Finalist for the Orchestral Work of the Year for his Percussion Concerto and artistic director of the Aurora Festival, which won the Most Outstanding Contribution by an Organisation in the 2007 Classical Music Awards, Matthew Hindson took time out to talk with The Epoch Times .
He has been called everything from a serious musical thinker to the composer of a wonderful, gaudy racket. Homage to Metallica, Rave Elation, RPM – Matthew Hindson's orchestral compositions aren't exactly suggestive of the layman's usual choice of classical music fare, but his works have been performed by ensembles, orchestras and chamber music groups throughout Australia, as well as New Zealand, Germany, France, Austria, the UK, Holland, Portugal, the US, Japan, Malaysia, Canada and Thailand.
"Why am I a composer at all when we've got so much marvellous music that's already been written by these absolute geniuses of the past?" he asks himself. "But then none of those composers like Beethoven or Brahms were Australian; they weren't living in the 21st century. The cultures in which they lived were quite different and I think that it's important as a composer to remain open to a variety of influences that may appear...there are so many marvellous aspects to living today that it would be a shame not to represent them in music."
Listening to Matthew Hindson's music, one quickly realises the tightrope he is walking.
He certainly personifies every modern artists' dilemma of being bombarded by so many influences that the art can easily become a comment on the status quo rather than something that transcends the mundane to pull the audience out into a realm of the sublime.
There are moments of both banal and sublime balancing each other in his music, often with undeniable humour and a sense of adventure. For this reason, the music is potentially accessible to all audiences.
Although fluent in both spoken language and musical expression, when asked about what he considers his greatest musical achievements, Mr Hindson was lost for words. His eventual reply listed his Top 3. Being the featured composer with Musica Viva 2002, where his music was performed by many of the world's greatest chamber musicians and across Australia for a year; the featured composer at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival in Wales 2003, his first international music festival; and being picked up Faber Music music publishing, which has assisted in the creation of his international profile.
In 2002 he toured Australia and the US with the Sydney Dance Company with the 90-minute production Ellipse , choreographed by their Artistic Director Graeme Murphy, danced entirely to Mr Hindson's music. He is just about to start composing a new ballet work for the Royal Ballet in London to be premiered in 2009.
His work Percussion Concerto a finalist in the Orchestral Work of the Year category in the 2007 Classical Music Awards was written for UK-based master percussionist Evelyn Glennie and The Queensland Orchestra. One of the joys of writing for Ms Glennie was the unrestricted scope. "Because I was writing for one of the world's best players, I didn't really need to say: 'Can you do this or can you do that?'...It was tremendous that I wasn't restricted at all and I could basically do whatever I wanted to, so my mind pretty much ran free."
Having completed an undergraduate degree at the age of 21, Mr Hindson was excited by the prospect of expressing his ideas through music. Eighteen years on from completing his undergraduate degree, he now recommends to students who are peering at the daunting challenge of becoming a professional composer: "Keep writing music and get their the music performed; that's the most important thing because otherwise there doesn't seem to be much point in writing music in the first place."
Now, at the age of 39, Mr Hindson is a man of his times, equally at home playing video games on his PC as he is analysing folk music from the Balkans. He also lectures in the Arts Music Unit of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and recently co-authored a book entitled Music Composition Toolbox , published by Science Press.
Mr Hindson's music, like the man himself, does not take itself too seriously and is instantly gratifying because it communicates so openly and honestly. The subject matter may not be to everyone's liking, but there is certainly a journey to be had.
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