darwin Symphony Orchestra to conduct selected numbers from his cherished ballet Snugglepot & Cuddlepie. This newly typeset edition contains all eighteen numbers from the original ballet score.

Pianist Stefan Cassomenos will join Mills on stage to perform the Piano Concerto No. 2 of Sergei Rachmaninoff. This sparkling and exuberant second concerto is one of the greatest works in the piano repertoire canon.

Book tickets here (Sonata)

28 November 2024

Abbotsford Convent, Rosina Auditorium

1 St Heliers Street, Abbotsford, Victoria

Australia

Book tickets here (Snugglepot & Cuddlepie)

7 December 2024

Darwin Entertainment Centre

Darwin, Northern Territory

Australia

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