Appearance
🎉 your library🥳
"Michael den Elzen (born 1962) is a musician and music producer based in Melbourne, Australia. He has performed for over 30 years with many well-known Australian and New Zealand artists, principally as a guitarist, and has contributed music for several Australian movie soundtracks. Early career Den Elzen spent his early life in Boort and Mansfield (Victoria) and started playing guitar at about 10 years of age. At the age of 15, he was performing in Melbourne with the band Expresso Bongo, who made it to the finals of the Channel 9 TV talent competition "Safeway New Faces". He co-founded local bands Notorious Gentlemen and The U-Boats, and did recording studio session work. At age 19, he joined Broderick Smith for his first solo album and toured in his band for about three years. He went on to perform with Venetta Fields; with Tim Finn as a guitarist on his 1985 Big Canoe tour; and with Stephen Cummings on his "This Wonderful Life" album, and Australian and US tours. In the mid 80s, den Elzen formed Melbourne band Schnell Fenster with ex-Split Enz members Phil Judd, Nigel Griggs and Noel Crombie. They released two albums, "The Sound of Trees" and "OK Alright A Huh Oh Yeah" and toured in Australia and New Zealand. 1990s After the breakup of Schnell Fenster, den Elzen played on and co-produced Deborah Conway's 1991 successful String of Pearls album. He went to America to perform for Peter Case on Six-Pack of Love (The band on the album includes producer and keyboardist Mitchell Froom, bassist Bruce Thomas (Elvis Costello and The Attractions) and drummer Gary Mallaber (Van Morrison, Steve Miller Band). He recorded and toured as bass player and musical director with Tim Finn on Finn's 1993 album Before and After; and toured and recorded with Richard Pleasance; and then toured and recorded with Melbourne band Rebecca's Empire for their Way of All Things album. At the end of the 1990s, he joined Australian rock outfit Deadstar co-producing their final album Somewhere Over The Radio. Soundtracks Den Elzen started doing music for films in the 80s, the first being As The Mirror Burns (1990 release date). He worked with Phil Judd and Schnell Fenster on the soundtrack for the movie Rikky and Pete (1988), and was also involved with Phil Judd on the soundtrack for The Big Steal (1990) and Mr. Reliable (1996). Three Schnell Fenster songs feature in the Jane Campion film Sweetie (1989). He did the soundtrack to David Batty's Rodeo Road (1999) which led to producing, recording, and co- writing the music for the TV series Bush Mechanics (2001) in Yuendumu about 300 km north-west of Alice Springs, and the soundtracks to other David Batty films, Sisters, Pearls and Mission Girls (2003) and Taylor Made (2003), as well as the TV series Inventions From The Shed (2005), all aired on the ABC. Den Elzen also worked on a project with painter and artist David Munro called Birdbrain, whose music was used in the TV series The Secret Life of Us and in the film Ghosts of the Civil Dead (1988). Other composer credits include Trespass (2001), Beyond Sorry (2004), Bush Bikes (2003), Us Mob (2005) and Aurukun-Voices From The Cape (2008) by David Vadiveloo, Case 442 (2005) by C.A.A.M.A., Going Bush (2006) by SBS TV, Marree Man (2007), the series Halal Mate (2007) (for which he was nominated in the category of "Best Music for a Documentary" at the 2008 APRA-AGSC Screen Music Awards), That's Australia (2007), Desert Heart (2007), Wedding Makers (2008), Coniston (2012), Kabelbel (2013) and Black As (2016) by Rebel Films, Artists at Work – David Frazer (2007), IOU – Lloyd Rees (2007) and Tom Moore – Glassorama (2008) by Tony Wyzenbeek at ABC TV, and the SBS series Love's Harvest (2007) by Brian McKenzie and Rebel Films. Michael also collaborated with Justin Marshall on the soundtrack for the second series of The Art Life (2008) by Frank Haines Films, which aired on ABC TV. Other work He produced, recorded and played most instruments on Take Me to the Place by Tess McKenna after collaborating on a song for the film soundtrack to Curtains for My Cabin and played guitars on March also by Tess McKenna – year uncertain since dates are not given on the album, and on her 2019 release Before You Wandered In . He played guitar and recorded with David Bridie and has also written and performed with Renée Geyer, Mark Seymour and Pound System. Other artists Michael has recorded with include Zulya Kamalova (he is also accredited with mixing her album Tales of Subliming), Margaret Urlich, Diana Aniad, Bollywood Prog Metal band; BaK and Mimori Yusa (Japan). Michael also mixed tracks for Kim Salmon & The Surrealists including I Won't Tell from the album Ya Gotta Let Me Do My Thing, and has a musical credit on the film The Man Who Sued God. Den Elzen has visited far north-western South Australia (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara / APY Lands) over the years to record songs by local musicians promoting awareness of issues to do with health and well-being, supported by Nganampa Health Council in Alice Springs. The resulting CDs are called UPK2 Tilun Tilun Ta (2003), UPK3 Kunma Piti-la (2004) and UPK4 Ulkiyala (2005). Michael continues to work on film sound production. He is accredited with audio-post production on the SBS series Halal Mate, Kabelbel, Maree Man, Black As, Little J and Big Cuz amongst others, and is currently composing for another project. In 2017 he released the album Music For Listening And Relaxation with former band-mate Rebecca Barnard. An eclectic soundscape featuring Rebecca's haunting vocals, Michael produced and co-wrote the songs, and played all the instruments apart from some acoustic guitar by Barnard. References *Internet Movie Database *Australian Film Commission *australianscreen *Halal Mate – Team Biographies at Inside Australia *The Secret Life of Us: music External links * *https://vimeo.com/allatseamusicvideo video clip *https://soundcloud.com/waldemar-2 *Michael den Elzen (MySpace) Category:1962 births Category:Living people Category:Australian musicians "
