Andrián Pertout's Biography

Composer, Performer, Producer, Arranger & Writer
PO Box 4172, Richmond East VIC 3121, Australia
Email: apertout@pertout.com

Andrian Pertout: Composer Andrián Pertout was born in Santiago, Chile, 17 October, 1963 [Versión en Castellano], and lived in Gorizia, Northern Italy for several years before finally settling in Melbourne, Australia in 1972. Over the years he has worked as a composer, performer, producer, arranger, writer and educator. In 2000, Andrián Pertout completed a BMus (Hons) degree, and in 2002, a Master of Music (MMus) degree with first class honours at the University of Melbourne, majoring in composition. In 2007, he completed a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree at the University of Melbourne on Tweddle Trust, Australian Postgraduate and Melbourne Research scholarships, studying composition under the guidance of Brenton Broadstock. He is currently the Australian delegate of the ACL (Asian Composers’ League), secretary of the Melbourne Composers’ League, Honorary Fellow at the Faculty of Music, University of Melbourne and on the Board of Directors at the AMC (Australian Music Centre).

Composition awards include the International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition (Greece), UnTwelve Composition Prize (USA), Dorian Le Gallienne Composition Prize, Betty Amsden Award, Louisville Orchestra Prize (USA), Oare String Orchestra Judges’ and Audience Prize (UK), Michelle Morrow Memorial Award, and the Zavod Jazz/Classical Fusion Award. He is currently the Australian Delegate of the ACL (Asian Composers’ League), President of the Melbourne Composers’ League, Honorary Fellow at the Faculty of Music, University of Melbourne and on the Board of Directors at the AMC (Australian Music Centre).

He has received numerous commissions, including recent works for violinist Piotr Szewczyk, (Jacksonville, FL, USA), saxophonist Noah Getz (Washington, DC, USA) – premiered in 2009 at the Stella Adler, New York, NY, USA as part of the Harold Clurman Concert Series – and toy pianist Phyllis Chen (New York, NY, USA); as well as other works for The University of Hong Kong Gamelan Orchestra and Australian pianist Michael Kieran Harvey, commissioned by Julian Burnside QC. In 2006, Pavel Mihelcic and Ensemble MD7 (Ljubljana, Slovenia) commissioned Aequilibrium for flute, clarinet, viola, violoncello, trombone, pianoforte and percussion – premiered at the 2006 Ljubljana Festival; and in 2007, the City of Melbourne commissioned Symétrie intégrante for flute, organ and electronics, which was performed by Andrew Blackburn and Jean Penny as part of the 2007 ‘Melbourne Town Hall Organ Project’. Film Music commissions include works that have been written to accompany over 20 documentary and short films, television programs, as well as commercials, computer games and stage productions. Highlights of this part of Andrián's career include composing for documentary films such as East Meets West (1984), Ibrahim (1984), The Murray River Quest (1985), Hope Street (1987) and The Australian Ballet (1990).

