Carl Vine - Career

Career

Vine was born in Perth, Western Australia. When he was ten years old, he took up the piano. An adolescent encounter with Karlheinz Stockhausen inspired a period as a teenage modernist, a direction which he abandoned in 1985. He studied physics, then composition at the School of Music, University of Western Australia, before moving to Sydney in 1975, where he worked as a freelance pianist and composer with a variety of theatre and dance companies, and ensembles.

Vine first came to prominence in Australia as a composer of music for dance, with 25 dance scores to his credit. In 1979 he co-founded the contemporary music ensemble "Flederman", which presented many of Vine's own works. From 1980 to 1982 he lectured in electronic music composition at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Brisbane.

His catalogue includes seven symphonies, nine concertos, music for film, television and theatre, electronic music and numerous chamber works. Although primarily a composer of modern classical music, he has undertaken tasks as diverse as arranging the Australian National Anthem and writing music for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics closing ceremony 'Sydney 2000' presentation.

Since 2000, Vine has been the Artistic Director of Musica Viva Australia, the world's largest entrepreneur of chamber music. In 2005, he was awarded the Don Banks Music Award, the highest accolade the Australia Council for the Arts can confer on a musician.

His second piano concerto was performed by Piers Lane and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra on 22 August 2012 and Danielle de Niese premiered a cycle of songs for soprano and strings.

Vine is now based in Sydney, where he works as a freelance composer. Since 2006, he has also been the Artistic Director of the Huntington Estate Music Festival.