""
"Undated photograph of John Lanchbery John Arthur Lanchbery OBE (15 May 1923 - 27 February 2003) was an English-Australian composer and conductor, famous for his ballet arrangements. He served as the Principal Conductor of the Royal Ballet from 1959 to 1972, Principal Conductor of the Australian Ballet from 1972 to 1977, and Musical Director of the American Ballet Theatre from 1978 to 1980. Although he resigned from the position of Principal Conductor of the Royal Ballet in 1972, he continued to conduct regularly for the Company until 2001. Lanchbery worked with Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev in addition to his lifelong friends Peter Stanley Lyons and Kenneth Spring. Lanchbery was widely considered (including by Nureyev) to be the greatest ballet conductor of his time, and to be ‘a conductor and music director of unmatched experience’ who was ‘directly responsible for raising the status and the standards of musical performance'. Maina Gielgud, Artistic Director of Australian Ballet, stated that "He [Lanchbery] is not only the finest conductor for dance of his generation and probably well beyond". One critic wrote that ‘the music was always on its best behaviour’ when Lanchbery was conducting. He was also famous for his re- adaptation of canonical works. Early life Born in London on 15 May 1923, Lanchbery began violin lessons when eight years of age, and at the same age he started composing. He was educated at Alleyn's School, where he formed a lifetime friendship and collaborative partnership with Peter Stanley Lyons,Obituary of Peter Stanley Lyons, Rutland and Stamford Mercury, Friday, 20 April 2007 later a famous chorister and choral conductor, and Kenneth Spring, founder of the National Youth Theatre, whose mother was a composer and encouraged Lanchbery's musical talent.John Lanchbery, 'Ken Spring obituary', Edward Alleyn Club Magazine (Spring 1998). In 1942 he was awarded the Henry Smart Composition Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied under Sir Henry Wood until his studies were interrupted by the war, during which he served in the Royal Armoured Corps. After the war, Lanchbery spent two more years at the RAM. He then returned to Alleyn's School as the second music master, hoping to be offered the position of Director of Music: when the job failed to materialise, he left to work for a music publisher. Musical career =Conductor of London Metropolitan Ballet and Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet: 1948 - 1959= While Lanchbery working in the music press, he was recommended to apply for the post of Conductor of the Metropolitan Ballet. He obtained the position and made his debut with them at Edinburgh in 1948. Two years later the orchestra collapsed for lack of funds. However, working with choreographer Celia Franca, Lanchbery wrote The Eve of St Agnes (the story was based on John Keats' poem of the same name), one of the first commissioned ballets to be shown on BBC television. He composed film scores for Eric Robinson before joining the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet (later the Royal Ballet touring company) in 1951, with whom he proceeded to orchestrate, in 1953, the first professional ballet choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan: Somnambulism whose music was composed with music by Stan Kenton. Lanchbery also orchestrated The House of Birds (La Casa de los Pájaros) in 1955, with original music by Federico Mompou. =Principal Conductor of Royal Ballet: 1959 - 1972= He served as Principal Conductor of the Royal Bellet from 1959 from 1972. He arranged La fille mal gardée (original music by Ferdinand Hérold and others), to choreography by Frederick Ashton, for the Royal Ballet in 1960. Lanchbery's delightful re-working also included some Donizetti and much of his own invention. This work includes the famous Clog Dance used for many years as a theme tune for Home This Afternoon on BBC radio. In addition to the revenue from his recordings, Lanchbery had his income supplemented by the copyright he earned from his orchestral arrangements, which were used by ballet companies all over the world. With Aston, he composed The Two Pigeons; A Month in the Country; and The Dream, one of the most critically acclaimed ballet versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1966 Rudolf Nureyev asked Lanchbery to re-write Ludwig Minkus's Don Quixote. Although he resigned from the position of Director of the Royal Ballet in 1972, he continued to conduct regularly for the Company until 2001. =Principal Conductor of Australian Ballet: 1972 - 1977= Notable successes for Lanchbery included the arrangement of the Liszt music for Kenneth MacMillan's stormy multi-act Mayerling, which premiered at Covent Garden in 