Damien Dempsey is an enigma.  Born in Donaghmede, a suburb of Dublin, Dempsey is that rare gem of an artist, an ex-boxer – no less! – with the soul of a poet, whose heroes and influences are as diverse as Christy Moore, Shane McGowan, Elvis Presley, Luke Kelly and Bob Marley.  Dempsey has released eight albums to date and is now something of a hero himself in his native Ireland, but it is his connection to the human condition that sets him apart from most of us. Union is a new album of collaborations featuring 14 songs from Damien’s extensive back catalogue. Every song is a duet with a special guest. Guests include Sinead O’Connor, The Dubliners, Kate Tempest, and so many more!  Damien says: “I love collaborating with people who move me with their music and lyrics and soul and voice. And when we collaborate with music we always learn something from each other and take a little bit of each other’s spirit and magic away with us. Union is a myriad of styles and a bit of a melting pot but I adore melting pots and I reckon there’s something for everyone here.” One song on the new features Australia’s own – Dan Sultan!  “I met the young Dan Sultan at a soundcheck in Mullingar in Westmeath one summers day in July,it was his first day in Ireland and he was in the town that his father’s people left for Australia a couple of generations before from. He was opening for me that night and he had relatives he'd never met from Mullingar coming to the show to see him so it was a special night. I fell in love with his incredible singing and soul and songs and vice versa and we became great friends. When I was next in Australia I came down to see him and he taught me a lot about his Mother’s culture, the Gurindji people among others, and it is the oldest and in my opinion most indigenous culture on earth. For instance, the Songlines that run the length and breadth of Australia,where the aboriginal people have the country mapped in song and can find their way across the continent without maps, just songs, should certainly be one of the wonders of the world. How a tribe would have their own territory mapped in a song, so they could find their way to the boundary with passed down songs, them meet the tribe of the next territory, trade with them and make friends , and they'd be taught the songs that would get them across the next territory. When the songs melody went high it meant their was high ground coming and vice versa for valleys or ravines. Deserts and waterholes and thick forests were warned of through the melody and rhythm and story of the song and the song gave you shortcuts and the best route through, the songs told of the best places to hunt and fish, and their beautiful dreamtime religion was wrapped up in all this as well. Incredible.”

The ABC series Don’t Stop the Music inspired us all by showing us the life-changing power of music education. The three-part series followed the students of a primary school in an underprivileged area of Perth as they embarked on a music program, and shows the transformative effects this has on students, teachers and parents.The benefits of music begin to play out among the children, tempering disruptive behaviour, bringing serial truants back to the classroom, and providing a creative outlet for kids who hadn’t excelled in traditional academic areas.Now you can take home the official soundtrack, containing a selection of the classical works heard in each episode, plus music composed for the series by Ash Gibson Greig, and highlights from the children’s performance at the Perth Concert Hall which ends the series.It’s the perfect memento of the series, and a brilliant gift to help inspire a love of music in the mini musicians in your life.  TRACKLISTING 1 Introduction 2 Mrs Musumeci 3 Seven Times Four 4 BACH Cello Suite No. 1: I. Prelude Michael Goldschlager cello5 Not Alone 6 VIVALDI Concerto ‘Alla Rustica’: I. Presto West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Albert Rosen conductor7 Micheál McCarthy 8 Anita’s Bootcamp 9 BEETHOVEN Ode to Joy from Symphony No. 9 Sydney Philharmonia Choirs & Orchestra, Antony Walker conductor live recording10 PONCHIELLI Dance of the Hours (excerpt) from La Gioconda Orchestra Victoria, Richard Divall conductor11 Vox Pops12 The Wait’s Over13 BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5: I. Allegro con brio Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Willem van Otterloo conductor14 Cody15 HANDEL Largo (Ombra mai fù)from Xerxes Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Nicolette Fraillon conductor16 The Brain on Music17 Taj18 CHOPINNocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9 No. 2 Ewa Kupiec piano19 Wrap Up20 Applause21 J. STRAUSS II Tritsch-Tratsch Polka Johann Strauss Ensemble, Russell McGregor conductor22 Don't Stop the Music23 TCHAIKOVSKY Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker Orchestra Victoria, Nicolette Fraillon conductor24 It’s an Obsession25 SIBELIUS Finlandia Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Arvo Volmer conductor26 Nervous27 J. STRAUSS II Blue DanubeWaltz (excerpt) Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Ponkin conductor28 Their First Concert29 WAGNER The Ride of the Valkyries from The Valkyrie West Australian Symphony Orchestra, David Measham conductor30 The Fair Go31 ROSSINIWilliam Tell – Overture: Galop Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Ola Rudner conductorPlus highlights from the ‘Don’t Stop the Music’ concert, live from the Perth Concert Hall:32 TRAD. The Irish WasherwomanClassic Sounds Fiddlers, Challis String Ensemble, Rachel John conductor33 TRAD. London Bridge Medley Just Brass Armadale, Michelle Wilde conductor34 TRAD SOUTH AFRICAN SiyahambaEneksis Vocal Ensemble, Challis Choir, Micheál McCarthy conductor  Unless otherwise indicated, all tracks composed and performed by Ash Gibson Greig.

