PROFILE
Assistant Professor Graeme Gilling
Started at UWA: 1995
WA Symphony Orchestra pianist with a love of collaborative performance and teaching
There is nothing more rewarding than the process of learning a piece of music and experiencing its re-creation through performance. Assistant Professor Graeme Gilling
Graeme Gilling is an accomplished solo pianist, Assistant Professor and Chair of Keyboard Studies at the UWA Conservatorium of Music. Originally from New Zealand, Assistant Professor Gilling studied composition at the University of Canterbury before settling in Perth in 1983. Here, he completed his master’s degree in collaborative piano and began a highly successful career as a soloist, recitalist and teacher.
Since 1986, Assistant Professor Gilling has been a pianist with the WA Symphony Orchestra (WASO), performing in the WASO Chamber Music Series and with the WASO New Music Ensemble. In this role, he maintains an association with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, having performed with them in several orchestral seasons, as well as in their Chamber Series in March 2007.
Assistant Professor Gilling has worked with the prestigious WA Opera, WA Arts Orchestra, and WA Ballet, as well as beside many distinguished international artists such as Gerald English, Raphael Wallfisch, Bonita Boyd, Michel Debost, Jane Rutter, Gordon Hunt, Sara MacLiver and Caitlin Hulcup. He also toured Asia with the University Collegium Musicum choir in 1991.
Qualifications:
MMus W.Aust. University of Western Australia
BMus(Hons) University of Canterbury
LRSM Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music
Positions held:
- WA Director, Australian Music Examinations Board
- Chair, Australian Music Examinations Board (WA)
- Chair, AMEB Piano Syllabus Review Committee 2018
- Co-Chair, WA Piano Pedagogy Conference
- Pianist, Darlington Ensemble
- Pianist, WA Symphony Orchestra
News
Review: The Great Gatsby (West Australian Ballet)
Pianist Graeme Gilling was the lynchpin, turning out ragtime numbers and atonal passagework with rock steady assurance.
Read moreKeyboard duo almost note-perfect
Graeme Gilling/Geoffrey Lancaster (fortepiano) concert. Apart from the Dussek sonata, this Keyed-Up program was an all-Mozart offering, the high point of which was an account of the vast, profound Sonata in F, K497. Here, in this most magisterial and profound of works, the players revealed the ominous genie lurking behind the printed note.
Read moreMusic is the word
It was through his mother’s music teacher, Sir Frank Callaway, that Graeme Gilling first heard about the then School of Music at UWA. Inspired by Frank to make the move from New Zealand, Graeme joined the School to pursue postgraduate studies in collaborative piano with Professor Roger Smalley.
Read moreReleased works
CDs:
- 1994 - The Young Violinist vol.1 with Graham Wood, violin
- 1996 - The Young Violinist vol.2 with Graham Wood, violin
- 2013 - Recorded track for the UWA Centenary CD, titled ‘Luminosity’ (trios by Smalley and Tonkin)
CDs as a Member of the WA Symphony 20th Contemporary Ensemble:
- 2003 - Roger Smalley - Kaleidoscope (ABC Classics; ABC 980 047-5)
CDs as a Member of the WA Symphony Orchestra:
- 1987 - Roger Smalley - Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; Winner of International Rostrum of Composers (Vox Australis; VAST 003-2)
Teaching
Projects
Blackwood project
The Blackwood Project entitled, Blackwood – Solo to Symphony, premiered at the 2011 Perth International Arts Festival. Inspired by Blackwood River, this was a contemporary operetta by composer Iain Grandage, librettist and poet Kevin Gillam and artist Brendon Darby, performed by clarinetist Allan Meyer, international soprano Sara Macliver and pianist Graeme Gilling.
Industry affiliations