1978, and the arrangement of the Franz Lehár score for the first full-length ballet production of The Merry Widow for the Australian Ballet in 1976. In 1970 he arranged the score for the ballet film The Tales of Beatrix Potter. His sources were many and varied, including the operas of Michael William Balfe and Arthur Sullivan.Sullivan's contribution included "O turn thine eyes away" from The Beauty Stone. He also arranged the music and conducted the orchestra for Nijinsky in 1980. Lanchbery was the first to convert operas into ballets (The Tales of Hoffmann, The Merry Widow, Die Fledermaus), and he also wrote music for some British films of the 1960s, including Deadly Nightshade (1953) and Colonel March Investigates (1955). He was involved in The Turning Point (1977), starring Mikhail Baryshnikov and Leslie Browne, and his score for Evil Under the Sun (1982) was based on songs by Cole Porter, a memorable rendition of "You're The Top" by Diana Rigg. He also wrote scores for two silent film classics: D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation and John Ford's The Iron Horse. =Director of American Ballet Theatre: 1978 - 1980= The American Ballet Theatre used 14 Lanchbery arrangements between 1962 and 2002: he was the Musical Director of the Company between 1978 and 2002. Their productions included his arrangement, for Natalia Makarova, Minkus's La Bayadère in 1980. Lanchbery arranged more than 30 pieces by Franz Liszt for Macmillan's Mayerling, which premiered at Covent Garden in 1978, and arranged another successful re-working of Minkus for Nureyev's production of La Bayadère in 1991. Nureyev considered Lanchbery to be the greatest conductor of his time, but critics who disliked innovation disliked Lanchbery's tampering with original scores.Rodney Stenning Edgecombe: "It had been [Frederick] Ashton's good fortune to have Constant Lambert as his mentor in his early career, but his later years were dominated by a musical butcher called John Lanchbery." The Edinburgh Companion to Shakespeare and the Arts edited by Mark Thornton Burnett, Adrian Streete, Ramona Wray. Edinburgh University Press, 2011: page 211 Visiting conductor In addition to London, Australia, and Sweden, Lanchbery was a guest conductor at many of the world's leading opera houses, including Paris, Stockholm, Rio de Janeiro, New York and Houston. He also toured Japan, Russia and China. He received honours from Russia and Sweden. Honours Lanchbery was the first non-Soviet conductor to receive the Bolshoi Medal. He also received the Carina Ari Medal and the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award, Britain's highest professional award. In 1990 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. Personal life Lanchbery married a Sadler's Wells principal Elaine Fifield in 1951. They had a daughter, Margaret Lanchbery, and divorced in 1960: Elaine died in 1999. Lanchbery became an Australian citizen in 2002, making his home in Melbourne, where he died on 27 February 2003. He was survived by his daughter, Margaret, of Melbourne, and his companion, Thomas Han. He was a member of the Garrick Club.Garrick Club, London, Official Newsletter, 2011 Works Some of the most popular ballets are arrangements of works written for a different purpose. Perhaps the best-known is Alexander Glazunov's arrangement of Frédéric Chopin's piano music into the ballet Les Sylphides. Another famous example is La Boutique fantasque, an arrangement of Gioachino Rossini's music by Ottorino Respighi in 1919. However, Lanchbery was the most successful and prolific arranger of music for ballet. * Title – original composer * Tales of Beatrix Potter – Michael William Balfe and others, but also included much original music by Lanchbery * The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Hector Berlioz * A Month in the Country – Frédéric Chopin * Peer Gynt – Edvard Grieg (based on his Peer Gynt incidental music) * La fille mal gardée – Ferdinand Hérold * Somnambulism – Stan Kenton * The Merry Widow – Franz Lehár * Mayerling – Franz Liszt * Dracula – Liszt * The Dream – Felix Mendelssohn * Don Quixote – Ludwig Minkus * La Bayadère – Minkus * Grand Pas Classique from Paquita – Minkus * House of Birds – Federico Mompou * The Tales of Hoffmann – Jacques Offenbach * Le Papillon – Offenbach * Cleopatra – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov * Monotones – Erik Satie * Rosalinda – Johann Strauss II (based on Die Fledermaus) * Designs with Strings – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (based on his Piano Trio in A minor) * The Snow Maiden – Tchaikovsky Lanchbery's works included supporting tertiary students: during a 1976 visit to Australia, Lanchbery conducted the 27th Intervarsity Choral Festival choir performing Rossini's Petite messe solennelle and Gaudeamus igitur in Hobart. Notes References * External links * Category:English composers Category:British ballet composers Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:1923 births Category:2003 deaths Category:English emigrants to Australia Category:English conductors (music) Category:British male conductors (music) Category:Musicians from London Category:LGBT classical musicians Category:LGBT composers Category:LGBT musicians from England Category:20th-century British conductors (music) Category:20th-century British composers Category:English male composers Category:20th-century British male musicians "