ABC Classics presents a vibrant world of musical movement for piano four-hands.Invisible Dancesis the new album from acclaimed Australian pianists Liam Viney and Anna Grinberg, who perform as the Viney-Grinberg Piano Duo. Through scenes of fantasy and poetry, these musical tableaux highlight the sheer colour and brilliance of piano duets.This album is permeated by the spirit of dance felt but not seen: from Debussy’s archaic musings on minuet and ballet forms in his Petite Suite, through the obsessive moto perpetuos, French overture, and Austrian folk Ländler in Schubert’s ‘Fantasie’, into the dazzling world of Stravinsky’s dancing puppets and carnival acrobats.Two Australian pieces generate interesting resonances alongside their European counterparts. Roy Agnew’s Green Valley is a modest pastoral scene of exquisite beauty that echoes the outdoor scene of Debussy’s En bateau. Tim Dargaville’s Invisible Dance provides a counterpoint to the extroverted rhythmic display of Petrushka, a poignant postlude to an album animated by movement and motion.Liam Viney andAnna Grinberg enjoy an international performance profile involving festivals, major series, live radio broadcasts, orchestras and CD releases. Described as ‘barnstorming’ (The Australian) and ‘the most compelling case for the beauty and variety of two piano repertory this reviewer has ever heard’ (Los Angeles Times), the duo is committed to exploring classics of the two-piano and four-hand repertoire, but also contributes to the ongoing expansion of that literature through commissioning composers. They spent a decade in the United States before taking up their current position as Ensemble-in-Residence at the University of Queensland, Australia.  TRACKLISTINGCLAUDE DEBUSSY 1862–1918Petite Suite1     I. En bateau2     II. Cortège3     III. Menuet4     IV. Ballet ROY AGNEW 1891–19445     Green Valley FRANZ SCHUBERT 1797–18286     Fantasie in F minor, D940 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH 1685–1750arr. GYÖRGY KURTÁG born 19267     Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (God’s Time is the Best of All Times): Sonatina from Cantata BWV106 ‘Actus Tragicus’ IGOR STRAVINSKY 1882–1971Three Movements from Petrushka8     I. Russian Dance9     II. Petrushka’s Cell10   III. Shrovetide Fair TIM DARGAVILLE born 196211   Invisible Dance  Viney-Grinberg DuoLiam Viney pianoAnna Grinberg piano