Andrián's music has been performed in Ireland, Greece, Japan, Venezuela, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Brazil, Cuba, Peru, Colombia, China, Croatia, Hong Kong, France, Belgium, Chile, Italy, Canada, Republic of Macedonia, Slovenia, UK, Korea, Netherlands, Austria, USA, and Australia by orchestras that include Orquestra Petrobras Sinfônica (Brazil), Oare String Orchestra (UK), Le Brass Band du Nord-Pas de Calais, La Chapelle Musicale de Tournai (Belgium), Louisville Orchestra, The Foundation Orchestra (USA), Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne University Orchestra (Australia); conductors that include Rodolfo Fischer (Switzerland), Johannes Fritzsch (Germany), Peter Aviss (UK), Kenneth Young (New Zealand), Robert Franz, David C. Bugli (USA), Daniel Phillips, Nicholas Cowall, Adrian Kirk (Australia), Robert Casteels (Singapore), Jürg Henneberger (Switzerland); as well as performers and ensembles that include Onix Ensamble (Mexico), Ensemble MD7 (Slovenia), Ensamble Contemporáneo (Chile), Sonemus Ensemble (Bosnia-Herzegovina), University of South Carolina World Symphonic Jazz Orchestra, Omni Ensemble, New York Miniaturist Ensemble, Orenunn Trio, Syracuse Ensemble (USA), Quinteto CEAMC (Argentina), Crossroads Trio, Ensemble Octandre (Italy), Alea Contemporary Music Ensemble (Republic of Macedonia), Matej Zupan (Slovenia), Ensemble BE / BEyond Infinity Ensemble, Ensemble TIMF, Sori Ensemble (Korea), Sydney Soloists, OZmoSiS Ensemble, Sonic Art Ensemble, Rompduo, Tin Alley String Quartet, Trio Erytheia, Speak Percussion, Australian Contemporary Chorale (Australia), Ensemble für neue musik zürich (Switzerland), Cheung Hang-hung, Peter Fan (Hong Kong), Goska Isphording (The Netherlands), Marco Antonio Mazzini, Ward de Vleeschhouwer (Belgium), Susanne Stanzeleit, Carla Rees (UK), Genevieve Feiwen Lee, Phyllis Chen, Noah Getz, Jeffrey Chappell, Jeri-Mae Astolfi, Larry Zimmerman (USA), Isabel Ettenauer, Marika Ottitsch, Lourenço César Finatti (Austia), Geoffrey Morris, Ken Murray, Wendy Dixon, David Miller, Alister Barker, Michael Kieran Harvey, Anna Webb, Jean Penny, Andrew Blackburn, Anne Norman, Peter Hagen, Marshall McGuire, Ryszard and Aleksander Pusz, Josephine Vains, Rachel Atkinson, Luke Howard, Qmars Piraglu, Adrian Sherriff, Robert Chamberlain, Amy Valent, Alex Pertout, Johanna Selleck (Australia), Craig Hultgren (USA).

His music has received performances at festivals such as the JSEM/MSJ (Japanese Society of Electronic Music / Musicological Society of Japan) Electroacoustic Festival 2009 (Nagoya, Japan), 22nd, 26th and 27th ACL Conference & Festival 2002, 2007 and 2009 (Seoul, Korea and Wellington, New Zealand), Harold Clurman Concert Series 2009 (Stella Adler, New York, NY, USA), Adventurers Series 2009 (Symphony Space/Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre, New York, NY, USA), Piccante Series 2008 (Residence for a Briard, Culver City, CA, USA), Musicarama 2008 Festival (Hong Kong), V, VI, VII and VIII Festival Internacional de Música Electroacústica de Santiago – Ai-maako 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 (Santiago, Chile), Contemporanea Festival ‘FrammentAzioni’ (Udine, Italy), Música Viva Festival 2008 (Lisbon, Portugal), ACMC 2001, 2006 and 2008 (Australasian Computer Music Conference, Sydney and Adelaide), Medea Electronique – ElectroMediaWorks ’08 (Athens, Greece), Sixteenth Annual Ussachevsky Memorial Festival (Pomona College Department of Music, Claremont, CA, USA), 2008 International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) ICETank Concert Series (New York, NY, USA), ‘Gradus ad Parnassum’ Concert Series 2007 (Royal Conservatory of Ghent, Belgium), ISCM World Music Days 2005 and 2007 (Zagreb, Croatia and Hong Kong), 2007 Melbourne International Arts Festival ‘John Cage’s Musicircus’ (Melbourne, Australia), ‘2007 Concert Artist Guild’ Concert (Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, New York, NY, USA), Chicago Composers Forum ‘John Cage’s Musicircus 2007’ (Chicago Cultural Centre, Chicago, IL, USA), XXIX Foro Internacional de Música Nueva ‘Manuel Enríquez’ 2007 (Mexico City, Mexico), ‘Harmonia Classica 25th Anniversary’ Concert (Bösendorfersaal, Vienna, Austria), Los Angeles Sonic Odyssey / Electronic and Computer Music Concert Series 2005, 2006 and 2007 (Los Angeles, CA, USA), Extensible Toy Piano Festival 2005 and 2007 (The University at Albany, MA, and Clark University, Worcester, MA, USA), BMIC Cutting Edge Series (London, UK), Ljubljana Festival 2006 (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Orquestra Petrobras Sinfônica ‘Serie Ouro Negro 2006’ (Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), XI Festival Internacional de Música Electroacústica 2006 (Habana, Cuba), XIII and XV Festival de Música Contemporánea Chilena 2003 and 2005 (Santiago, Chile), Tercer Festival Internacional de Música Clásica Contemporánea de Lima (Lima, Peru), Segunda Convocatoria de Composición de Matiz Rangel Editores (Bogotá, Colombia), Society of Composers 2004 and 2005 Conferences (Geneseo, NY, and Greensboro, NC, USA), First American University Saxophone Symposium 2005 (Washington, DC, USA), Oare String Orchestra 2005 Concert Series (Alexander Centre, Faversham, UK), 33e Festival d'Automne á Paris (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, France), Indiana State University 38th Annual Contemporary Music Festival, ‘Plugged In: Music With an Electric Edge’ (Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN, USA), among many.

