Lyle Chan

Lyle Chan received a Bachelor of Physics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He studied music with Conrad Pope, J. Peter Burkholder and the Pro Arte String Quartet. He was Artists & Repertoire Manager for the Australian record label ABC Classics for over ten years.{{Cite web|url=http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/chan-lyle|title=Lyle Chan |website= Australian Music Centre|access-date=12 March 2017}}

Chan has acknowledged John Cage and Morton Feldman among his primary musical influences{{Cite web|url=https://www.classikon.com/composer/lyle-chan-speaks-to-classikon-about-his-musical-influences/|title=Lyle Chan speaks to classikON about his musical influences |website= classikON |access-date=12 March 2017}} and is himself acknowledged as an authority on Cage. For the composer's centenary in 2012 he was invited by the John Cage Trust and the Sydney Opera House to deliver a lecture in that landmark building on Cage's seminal "silent" piece 4′33″.{{Cite book|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/239976676/Cage-Centenary-Program-FINAL|title=John Cage Centenary Celebration (printed program for events 2 & 3 November 2012)|publisher=Sydney Opera House|year=2012}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/239976676/Cage-Centenary-Program-FINAL|title=Cage Centenary Program_FINAL |via=Scribd|access-date=12 March 2017}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.classicmelbourne.com.au/100-years-of-john-cage/|title=100 years of John Cage – Classic Melbourne |date=5 September 2012|work=Classic Melbourne|access-date=12 March 2017}} Timed to last 43 minutes and 30 seconds, the lecture was called "probing" by Limelight magazine.{{Cite web |url=http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/Article/322062,live-review-john-cage-festival-bang-on-a-can.aspx |title=Live Review: John Cage Festival – Bang On A Can|website= Limelight|access-date=12 March 2017}} "It took four years for Cage to write the piece, to master the courage and rationale behind it", he said.{{Cite web|url=http://megaphoneoz.com/the-composers-john-cage-centenary-celebration/|title=The Composers: John Cage Centenary Celebration |website= Megaphone Oz |access-date=16 March 2017}}

Chan has described his music as a diary or memoir, particularly of emotions, and writes cumulative works with only one work per genre. These cumulative compositions have highly abstract titles such as Orchestra with Solo Instruments and Solo Piano, but each is made up of self-contained sections with more descriptive titles.{{cn|date=November 2023}} His most autobiographical works are Solo Piano and String Quartet.{{cn|date=November 2023}}

He has called it "a perpetual work in progress", saying "as an artist, you create one work, which is the work defined by the life that you lead and the experiences that you have".{{Cite news|url=https://www.straight.com/arts/722251/queer-arts-festival-composers-venture-perpetual-and-textual|title=Queer Arts Festival composers venture into the perpetual and the textual|date=22 June 2016|work=Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly|access-date=12 March 2017}} "The music were my diaries, a way of writing down feelings. As a composer I think of music as the sound that feelings make."{{Cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/classic/content/2014/06/24/4028156.htm?site=goldfields|title=ABC Classic FM – Australian Music – String Quartet: An AIDS Activist's Memoir|website=ABC Classic FM|access-date=12 March 2017}}

Four such sections have received high-profile media coverage: Wind Farm Music (Dedicated to Tony Abbott){{Cite news|url=http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/julian-burnside-commissions-classical-ode-to-wind-farms-as-rebuke-to-tony-abbott-20150819-gj2kf0.html|title=Julian Burnside commissions classical ode to wind farms as rebuke to Tony Abbott|last=Daley|first=Mick|date=19 August 2015|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|access-date=12 March 2017}}, Rendezvous With Destiny, AIDS Memoir Quartet{{Cite web|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/music/composer-lyle-chans-musical-reflections-on-an-epidemic/news-story/bdc6a9c38e3541300469c0d797214e2b|title=Composer Lyle Chan's musical reflections on an epidemic |last=Westwood |first=Matthew |date=4 September 2014|website=The Australian}} and Serenade for Tenor, Saxophone and Orchestra.{{Cite web|url=http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/features/brittens-letters-early-flame-become-new-song-cycle|title=Britten's letters with a teenage muse become a new song cycle|website= Limelight|access-date=12 March 2017}}