Deep in the American South, a little boy named Sailboat lives in a slanted house held up with a stick. His mother hasn't set foot outside the house in years, his father drives a car with no doors, his grandmother is in hospital and his best friend cannot blink. But when Sailboat finds a ‘tiny guitar’ and his grandmother asks him to write a song for her, the boy overcomes all of this adversity to write the greatest song ever written.The soundtrack to the heart-warming, award-winning film features all-new recordings by Australia’s favourite guitarists, the Grigoryan Brothers, playing famous tunes re-arranged for guitar duo – including ‘Amazing Grace’, ‘House of the Rising Sun’, ‘My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean’ and more.It’s a film the whole family will love, and a soundtrack that any music lover will cherish.The Grigoryan Brothers will be performing the soundtrack live at a series of special film screenings across Australia in November and December.Saturday 17 November – Melbourne – Rivoli Cinemas, Hawthorn EastSaturday 24 November – Sydney – Chauvel Cinemas, PaddingtonSaturday 1 December – Adelaide – Capri  Cinema, GoodwoodSaturday 8 December – Hobart – State  Cinema, North HobartSaturday 15 December – Brisbane – Elizabeth Cinemas, Elizabeth Grigoryan BrothersSlava Grigoryan guitarLeonard Grigoryan guitar All songs Traditional except Distancia (track 7), composed by Slava & Leonard Grigoryan, and Oh Susanna (track 8), composed by Stephen Foster. All tracks arranged by Slava & Leonard Grigoryan.

The latest release in the Australian Composer Series features orchestral works by Andrew Schultz: his Symphony No. 3 Century, as well as the works Peace and August Offensive.Centurywas commissioned for the celebrations surrounding the centenary of Australia’s national capital, Canberra, in March 2013, and premiered in front of an audience of 150,000 people. Chris Wallace of the Canberra Times wrote, “Century is excellent. It is epic. It is powerful and beautiful.” The work speaks to the fascinating history of our purpose built ‘bush capital’, and the struggle between idealism and practicality that was inherent in its construction. It sounds instantly Australian, celebrating the abundance of our natural environment while also warning of its intensity and brutality.Peace was written in 2013 for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and takes its name from one of JMW Turner’s best-known paintings, Peace – Burial at Sea (1842). This is not a peace of tranquillity, however – rather the uneasy peace that forms after a period of violence and conflict. August Offensive, by contrast, is a very fast, virtuosic and violent work which was premiered at the ANZAC Day dawn service at Gallipoli on 25 April 2013. Commissioned for the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign by the Australian Department of Veterans’ Affairs, it commemorates the horrendous battles in August 1915 which saw some of the most deadly fighting of the entire campaign.Born in Adelaide in 1960, Andrew Schultz grew up in regional New South Wales and Victoria before his family moved to Brisbane, where he completed his secondary schooling. His teachers and mentors included Colin Brumby, George Crumb, David Lumsdaine and Luciano Berio and he studied at the Universities of Queensland, Pennsylvania and King’s College London. Currently Professor of Music at UNSW in Sydney, his  TRACKLISTINGANDREW SCHULTZ born 1960Symphony No. 3 ‘Century’, Op. 911     I. Struggle2     II. Dream3     III. Create4     Peace, Op. 935     August Offensive, Op. 92 Tasmanian Symphony OrchestraHamish McKeich conductor  The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s Australian Composer series is one of the most important recording projects in the history of Australian music, making available the orchestral works of a wide range of Australian composers,performed by one of the world’s finest small orchestras.

