Musicatlas
Rae Howell
Sunwrae Ensemble, photo by Dean Jones
News for Howell
- Rae Howell Composer in Residence in Sweden
[posted 9 February 2010]Hot off the trails of a Music Residency at Instituto Sacatar in Bahia Brazil (a UNSECO Aschberg Bursary), composer and Artistic Director of the Sunwrae Ensemble, Rae Howell, heads to Sweden in March 2010 as Composer in Residence at The Visby International Centre for Composers.
2009 saw her Sunwrae Ensemble touring nationally in Australia, launching Howell's 3rd album 'Autumn Never Fall' and the animation film 'The Machine'. 2010 welcomes the release of Sunwrae's 4th album 'Live at The Thornbury Theatre', recorded in June 2009 at the final performance of their national tour in Melbourne Australia.
- New Live Album & DVD for Rae Howell
[posted 18 April 2006]Rae Howell (aka Sunwrae) launches her new Live Album & DVD Friday June 2nd, 2006 at St Stephens Church, 360 Church Street, Richmond, Victoria in Australia. Featuring an 11-piece ensemble of piano, vibraphone, string quartet, harp, clarinets, guitar, double bass and percussion... The Album highlights a stunning selection of original music by Artistic Director and leader of the ensemble, Rae Howell, recorded live during the 2005 'Eavesdropping' Concert Series.
Music
Life
Rae Howell is an Australian freelance musician; composer and performer on piano & vibraphone. A graduate of The University of Melbourne Conservatorium, Howell is Artistic Director and Leader of the Sunwrae Ensemble, an innovative chamber group dedicated to performing her original works for piano, vibraphone, string quartet, harp, clarinets, alto flute, lap-steel guitar, double bass, drumset and percussion.
Howell produces a unique style of minimalist contemporary classical music; artistically implementing improvisation, creating eclectic textures and rhythmical intricacy. She works regularly as a multi-instrumentalist (also on trumpet, mellophone, glockenspiel & melodica) and performs as a guest artist with a vast range of musicians crossing various genres in live performance, recording and international touring.
In addition to the Sunwrae Ensemble, Howell composes and performs live for an Australian Puppet Theatre Company Peepshow Inc, with whom she is also an Artistic Advisor, an Improvised Dance Ensemble State of Flux through Dancehouse in Melbourne, and numerous international project-based film and mixed-media ventures. Howell was a finalist in the 2006 APRA Professional Development Awards and is a represented composer of Cantilena Music in London, UK. Howell was commissioned by Rocketship Theatre Company in 2002 to compose & perform live for a German Co-production at the ARENA International Theatre Festival in Erlangen Germany.
Howell’s collaborations extend internationally to diverse audiences of music and sound; she has been a Musician in Residence at The Banff Centre in Alberta Canada, and The Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida USA. She has worked with jazz musician/composer and Blue Note Records Artist Sam Rivers (USA), Royal Society of Arts Fellow and composer/percussionist Eugene Skeef (Sth Africa/UK) and currently works by correspondance in an ongoing electronic recording project with engineer Jon Cohrs (USA), in ‘Rabbits without Spleens’.
Howell has released an independent studio album (2005) called Never Stops to Wait, funded by Arts Victoria and the Australia Council, and three Live EP’s (2004), one Live Album & DVD from a series of music recitals called Eavesdropping. Howell is the founder of ‘eavesdropping’, an annual touring series of musical concerts showcasing new music and exhibits of visual art. Eavesdropping recitals are recorded live and produced as a series of live CDs and DVDs, featuring diverse compositions and instrumentations.