Spirit Visions for Orchestra won the 2021 Artemis Film Festival BEST FOREIGN COMPOSITION award. Please Visit
BEST FOREIGN COMPOSITION
Firestorm Symphony (III) 'All the Trees are Growing' won the BEST FOREIGN COMPOSITION AWARD at the ARTEMIS FILM AWARDS in Los Angeles April 25-28 2019 Margaret Brandman travelled to LA, California, to receive the award.
'Prelude – Havana Parade' – First movement of 'Warm Winds in Havana' Suite for Saxophone Quartet as recorded in Cuba for ABRAZO (ar0001) by the Javier Zalba quartet.
Chamber music arrangements of three of the Cosmic Wheel of the Zodiac songs are now available, scored for (a) Two Flutes and Piano, or (b) Flute, Alto Flute and Piano.
'Cosmic Wheel of the Zodiac' song cycle was performed by the Prague Mixed Chamber Choir under the direction of Jiří Petrdlik and soloists Barbora Polâšková - Mezzo Soprano and Matej Chadima – Baritone in the concert hall of the Czech Music Museum on the 14th of September 2017. The choir also recorded the cycle for the forthcoming PARMA recordings CD. Check out the performance page for video clips of the performance.
Margaret's piano solo 'Jucaro Rumba' has been included in the AMEB's Series 4, Grade 6 Piano for Leisure album. This piece along with many other pieces exploring Latin American dance rhythms is also available in book 2B of Margaret's 'Contemporary Piano Method'.
FEBRUARY 2017 Margaret's violin and piano piece "The Eastern Spinebill..." , from her SENSATIONS CD
is included on this month's ' Making Waves ' playlist of Australian compositions. Please enjoy and share.
2016 saw the release of many of Margaret's new songs for Baritone or Mezzo Soprano voice and piano.
The SHEET MUSIC and You-tube clips for these new songs is now available.
Scroll to the Songs section on the Jump List for the list of songs and links to each one.
The DVD of the Cosmic Wheel of the Zodiac Song Cycle and other songs performed by Martin Cooke and Margaret Brandman at her 2016 concert is now available on the Performance page here.
Two new CD's of Margaret's compositions have been recorded by Parma Recordings (USA).
1) SENSATIONS - One hour of Margaret's celebrated Orchestral and Chamber works. Released May 2016.
2) ABRAZO ' Warm Winds in Havana ' Suite for Saxophone Quartet and Percussion is included on this compilation CD to be released in June 2016.
Duo Deconet, Australia's premier violin and piano duo specialising in contemporary classical Latin-American have commissioned Margaret to arrange three of her original works for violin and piano. Two of these works, Jucaro Rhumba D'Amor, The Eastern Spinebill and the Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos Herald a Blue Mountains Bushfire were first performed at their Music Without Borders Concert on August 10, 2013 and at the Rhapsodies to Rhumbas concert on November 9, 2013 they performed these works plus the world premiere of performance Binna Burra Dreaming for Violin and Piano.
Margaret is pleased to announce the publication of her new work-
The Geometry of the Piano
and the
Symmetry of the Hands
The Geometry of the Piano and the Symmetry of the Hands
This lively and intriguing DVD was prepared for presentation for the World Piano Conference in Novi Sad, Serbia (June 2011)
Topics in the DVD:
a) The concepts presented in Margaret's Music Mind Map and
Interval Tree b) Margaret's approach to teaching keyboard patterns for Major and Minor scales, Modes, Chords, Arpeggios and Transposition which simplifies the learning process for her students
c) Margaret's 'gestalt' approach to fingering based on the symmetry of the hands which speeds up the learning process
c) Sections of Margaret's original compositions for piano, orchestra, and woodwinds
These are heard throughout the DVD as incidental music plus a medley of her larger scale works occurs toward the end of the DVD.
By popular request, the Contemporary Organ Method is now back in print.
With Janet Baker's technical expertise and Margaret Brandman's simplified interval reading system and easy approach to
learning rhythm and chords, this straight forward teaching system allows students to learn holistically-combining aural, tactile and reading skills, making learning easy and enjoyable.
Cover
design by Margaret Brandman
and Sam Hewitt ( Firestorm lettering)
Firestorm
Symphony
This three movement work is dedicated to the victims
of the 1993-4, 2001 and 2009 bushfires in NSW and Victoria.
First Movement - Firestorm threatening
Second Movement- Now the tears are flowing
Third Movement- All the trees are growing
This
work is scored for Woodwind, Percussion, Harp and Strings
An
A4 study score and recording is now available from your
local music store or from this website..
A3 Conductor's Score and parts hire
available from
the Australian Music Centre. www.amcoz.com.au
Spirit
Visions
This
expansive melody with lush chords was originally inspired
by the tone colours of the Sydney Town Hall organ and
was composed after a professional meeting in 2002 between
the composer, Margaret Brandman and Sydney organist and
clairvoyant Robert Goode.
ANZCA have included Margaret's piano solo Churinga
(from Three Concert Pieces for Piano) in their
Series 2 Grade Eight- Classical Pianoforte examination book.
________________________________________
Margaret
is the major contributing writer of the written component of
the
AMEB's new "Music Craft" student workbooks.
Margaret's existing theory, chord and ear-training materials
are useful for introducing students to many of the topics in
the new AMEB course.
This
book replaces the earlier edition entitled 'Favourite
Songs from Kidz TV'
Featuring:
Early
grade pieces arranged for both hands simultaneously
Easy
reading with the interval approach
An
interesting new skill in each tune
Gently
graded material
Included
single-line duets.
Imaginative
arrangements of young children's favourite songs from
Australian early childhood programs. Designed to follow
on from the Junior Primer, the pieces in this
book present extra two-handed practice taking the skills
gained in the Junior Primer to the next level.
Technical
exercises for beginning keyboard students using the simplified
interval approach combined with scale topography. The
fun way to gain finger dexterity and speed reading skills.
Six
Contemporary Pieces
-
Piano performance pieces with
a hint of Jazz.
Some pieces are included in the ANZCA Syllabus.
The AMEB has also included
Margaret's composition 'Spider on the Mirror'
in their Anthology of Australian Compositions
as a list piece for Classical Piano - Grade 4;
Minnamurra Rainforest-dreaming
is set for
'Music for
Leisure" Grade 3.
This piece and Margaret's
arrangement of Song for Guy by Elton John, both
appear in the newly released Music for Leisure Series 2 -
Grade three book.
Both
original compositions included in these grades, were selected
from Margaret's collection of pieces entitled
"Twelve Timely
Pieces"
Lyrics
by Désirée Regina and Music by Margaret Brandman
This
recently composed cycle of six songs is available on CD
with performances by lyricist and mezzo soprano Désirée
Regina and the composer Margaret Brandman on piano. The
recording of the music is available either singly or as
part of a CD and sheet music pack.
Désirée
Regina
has been called by Le Figaro "Sparkling
and genuinely breathtaking"
At
the age of 12, Désirée won a major European
prize for her poem 'The Old Oak'. She has since gone on
to writing many lyrics for songs and musical shows.
She
is one of the infamous
Duelling
Sopranos
and has performed worldwide with various
award winning shows from The Phantom of the Opera
in Europe to Ephimera in the Sydney Opera House.
Désirée
is a Mezzo Soprano with a Bachelor of Music, a Master
is Singing Performance and a PostGrad in Opera.