DEBUT ALBUM FROM TODDLER-FRIENDLY INDIE-POP BAND FEAT. MEMBERS OF LEMONHEADS, SMUDGE & MORE! ABC KIDS' newest music superstars The Sticker Club are a group that echo the bubblegum pop of late 60s cartoon bands like The Archies and Bananas Splits, mixed with the indie-rock pedigree of the band’s members Nic Dalton (Lemonheads, Plunderers), Alison Galloway (Smudge), Nellie Afford (Agnes Kain), Ben Whitten (Intercontinental Playboys) and Dizzi Cassidy (The Argon Room, Faker). The band’s debut album Scratch ‘n’ Sniff is released today through ABC KIDS & Half A Cow. The Sticker Club formed in 2012 when Nic realised he had written a whole stack of songs for his toddlers and should put a “kids” band together, so he asked his friends Alison and Ben, who had daughters the same age as his. Ben, Alison and Nic’s daughters were initially in the band (singing, dancing and playing trombone, flute and clarinet) but the three girls quit (“we don’t want to be in a kid’s band”) and were replaced by Dizzi on the bass. The band liked the sound that trombone, flute and clarinet created, so charts were written by Jenna Cave for five of the songs for the album, played by top-shelf Sydney jazz musicians. The band describe themselves as “a bit different to other kids’ bands because we’ve got the double wah-wah guitars and we’re quite rock and roll - kind of like 60s garage meets Don Spencer.”  The first song Nic wrote for the band was ‘(Can You Do) The Peanut’, written on a family camping holiday down the New South Wales south coast. A female lead singer was required so in stepped Nellie, who also supplied one of the Sticker Club’s most treasured songs “Caterpillar”. Nic started recording Scratch ‘n’ Sniff in 2014 ... before the birth of three babies got in the way! The album was completed and mixed recorded by famed producer Tim Kevin (Holly Throsby, Youth Group) at Tempe River Studio in Marrickville. Sixteen songs in all: from the bubblegum pop of ‘Darcy’ and ‘New School Tomorrow’ to the toddler- friendly ‘Can You Hear The Doggie?’ and ‘Kissiasaurus’ with some psychedelic rock thrown in courtesy of ‘(Doin’) The Echo’ and ‘Magic Flower Power Hour’. The band perform regularly at the It’s A Family Affair concert series at Sydney’s Petersham Bowling Club, and have gathered a loyal fanbase after talk-of-the-town appearances at the Dress Up Attack Festival, Summer Hill School, Yeo Park Infants fetes, and the Inner West Music Festival. 

ABC KIDS Hits is a fun new compilation album for the little ones to enjoy these holidays.Featuring songs from all your ABC KIDS favourites including Justine Clarke, The Wiggles, Play School, Giggle and Hoot and more. ABC KIDS Hits is jam-packed with 38 wonderful tunes that children will love singing and dancing along to throughout the summer.

ABC KIDS has brought together some of Australia’s best-loved and most popular Christmas tunes, creating the ultimate holiday music collection for kids. Featuring a beautiful mix of traditional Christmas carols such as ‘Deck The Halls’ and ‘Sleigh Ride’, Aussie classics including ‘Christmas Where The Gum Trees Grow’ and ‘Six White Boomers’, and a smattering yuletide tunes from Bananas In Pyjamas, The Wiggles, Jay Laga’aia, Sesame Street, and many more beloved ABC KIDS favourites.

Celtic and Gaelic Sacred MelodiesCatherine Strutt piano with special guest Chris Duncan Scottish fiddleThere is a quality in the music of the Celtic and Gaelic people that touches something deep inside us. It could be the home-spun folk rhythms that speak of good times with close friends. It could be the sound of a people who have been defined by dispossession, a sense of yearning for a homeland that can never be theirs. Or perhaps it is purely musical, a tradition whose core notes resound with the sound of the human spirit.Catherine Struttexplores these themes on her new album No Wind at the Window. The tracks range from well-known pieces like ‘Amazing Grace’, ‘Abide With Me’ and ‘Morning Has Broken’, to obscure tunes from a small Gaelic hymnbook from 1935, called simply An Laoidheadair (The Hymnal), given to Catherine by a friend as she embarked on this incredibly personal journey.“For as long I can remember,” says Catherine, “My mother has played the harmonium at the local Anglican church. It was there that I encountered the great tunes of the Welsh and English hymn writers, and from this first early exposure, the hymns tunes have been stored deep inside my memory, and never forgotten.”Catherine is considered to be one of the finest piano players of traditional Scottish dance music in the world today. She is well respected as an innovative and sensitive natural dance and concert musician and is a grapheme synaesthete, an individual who experiences numbers and letters in colour.Using this phenomenon as a tool, Catherine plays and records entirely by ear. Her intuitive sense of rhythm and colour are incomparable and she continues to be an inspiration, teacher and mentor to many of Australia’s Scottish-style pianists. TRACKLISTING1     All Through the Night (Ar hyd y nos)2     I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say (Kingsfold)3     How Are Thy Servants Blest, O Lord (Kilmarnock)4     No Wind at the Window (Columcille)5     There Is Sweet Rejoicing on the Hill of Paradise (Bearnaraidh) /       Sion Sings with Sheer Sweetness (Sion)6     Oh, This is the Story That Will Gladden My Heart (So an sgeul)7     Lord, Hear My Praying (Lara)8     Country Carol (The Oxen)9     God Is Love, Let Heaven Adore Him (Abbot’s Leigh)10   Morning Has Broken (Bunessan)11   Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise (Llanfair)12   O Crucified Redeemer (Llangloffan)13   Christ Be My Leader by Night as by Day (Bonnie George Campbell)14   Abide with Me (Eventide)15   Sussex Carol16   Love Divine, All Loves Excelling (Blaenwern)17   Precious Is Your Grace to Us (Tigh-an-Easa)18   God of Jeremiah (Kelvin Grove)19   Amazing Grace (New Britain)20   O for a Closer Walk with God (Caithness) Catherine Strutt piano with special guest Chris Duncan Scottish fiddle(Tracks 5, 11, 15, 17)