Very few sections of Solo Piano have been publicly released, the major exception being Forever #1, a one-minute piece written for the second anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the USA. It is purposely similar to the one minute of silence observed at commemoration ceremonies.{{Cite web|url=http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/workversion/chan-lyle-forever-1/22001|title=Forever No. 1 : from 'Solo Piano' by Lyle Chan : Work : Australian Music Centre|website=australianmusiccentre.com.au|access-date=12 March 2017}}{{Cite book|url=http://awscdn.australianmusiccentre.com.au/documents/att_637.pdf|title=Liner notes to Eternity: The Timeless Music of Australian Composers (sound recording)|last=Koehne|first=James|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|year=2004|pages=9}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.lylechan.com/compositions/forever-1-and-forever-13-from-solo-piano/|title=Forever No. 1 and Forever No. 13 from Solo Piano|date=31 August 2010|work=Lyle Chan|access-date=12 March 2017}}

His website contains memoir essays on several other sections of Solo Piano, such as Untitled (for Steve), Wisconsin Cowboy Lullaby and Nachtstück, none of which he has allowed to be publicly performed so far.{{Cite web|url=http://www.lylechan.com/tag/solo-piano/|title=solo piano |website=Lyle Chan|access-date=12 March 2017}}

Several sections of String Quartet have been publicly released, notably the sections covering the years 1991 to 1996, known as the AIDS Memoir Quartet. Other sections include Liberty and the Pursuit,{{Citation|last=Lyle Chan|title=Liberty & The Pursuit by Lyle Chan – All Souls Church, Leichhardt|date=8 March 2012|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW-qQCqXM4E|access-date=12 March 2017}} a tribute to his teachers the Pro Arte Quartet, and Farwell My Good I Forever,{{Cite web|url=http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/workversion/chan-lyle-farwell-my-good-i-forever/26620|title=Farwell My Good I. Forever : (excerpt from String Quartet) by Lyle Chan : Work : Australian Music Centre|website=australianmusiccentre.com.au|access-date=12 March 2017}} and Untitled (Thomas Brand gewidmet).{{Cite web|url=http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/workversion/chan-lyle-untitled-2005-thomas-brand-gewidmet/29971|title=Untitled (2005, Thomas Brand gewidmet) : string quartet by Lyle Chan : Work : Australian Music Centre|website=australianmusiccentre.com.au|access-date=12 March 2017}}

{{Main|AIDS Memoir Quartet}}

AIDS Memoir Quartet chronicles Chan's six years as an AIDS activist at the height of the epidemic in Australia, including importing experimental medications from Los Angeles to Sydney.{{Cite news|url=http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/aids-activists-musical-memoir-a-triumph-20140725-zwpm2.html|title=AIDS activist's musical memoir a triumph|last=Carnegie|first=Joel|date=25 July 2014|work=The Age|access-date=12 March 2017}} The work has been exclusively performed by the Acacia Quartet.

Voices and Instruments is a diverse work employing any combination of voices (solo or choral) and instruments (chamber, orchestral or electronic). Though less obviously autobiographical than String Quartet or Solo Piano, it does contain sections inspired by events within his direct experience, such as the Lindt Cafe hostage crisis of 2014, or discovering that Benjamin Britten's first love Wulff Scherchen was alive and living in Australia.

