Lachlan Skipworth
{{Short description|Australian composer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Lachlan Skipworth (born 1982) is an Australian composer based in Perth, Western Australia.
His works span across orchestral, chamber, vocal and experimental music and they are influenced by the Japanese shakuhachi and the honkyoku aesthetic.
Skipworth co-founded the new music ensemble Intercurrent in 2015, along with percussionist Louise Devenish, pianist Emily Green-Armytage and clarinettist Ashley William Smith. He also founded the chamber music collective Cygnus Arioso with his wife, violinist Akiko Miyazawa.{{Cite web|title=Backstage with Lachlan Skipworth|url=https://limelightmagazine.com.au/features/backstage-with-lachlan-skipworth/|access-date=2022-02-18|website=Limelight}} Both ensembles are based in Perth, Western Australia.
Education
Skipworth played in a wind quintet in high school, which introduced him to chamber music.{{Cite web|last=Appleby|first=Rosalind|date=2019-08-09|title=It's time to listen|url=https://www.seesawmag.com.au/2019/08/its-time-to-listen|access-date=2022-02-18|website=Seesawmag}}
Skipworth studied at the University of Western Australia, earning a Bachelor of Music Education at the UWA Conservatorium of Music, where he studied with composers Roger Smalley and Iain Grandage and wrote his first serious compositions.{{Cite web|last=Appleby|first=Rosalind|date=9 January 2016|title=Celebrity Soft Spot Lachlan Skipworth|url=https://rosalindappleby.com/2016/01/09/celebrity-soft-spot-lachlan-skipworth/|access-date=2022-02-18|website=Noted}}
He traveled to Japan to learn shakuhachi for three years. Skipworth's main shakuhachi teachers were the revered masters Kakizakai Kaoru and Yokoyama Katsuya,{{Cite web|title=Lachlan Skipworth: Represented Artist Profile : Australian Music Centre|url=https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/skipworth-lachlan|access-date=18 February 2022|publisher=wAustralian Music Centre (AMC)}} and has been mentored by shakuhachi grand master Riley Lee.
In 2008, he moved to Sydney, New South Wales to study at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (M.Mus., Ph.D.) and studied with Anne Boyd. Between 2010 and 2011, he spent two semesters in Germany undertaking a kontaktstudium at the Freiburg Hochschule fur Musik with composer and clarinettist Jörg Widmann.{{Cite web|title=HONNIN NO SHIRABE : SEARCHING FOR A COMPOSITIONAL RESPONSE TO THE TRADITION OF SHAKUHACHI HONKYOKU|first=Lachlan|last=Skipworth|url=https://issuu.com/lachlanskipworth/docs/skipworth_ld_exegesis|access-date=18 February 2022|website=issuu.com|date=26 August 2016 }} Skipworth graduated with a Ph.D. in composition in December 2016.{{Cite web|last=Blankendaal|first=Leah|date=7 December 2016|title=Lachlan Skipworth and Brett Dean win major music award|website=CutCommon|url=https://www.cutcommonmag.com/lachlan-skipworth-and-brett-dean-win-major-music-award/|access-date=18 February 2022}}
Career
After winning the Paul Lowin Prize for orchestral composition in 2016, Skipworth earned a string of major commissions and appointments. The winning work, Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, earned the APRA Art Music Award for Performance of the Year,{{Cite web|title=UWA clarinet soloist wins Art Music Performance of the Year Award: Archive Page|website=The University of Western Australia|url=https://www.news.uwa.edu.au/archive/201508127866/alumni/uwa-clarinet-soloist-wins-art-music-performance-year-award/|access-date=18 February 2022}} and was chosen by ABC Classic FM to be presented at the 2016 International Rostrum of Composers in Poland. In 2016, he was appointed composer-in-residence with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.{{Cite web|last=Skipworth|first=Lachlan|title=About|url=https://lachlanskipworth.com/about-2/|access-date=18 February 2022|website=Lachlan Skipworth}} His work Spiritus was a finalist in the Paul Lowin Orchestral Prizes in 2019.{{Cite web |last=McPherson |first=Angus |date=1 October 2019 |title=Finalists for the 2019 Paul Lowin Prizes announced |url=https://limelightmagazine.com.au/news/finalists-for-the-2019-paul-lowin-prizes-announced/ |website=Liimelight Magazine}}
