CONTENT COURTESY FREEDMAN CLASSICAL FELLOWSHIP
Twenty-nine-year-old Melbourne cellist Richard Narroway has been announced winner of The Music Trust’s 2020 Freedman Classical Fellowship.
The prestigious $20,000 award is offered annually to an exceptional instrumentalist.
“This is such an incredible honour and a huge boost for me during what has been a rather strange time here in Melbourne!” Richard says.
“I am so grateful to the panel for believing in my playing and my vision.”
A few months ago, Richard returned to Australia after 10 years of study and performances in the United States. He had great plans to re-establish himself in Australia, but walked straight into the COVID-19 crisis and soon, the Melbourne lockdown.
The fellowship will enable Richard to set up a post-COVID-19 national performance tour, performing Australian compositions.
“This fellowship brings with it such a wonderful opportunity to carry out a project that I am deeply passionate about, and that will allow me to connect with all kinds of communities and audiences around the country.”
Normally, The Music Trust’s Freedman Classical Fellowship competition would culminate at a deciding concert at the Sydney Opera House. Here, three finalists would be judged on their performances, as well as proposals for a creative project they would undertake should they be named the Freedman Classical Fellow.
However, 2020 presented unusual circumstances, in which a live performance component did not take place due to COVID-19. This year, instead of three finalists, the contenders were just so good that the judges selected four.
The finalists were assessed on their submitted recordings and proposed projects, as well as live interviews via video conference. The 2020 finalists were Richard Narroway (cello), Grace Clifford (violin), James Morley (violin), and Harry Ward (cello).
2020 Freedman Classical Judge and Senior Lecturer in Conducting and Operatic Studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Dr Stephen Mould says: “Even during challenging COVID-19 times, where there is a widespread uncertainty as to how and when the live performance sector might recover, each finalist produced imaginative and aspirational proposals, appropriate to the current status quo.”
“They displayed creativity, ambitious aspiration, and a desire to find connection with the wider global community beyond the ‘classical music’ audience.”
Ensemble Offspring and 2020 Freedman Classical Judge Claire Edwardes adds: “Richard Narroway displayed a maturity and sense of arrival in his career. We very much hope that this fellowship will provide him with the opportunity to arrive back onto the Australian scene, having lived overseas in recent years. He is certainly one to watch out for.”
The third judge, Canberra International Music Festival Director Roland Peelman had some broader observations: “As always, the Freedman fellowship draws in exceptional musicians at the beginning of a big career.”
“This year’s Fellowship process, affected by COVID-19, border closures and lock downs, did not fail to draw out some big ideas about music, renewal and audience engagement. Music’s agency in the social fabric of society, its community impact and untold potential in creating a better world were at the forefront of this year’s proposals like never before.”
Richard Narroway’s tour will traverse great distances across the remote outback. He will perform 10 Australian works for solo cello, some of them specially commissioned and some existing works by celebrated composers Elena Kats Chernin, Ross Edwards, Peter Sculthorpe, and Carl Vine. An album of the tour will be released steeped in Sculthorpe’s legacy of writing music that conveys a deeply personal and urgent investment in Australia’s landscape, fauna and Indigenous history.
Richard plans to film his journey and produce a documentary.
Images supplied.