Several sections have been released: "Wachsein ist andersvo (Awakening is elsewhere)",{{Cite news |url=http://www.lylechan.com/compositions/wachsein-ist-andersvo-from-voices-and-instruments/|title="Wachsein ist andersvo" from Voices and Instruments|date=2 November 2010|work=Lyle Chan |access-date=12 March 2017}} Rendezvous With Destiny,{{Cite news |url=http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/musicals/ive-got-you-abe-8230-carr-channels-his-inner-lincoln-20110401-1croj.html|title=I've got you, Abe … Carr channels his inner Lincoln|last=Burke|first=Kelly|date=2 April 2011|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|access-date=12 March 2017}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/calendar/resonate-2011/|title=Resonate 2011 :: Art Gallery NSW|website=artgallery.nsw.gov.au|access-date=12 March 2017}}{{Cite web|url=https://bobcarrblog.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/last-night%e2%80%99s-rendezvous-with-destiny/|title=Last Night's Rendezvous with Destiny|date=4 April 2011|website=Thoughtlines with Bob Carr|access-date=12 March 2017}}{{Cite web|url=https://bobcarrblog.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/another-rendezvous-with-destiny/|title=Another Rendezvous with Destiny|date=20 September 2011|website=Thoughtlines with Bob Carr|access-date=12 March 2017}} "Dass ich dich schau ewiglich" (That I may see you eternally),,{{Cite book|url=http://www.sydneyphilharmonia.com.au/uploads/54318/ufiles/Program_Book_Architecture_of_Sound.pdf|title=Architecture of Sound (program book for concerts 24–25 August 2013)|publisher=Sydney Philharmonia Choirs}}{{Cite web|url=http://music.sydney.edu.au/events/greenway-series-chamber-choir-26-05-2014|title=Sydney Conservatorium of Music Chamber Choir|website=music.sydney.edu.au|access-date=12 March 2017}} Love Is Always Born (December){{Cite web|url=http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/the-song-company-review-all-leunig-song-almanac-brings-cartoon-whimsy-to-life-20151102-gkoh2z.html|title=The Song Company review: All Leunig Song Almanac brings cartoon whimsy to life|last=McCallum|first=Peter|website=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=2 November 2015 |access-date=12 March 2017}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberra-life/the-allleunig-song-almanac-by-the-song-company-canberras-wesley-uniting-church-20151030-gkmq4p.html|title=The All-Leunig Song Almanac: 12 composers on 12 months|last=Wilson|first=Janet|date=2 November 2015|work=The Canberra Times|access-date=12 March 2017}} and Serenade for Tenor, Saxophone and Orchestra ("My Dear Benjamin").{{Cite web|url=https://qso.com.au/special-events/my-dear-benjamin|title=My Dear Benjamin {{!}} Queensland Symphony Orchestra|website=qso.com.au|access-date=12 March 2017}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/whats-on/dear-benjamin|title=My Dear Benjamin|website=Brisbane Festival 2015|access-date=12 March 2017}}

{{Main|Serenade for Tenor, Saxophone and Orchestra ("My Dear Benjamin")}}

This orchestral song cycle is based on letters between Benjamin Britten and Wulff Scherchen.

Chan decided to write the work when he discovered that Scherchen was still alive and went to meet the 95-year-old who was living in northern New South Wales, Australia.

It was awarded the Orchestral Work of the Year prize at the 2017 Art Music Awards.{{Cite web|url=http://apraamcos.com.au/awards/2017-awards/2017-art-music-awards/|title=2017 Art Music Awards|last=AMCOS|first=APRA|website=apraamcos.com.au|access-date=4 October 2017}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/article/2017-art-music-awards-winners|title=2017 Art Music Awards: winners : News (AMC) Article : Australian Music Centre|website=australianmusiccentre.com.au|access-date=4 October 2017}}

In particular the AIDS Memoir Quartet has been recognised for its significance both as a work of art and as a historical document. Limelight magazine described it as "A crushingly powerful work of musical history... A towering piece".{{Cite web|url=http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/review-blackwattle-trio-bellingen-music-festival|title=Review: Blackwattle Trio (Bellingen Music Festival) |website= Limelight |access-date=12 March 2017}} Award-winning American composer John Corigliano wrote that it is "a very ambitious work born out of a seemingly endless plague. Its composer has taken his experiences of living through the enormous tragedy of AIDS and from them has molded a serious and deeply felt work of art."{{Cite web|url=http://vexations840.com/string-quartet-an-aids-activists-memoir/|title=String Quartet: An AIDS Activist's Memoir|website=vexations840.com|access-date=12 March 2017}}

Since 2013, Chan's personal website has been selected for ongoing preservation by the National Library of Australia on its PANDORA archive, recognising his contribution to culture and history.{{Cite web| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.arc-140611| title=Lyle Chan| via=Trove| website=PANDORA, Australia's Web Archive}}

Chan's works have been programmed by the major arts organisations in Australia such as the Sydney Philharmonia Choir, the Song Company, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Camerata of St John's, Brisbane Festival, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney Opera House, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and others.{{cn|date=November 2023}}

Chan is especially highly regarded for his chamber music, which has been performed by pianists Simon Tedeschi and Benjamin Martin, and groups such as Australia Piano Quartet, Australian Art Quartet, Seraphim Trio, New Sydney Wind Quintet, and Acacia Quartet.{{cn|date=November 2023}}

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Category:Australian composers

Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni

Category:Living people

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)