The International Society for Contemporary Music selected his works dark nebulae and Clarinet Quintet as the official Australian work at their World Music Days in Slovenia (2015) and Vancouver (2017) respectively.{{Cite web|title=Composer Lachlan Skipworth Selected for the Second Time at the International Society for Contemporary Music|url=https://musicaustralia.org.au/2017/11/composer-lachlan-skipworth-selected-for-the-second-time-at-the-international-society-for-contemporary-music/|access-date=2022-02-18|website=Music Australia|language=en-US}}
His work has also been performed by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra,{{Cite web|last=Magazine|first=Feature|date=2021-10-01|title=Queensland Symphony Orchestra unveils 2022 Season|url=https://www.featuremagazine.com.au/post/queensland-symphony-orchestra-unveils-2022-season|access-date=2022-02-18|website=feature|language=en}} Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, New England Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus.
In 2019, he collaborated with Australian indigenous singer Don Nunggarrgalu and the Darwin Symphony Orchestra.
In 2020, Skipworth was one of the composers commissioned as part of Sydney Symphony Orchestra's 50 Fanfares project.{{Cite web|last=|first=|title=Lachlan Skipworth|url=https://www.sydneysymphony.com/about-us/50-fanfares/lachlan-skipworth|access-date=2022-02-18|website=Sydney Symphony Orchestra|language=en}}
Psalterphone
Skipworth invented the psalterphone for his work The Night Sky Fall. The instrument combines the layout of a psaltery with the sound of a bowed vibraphone.{{Cite web|date=2019-08-09|title=It's time to listen|url=https://www.seesawmag.com.au/2019/08/its-time-to-listen|access-date=2022-02-18|website=Seesawmag|language=en}}
Discography
Skipworth's Chamber Works vol. 2 debuted at #1 on the ARIA Top 20 Classical/Crossover Albums chart. {{Cite web |title=ARIA Top 20 Classical/Crossover Albums Chart |url=https://www.aria.com.au/charts/classicalcrossover-albums-chart |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=www.aria.com.au |language=en}}
| class="wikitable"
|+ !Album !Release date |
| Chamber Works
|2019 |
| Ode
|2020 |
| Breath of Thunder, Avem Asperitas and Hymns in Reverie
|2020 |
| Chamber Works, Vol. 2
|2022 |
Awards and nominations
=ARIA Music Awards=
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987.
{{awards table}}
! {{Abbr|Ref.|Reference}}
|-
| 2022
| Chamber Works, Vol. 2
| {{nom}}
|}
=Other awards=
| class="wikitable"
|+ !Award !Year !Work !Status ! {{Abbr|Ref.|Reference}} |
| Art Music Awards: Work of the Year, Instrumental
|2013 |dark nebulae |{{nom|Finalist}} |
| Art Music Awards: Work of the Year, Orchestral
|2015 |Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra |{{nom|Finalist}} |
| Paul Lowin Prize, Orchestral
|2016 |Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra |Won |
| Albert H. Maggs Award
|2017 |Spiritus |Won |
| Art Music Awards: Work of the Year, Orchestral
|2018 |Spiritus |{{nom|Finalist}} |
| Paul Lowin Prize, Orchestral
|2019 |Spiritus |Finalist |
| Art Music Awards: Work of the Year – Chamber Music
|2023 |Pine Chant |{{won}} |{{cite web | url=https://www.apraamcos.com.au/about-us/news-and-events/2023-art-music-award-winners | title=2023 Art Music Award Winners |publisher=APRA AMCOS | date=15 August 2023 |access-date=20 August 2023 }} |
References
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