One of Australia’s best known and most performed composers, Ross Edwards has created a distinctive sound world based on deep ecology and an awareness of the need to reconnect music with elemental forces and restore its traditional association with ritual.Throughout a long and storied career, Ross has written music that celebrates Australia – its cultural diversity, its natural environment, and its connection to the vast and diverse Pacific Rim region. Perhaps nowhere is this better demonstrated than in his chamber music, which allows for rich, detailed musical textures as well as an intense, focussed intimacy.Incantationscelebrates Ross’s 75th birthday in December 2018 by presenting a collection of his chamber music performed by some of Australia’s finest musicians, many of whom commissioned or premiered the pieces included here. It contains four previously unreleased recordings and a number of others making their CD debut, as well as highlights from the ABC Classics catalogue.It features a tremendous array of Australian musicians, including the Goldner String Quartet, Riley Lee, Claire Edwardes, Karin Schaupp, New Sydney Wind Quintet, Apollo Trio, Enigma Quartet, Viney-Grinberg Piano Duo, Jason Noble, Melissa Doecke, Mark Isaacs, The Seymour Group, Alexandre Oguey, Bernadette Harvey,  and the Australia Ensemble @UNSW. TRACKLISTINGCD11-5     Animisms*         Australia Ensemble @UNSW6-7     Sea Star Fantasy         Bernadette Harvey piano8-11   String Quartet No. 2 ‘Shekina Fantasy’*         Goldner String Quartet12      Djanaba         Claire Edwardes marimba, Karin Schaupp guitar13-15  Incantations         New Sydney Wind Quintet16-18  Piano Trio         Apollo Trio CD21-5     The Laughing Moon         New Sydney Wind Quintet6        Voice of the Rain*         Riley Lee shakuhachi, Enigma Quartet7-9     Piano Sonata         Bernadette Harvey piano10      Water Spirit Song*         Alexandre Oguey cor anglais11-19  A Flight of Sunbirds         Viney-Grinberg Piano Duo20      Binyang         Jason Noble clarinet, Claire Edwardes claves21-23  Nura         Melissa Doecke flute, Mark Isaacs piano24-28  Laikan         The Seymour Group           *Previously unreleased recordings

