Australian Composers Orchestral Forum provides emerging composers the opportunity to work with a professional symphony orchestra
ACOF 2004 Participant - Toby Wren
Biography
Toby Wren is a composer, arranger, freelance guitarist and teacher. He studied under Gerard Brophy at the Queensland Conservatorium and received his Bachelor of Music in composition in 1998. He has also studied musicology and literature at LaTrobe University (Melbourne). In 2001 Toby was selected to participate in the Australian Composers Orchestral Forum with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra for whom he wrote I.X. sketch. From this he was invited to attend ACOF 2002. In 1997 Wren won first prize for his piece Nebbish at the Darwin International Guitar Festival Composers Competition. Wren teaches contemporary guitar at St Josephs Gregory Terrace and has lectured at the Queensland Conservatorium and at MLC Sydney’s Australian Music Week.
Wren plays guitar and has recorded CDs with Babel (new music), The Trevor Hart Quartet (free jazz) and Leah Cotterell's 18 Wheels (country, gospel).
Wren was a founding member of the composers collective COMPOST. Since 1996 the group has been responsible for 9 concerts including: the AMPidextrous Hearing (2002) concert as part of the Brisbane Festival; In the Loop (2001) concert and broadcast on ABC Classic FM; Preston Peaks Festival of Music (2000), Consummations (2000) - music for rock group, featuring Katie Noonan; New Music State of Origin (1999) concerts in Sydney and Brisbane featuring Topology and Coruscations; and BIG (1998), directed by Wren and featuring COMPOST's 35-piece electric super-orchestra.
