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Christopher Healey is a composer of music for modern hearts and minds. Solo music to full-bodied orchestral scores. One-minute miniatures to 80-minute operas. Transfixingly tender to disturbingly macabre. Modern listeners are multi-dimensional and emotionally complex; contemporary art music should be the same.
Melbourne-based composer Christopher Healey holds a Bachelor of Music (Composition), Honours (Class I) from the University of Queensland. He has studied with renowned Australian composers Gerard Brophy and Robert Davidson. From 2018-2019, he also undertook further composition studies with the eminent American composer, Daron Hagen. He has also received mentoring from Australian composers, Carl Vine, Christopher Gordon and Holly Harrison, as well as American composers, Nico Muhly, Christopher Cerrone, and Missy Mazzoli.
In 2019, he was selected as a participant in the Australian Youth Orchestra’s “Words About Music Program” with Phillip Sametz. Christopher has also completed his PhD in Composition (Title: ‘Exploring Metaxis: An exploration of Metamodern and Wabi Sabi aesthetics and philosophies in a folio of original compositions.’).
Christopher Healey’s music is eclectic in style, atmospheric and evocative, from the transfixingly tender to the disturbingly macabre. He strives to create an emotionally and intellectually meaningful journey for his listeners, engaging and challenging them by combining the warmth of lyrical melodies with extended harmonies, contemporary textures and unusual musical forms. His catalogue comprises over 90 diverse works, including instrumental and vocal compositions, choral music, full-bodied orchestral scores, a set of miniatures, and a chamber opera.
He has received commissions from eminent musicians and arts organisations in Australia, China, France, Holland, and the USA, including Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (Cybec), Omega Ensemble, 4MBS Classic FM, Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra, the BRON Saxophone Quartet, Divisi Chamber Singers, BoB-Best of Brass, Ensemble Francaix, Ensemble Fabrique, and the Nickson Quartet. Christopher has also received prizes including the Alan Lane Award, A.G. Francis Prize, 2nd Place in the Arcadia Winds Composition Competition, 2nd Place in the ANZVS Composition Competition, and the Australian Postgraduate Award.
In 2020, Christopher’s horn quintet, Idyll of a Sea Voyager was premiered in China by members of horn section of the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, led by Dr Armin Terzer. The performance was televised by Zhejiang Guangxi Live. In the same year, his Fugue of Confinement was premiered in Melbourne by Daniel Tan (violin) and Luke Severn (cello), and his Sonata for Trumpet and Piano was premiered in Sydney by Phillip O’Neill (trumpet) and Ingrid Sakurovs (piano). In 2021, Christopher’s works included compositions for Rockhampton Symphony Orchestra, Bendigo Symphony Orchestra and the Black Square String Quartet.
Read Christopher’s program note for his composition, Renewing Rain (2015), available to listen on Camerata’s album Sunshine Sounds (2023).