Australian piano virtuoso Jayson Gillham presents his fourth album on ABC Classics, devoted to the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Featuring 11 of Bach’s compositions transcribed and arranged, from Rachmaninoff’s arrangement of the Violin Partita in E major into a pianistic showpiece, to Myra Hess’s sublime ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’, Jayson Gillham’s latest release is a love letter to Bach from a who’s who of the great pianists and pianist-composers – Rachmaninoff, Percy Grainger, Hess, Busoni, Siloti and Petri.“The thing about Bach,” says Jayson, “is that it works so well on whatever instrument combination you put it on. It’s something to do with the way Bach thinks, and the way he writes the music – the content is more important than the timbre of the instrument that it’s played on. And so it’s really effective on all instruments – particularly the piano.”Born 333 years ago in Germany, Bach remains arguably the most important musician in the Western musical tradition. Nowhere does his outsized brilliance shine through more brightly than in his keyboard works, and the influence that they have had on centuries of composers and musicians. This celebrated repertoire allows the full extent of Jayson’s artistry to shine through, revealing the profound depth of his musicality, and a mind constantly interrogating his performance, his instrument, and the music.Born and brought up in rural Queensland, Jayson Gillham travelled for hours to piano lessons in Brisbane, before shooting to fame in a number of prestigious international competitions. He is now recognised as one of the finest pianists of his generation, performing across the globe with the world’s most prestigious orchestras, venues and festivals. ABC Classics signed Jayson for a three-album deal, and his debut record, an all-solo offering surveying music by Bach, Schubert and Chopin, reached No. 1 in the ARIA Charts on release.  Soon afterwards the great pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy, conducting the Sydney Symphony, chose to make his first-ever recording of a Beethoven concerto with Jayson Gillham at the keyboard. Jayson’s Medtner and Rachmaninoff album, recorded in 2017 with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Benjamin Northey, received unanimous praise and was Recording of the Month in Limelight magazine. TRACKLISTINGJOHANN SEBASTIAN BACHFugue in E major, BWV878        from The Well-Tempered Clavier, arr. Percy Grainger       Suite from Violin Partita in E major, BWV1006       arr. Sergei RachmaninoffI. PreludeII. GavotteIII. Gigue       Fantasia and Fugue in A minor, BWV904I. FantasiaII. FugueSheep May Safely Graze        from Cantata BWV208, arr. Egon Petri       Capriccio on the Departure        of his Beloved Brother, BWV992I. Arioso: AdagioII. [Andante]III. AdagiosissimoIV. [Andante con moto]V. Aria del Postiglione: Allegro pocoVI. Fuga all’imitatione della postaSicilianofrom Flute Sonata No. 2        in E-flat major, BWV1031, arr. Wilhelm KempffJesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring        from Cantata BWV147,arr. Myra HessNun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein, BWV734a        arr. Ferruccio BusoniChaconne from Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV1004        arr. Ferruccio BusoniOrgan Prelude in E minor, BWV555       arr. Alexander Siloti PERCY GRAINGER 1882–1961Blithe Bells: A free ramble on JS Bach’s        ‘Sheep May Safely Graze’ 

The Grigoryan Brothers return with an album of J.S. Bach’s best-loved concertos, newly arranged for two guitars and orchestra.The two great forces in J.S. Bach’s life were music and family - somewhat inevitably, for a man who had twenty children. Bach first wrote the concertos on this disc as a young composer finding his place in the world, seeking to establish both his musical and personal identity. But they stayed with him throughout his life: he adapted them for different instruments, performed them with his sons, and used them to pass down his musical and life experiences.So it is entirely fitting that two brothers, Slava and Leonard Grigoryan, have come together to play these works. The parallels are even more poignant considering their father, Edward, created the arrangements on this disc, and that early rehearsals of this material involved their parents (Edward on violin, Irina on viola) and Slava’s wife Sharon (on cello). The intimacy and eternity of Bach’s music could hardly be better illustrated.This album follows on from the brilliant success of Slava’s two recent albums of Bach cello suites arranged for solo guitar: albums that broke records for the longest time spent atop the ARIA Classical charts, and which both won the ARIA for Best Classical Album (2017 + 2018). It also continues the family tradition of their most recent album as a duo, 2017’s Songs Without Words, which featured beloved classical works arranged for guitar duo by their father Edward.Slava and Leonard are counted amongst the finest musicians of their generation, and between them have been awarded four ARIA awards and received an incredible further 24 nominations, confirming their status as Australia’s favourite guitarists. TRACKLISTINGJS BACH 1685–1750Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV1043 (Arrangement for two guitars in A minor)I. VivaceII. Largo ma non tantoIII. Allegro Concerto for Keyboard in D minor, BWV1052 (Arrangement for two guitars in D minor)I. AllegroII. AdagioIII. Allegro Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C minor, BWV1060R (Arrangement for two guitars in G minor)I. AllegroII. AdagioIII. Allegro Arioso (Sinfonia: Adagio)        (from Cantata BWV156) All tracks arranged for two guitars and orchestra by Edward Grigoryan Slava Grigoryan guitarLeonard Grigoryan guitarAdelaide Symphony Orchestra Benjamin Northey conductor