Marshall McGuire

Marshall McGuire (born 1965) is a renowned Australian harpist, teacher, conductor and musical administrator. He has been described as the world's greatest champion of new music for the harp.^[1] Tristram Cary has written "A new school of harp music is emerging from the enterprise of this innovative master performer".

Biography

Marshall McGuire was born in Melbourne. He studied at VCASS, the Victorian College of the Arts, the Paris Conservatoire and the Royal College of Music, London.

From 1988-1992, he was Principal Harpist with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra. He has been a member of the ELISION Ensemble since 1988, and Lecturer in Harp at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music since 1990.

He has performed as soloist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, English String Orchestra, Les Talens Lyriques, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Australia Ensemble and has appeared at international festivals including Aldeburgh, Melbourne, Milan, Geneva, Brighton, Vienna, Huddersfield, Huntington and Adelaide.

He has commissioned more than 30 new works for harp, which work was recognised by the 1997 Sounds Australian Award for the Most Distinguished Contribution to the Presentation of Australian Music. His commissions include composers such as Elena Kats-Chernin, Andrew Ford, Gerard Brophy, David Chesworth, Damien Ricketson, Matthew Shlomowitz and Matthew Hindson.

First performances by Marshall McGuire include works by Ross Edwards, Anne Boyd, Barry Conyngham and others. Many composers have sought his guidance in their writing for the harp. He writes: "Composers are always seeking information from harpists about what can and can't be done when writing for harp. While we should always be flattered when approached by a composer, we should also be aware of the boundaries that we set, so that we don't end up with unplayable music - I'd probably have said 'No' to both Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. Mostly, less is more..."^[2]

McGuire has released numerous CDs, and has received three ARIA Music Award nominations. Artists with whom he has worked and recorded include Riley Lee (shakuhachi); Alexa Still and Geoffrey Collins (flutes); Kim Walker (bassoon); Patricia Pollett (viola); and Jane Edwards and Merlyn Quaife (sopranos).

In 1998, with Lyle Chan, he co-created A Tale of Two Cities, a radio feature broadcast on ABC Classic FM, which was a monologue based on the lives of gay composers such as Ned Rorem, Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber, Virgil Thompson, Aaron Copland, Paul Bowles, Francis Poulenc, Stanley Bate and Reynaldo Hahn.^[3]

He made his conducting debut in performances of Mozart's The Magic Flute with Pacific Opera in 1999. From 1996 to 2000 he created a series of chamber music concerts for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival, the first of their type in the world. From 1999-2001 he was curator of the Twilight Chamber Music Series for Sydney Festival, and in 2003 he was artist-in-residence at the Bundanon Trust.

In 2003 he was appointed Artistic Director of The Seymour Group, and was awarded an inaugural Creative Fellowship from the State Library of Victoria to research the works of Peggy Glanville-Hicks. The Fellowship enabled him to produce piano reductions of Peggy Glanville-Hicks' Letters from Morocco and the final scene from the opera Sappho, and a new edition of the Sonata for Harp.^[4][5] He received a Churchill Fellowship in 2004 to travel to San Francisco and New York to research baroque performance and contemporary music ensembles.

Marshall McGuire was the Founding President of the New Music Network, is Chair of the Music Committee of the New South Wales Ministry of the Arts,^[6] is a member of the Australian Youth Orchestra Artistic Advisory Committee, and was Music Director of the AYO's National Music Camp 2008. He is the Curator of the Utzon Room Music Series at the Sydney Opera House, and in December 2006 was appointed Executive Manager, Artistic Planning with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. He was a participant in the Australia 2020 Summit held in April 2008 at Parliament House, Canberra.^[7]

In 2008 he performed for the Perth International Arts Festival; Musica Viva Australia; toured nationally with the Australian String Quartet; with the ELISION Ensemble at the Brisbane Festival and Melbourne International Arts Festival; as featured soloist at the World Shakuhachi Festival; and as soloist with The Queensland Orchestra.

Sources

• marshallmcguire.com
• b;a b;a 145
• Out in Perth
• Patrick Togher Artists’ Management
• Australian Music Centre

References

1. ^ ABC Shop
2. ^ ANU School of Music
3. ^ ABC Classic FM, 26 February 1998
4. ^ State Libray of Victoria
5. ^ The Peggy Glanville-Hicks Fellowship
6. ^ Arts Hub Australia
7. ^ Patrick Togher Artists' Management

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Name	Macguire, Marshall
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Date of birth	1965
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