MODART

Modart

MODART is a professional development project that provides opportunities for emerging composers to develop works for vocal ensemble, and which then receive public performance by The Song Company.

Biography: Mark Viggiani

Mark Viggiani studied guitar, composition and improvisation with Tony Gould, Brian Brown, Peter Lynch and Felix Werder at the Victorian College of the Arts during the late 1980s. His first venture on concluding studies was the contemporary improvisation ensemble Sonance, which performed with Australia Council funding during the early 1990s. This was followed by a period of intense composition and solo concerts, culminating in the release of a debut CD The Rainmaker in 1997.

Recent performances include the 2003 Sydney Acoustic Guitar Festival and the 2002 Brunswick Music Festival, where he premiered several new works for solo guitar and duos with guitarist Anthony Field. He also presented a program at the 2002 Darwin International Guitar Festival, where his Septet Show was performed as part of the composition competition.

In addition to performing solo, Mark has worked extensively in jazz and music theatre. He has composed music for Amsterdam-based guitarists Z.O.O. Duo (Peter Constant and Marion Schaap) who have recorded and performed his music internationally. In addition to writing for the guitar, Mark has also written for strings, harp, voice and orchestra.

Program Notes: A Common Prayer

I have followed Michael Leunig’s work as a cartoonist, artist, poet, and general social commentator as it has appeared in Melbourne newspapers and various books since the 1970s. His publication of 1990 ‘A Common Prayer' is a set of simple poetic prayers specific to no creed but couched in a general humanist philosophy and shot through with a quirky sense of humour. I have long thought them ideal texts to base an intimate work for unaccompanied vocal ensemble on. I have chosen four of these, quite arbitrarily.