Andrián’s music has been published by Oregon Literary Review (Portland, OR, USA), Reed Music (Melbourne), Rhythmscape Publishing (Brisbane), Society of Composers (New York, NY, USA), and Red House Editions (Melbourne). His music also appears on 18 compact discs released by the Concert Artists Guild (New York, NY, USA), Melbourne Composers’ League, Australasian Computer Music Association (Melbourne), Capstone Records (Brooklyn, NY, USA), Albany Records (Albany, NY, USA), Harmonia Classica (Vienna, Austria), Reed Music (Melbourne), Pueblo Nuevo/Laim/Cech (Santiago, Chile), Kostas Metaxas Recordings (Melbourne), University of Melbourne, and Agenda Edizioni Musicali (Bologna, Italy).

As an educator, Andrián Pertout has been a teaching composition and orchestration at the Faculty of Music, University of Melbourne since 2003. The Victorian College of the Arts has additionally employed him since 2006. In 2007, he also began working as a music engraver for the Lyre-Bird Press (Editions de l’Oiseau-Lyre), one of the world's foremost publishers of scholarly musical editions, which is now established at the University of Melbourne. Over the years he has also worked for the University of New England, Charles Darwin University and the University of Western Sydney as composition teacher, supervisor and examiner.

Selected lectures include: ‘Theory Versus Performance Practice: Azadeh for Santur and Tape,’ 2007 Asia Pacific Festival ‘Tradition/Transformation’ Conference, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand as part of the 26th Asian Composers League Festival & Conference; ‘Pure Retuning and Political Subversion: Defining Eclecticism in the New Millennium,’ as part of a series of lectures entitled ‘Pacific Conceptual Issues and Techniques’ involving five Australian composers that included Brett Dean and Liza Lim at University of Western Sydney, 2005; ‘Defining Eclecticism in the New Millennium,’ Indiana State University 38th Annual Contemporary Music Festival, USA as part of winning the 2004 ISU Contemporary Music Festival/Louisville Orchestra Composition Competition; and ‘Australian Composition,’ Department of Music and Sinology, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile, 2003.

Andrián Pertout’s work as a writer involves numerous music publications (Juke Magazine, Mixdown, Australian Musician, On the Street Melbourne, Music Trader, Spanish Herald, Drum Scene, Music Trader Online, Beat Magazine, 3rd Magazine, Metalshop Online and the Sunday Herald Sun), reviewing new musical technology, compact disc and book releases, as well as conducting interviews with prominent national and international artists (to date the total number of published articles is over 400). Some of the artists interviewed include Herbie Hancock, Steve Reich, Joe Satriani, Mark Levine, Joe Zawinul, Melissa Etheridge, José Feliciano, Steve Vai, Mark Snow, Alf Clausen, Jimmie Vaughan, Ottmar Liebert, Mike Stern, Tom Coster, Bill Evans, Megadeth, Janis Ian (USA), INXS, Tommy Emanuelle, Savage Garden, Slava Grigoryan (Australia), Chitravina N. Ravikiran, Karaikudi R. Mani (India), Rick Wakeman, Fairport Convention (UK), Junkie XL (The Netherlands), Reinhard Flatischler (Austria), Paco Peña (Spain), Hossam Ramzy (Egypt), Sepultura (Brazil), Tony Pérez & Ramces Baralt (Cuba), and Inti-Illimani, Isabel Parra, Illapu (Chile), among many. [Download complete PDF List of Articles]

He is a member of the Australian Music Centre, Fellowship of Australian Composers, Melbourne Composers' League, Australasian Computer Music Association, SCI (Society of Composers Inc., USA), Asociación Na cional de Compositores de Chile, CECh (Comunidad Electroacústica de Chile), New Music North (Canada), and the Just Intonation Network, as well as writer full member of APRA (Australasian Performing Right Association Limited).