Perth composer Mark Holdsworth (1990) completed his Bachelor of Arts Honours (music composition) in 2015 from the University of Western Australia. In 2010, he was selected for the National Composers Forum (Adelaide) where he received tutelage under composer Carl Vine. The event culminated in the premiere of his Frida Kahlo Portraits by the Australian String Quartet. In 2014, he was selected for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra’s Young & Emerging Artists: Composition Project, culminating in the premiere of his Chamber Symphony: A Broken Vow. Holdsworth was awarded the 2014 Dorothy Ellen Ransom Prize for his symphonic overture Odyssey and in 2015 attended the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s Composer’s School where the work was performed. Holdsworth used CutCommon’s in-house mastering service for his recordings.
Bloodlust. Mark Holdsworth. Score for solo cello. From the composer: “Bloodlust refers to the primal and instinctual urge to kill or cause harm. It’s about bacchanalian freedom and surrendering oneself to darker kinds of desire. The piece was conceived in terms of performative gesture and is consequently structured around bellicose physical gestures such as large aggressive bow strokes, sections of rapid snap pizzicato and rapid off the string passages. The music constantly attempts, though unsuccessfully, to contain and suppress its aggression until ultimately succumbing to it”.[purchase_link id=”2475″ style=”button” color=”red” text=”Add to Cart”]Chamber Symphony ‘A Broken Vow’. Mark Holdsworth. Score for 14 players. From the composer: “A Broken Vow was written for a chamber orchestra derived from the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. The work was premiered by WASO as part of the 2014 Composition Project at ABC Studios in Perth”.[purchase_link id=”2488″ style=”button” color=”red” text=”Add to Cart”]Frida Kahlo Portraits (String Quartet No. 1)(recording). Mark Holdsworth.[purchase_link id=”2533″ style=”button” color=”red” text=”Add to Cart”]Frida Kahlo Portraits (String Quartet No. 1) (score). Mark Holdsworth. Score and parts for string quartet, five movements. Premiered by the Australian String Quartet at the 2010 National Composers Forum at Elder Hall in Adelaide. From the composer: “Commemorates the life and creative oeuvre of Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo. Kahlo led an arduous life pervaded with copious adversities; her artwork reflects on these hardships in an act of creative catharsis. The Frida Kahlo Portraits musically emulates these themes, drawing particularly on the artists heavy use of symbolism and expressive intentionality”.[purchase_link id=”2494″ style=”button” color=”red” text=”Add to Cart”]String Quartet No. 3. Mark Holdsworth. Score and parts for string quartet.[purchase_link id=”2503″ style=”button” color=”red” text=”Add to Cart”]String Quartet No. 2. Mark Holdsworth. Score and parts for string quartet.[purchase_link id=”2500″ style=”button” color=”red” text=”Add to Cart”] Recording for string quartet.[purchase_link id=”3326″ style=”button” color=”red” text=”Add to Cart”]Primrose (recording). Mark Holdsworth. String trio recording.[purchase_link id=”2544″ style=”button” color=”red” text=”Add to Cart”]Primrose (score). Mark Holdsworth. Score and parts for string trio. Commissioned by Ted Snell for the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery ‘Memento Mori’ exhibition 2014. From the composer: “The work explores the theme of mortality through the allegory of a flower. The piece also draws influence from Hans