Nigel Westlake's career in music has spanned more than 3 decades.
He studied the clarinet with his father, Donald Westlake (principal clarinettist, Sydney Symphony Orchestra 1961-1979) and subsequently left school early to pursue a performance career in music.
Nigel toured Australia and the world playing with ballet companies, a circus troupe, chamber music groups, fusion bands and orchestras to the cities of London, New York, Rome, Washington, Tokyo, Beijing, Paris, Amsterdam, Vancouver, Moscow, Hong Kong, Berlin, New Delhi and Singapore and many others.
His interest in composition dates from the late 1970's when he formed a classical/jazz-rock/world-music fusion band to play original music. During this time he started to receive offers to compose for radio and circus. Commissions for TV and film soon followed.
In 1983 he furthered his studies of contemporary music in the Netherlands.
From 1987 to 1992 he was a clarinettist with the Australia Ensemble resident at the University of New South Wales.
In 1992 he joined guitarist John Williams's group 'Attacca' as a performer and composer for tours of the United Kingdom and Australia. Since then he has given his primary attention to composition. |
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His film credits include the feature films MISS
POTTER, BABE, BABE - PIG IN THE CITY,
CHILDREN
OF THE REVOLUTION, A
LITTLE BIT OF SOUL, THE
NUGGET
and
the Imax films ANTARCTICA, IMAGINE, THE
EDGE & SOLARMAX.
His romantic score for the Beatrix Potter biopic Miss Potter won "Feature Film Score of the Year" & "Best Soundtrack Album" at the 2007 APRA / AGSC Screen Music Awards.
The films Babe & Miss Potter were both international hits, being No. I at the box office in many territories around the world.
His television credits include documentaries,
telemovies, news themes & station idents.
Westlake's work has been widely performed and has earned numerous awards, including the Gold Medal at
the New York International Radio Festival and numerous APRA and Screen Composer
Guild awards for his film and concert music.
The feature film Babe won
the Golden Globe Award in 1996 for "best feature musical/comedy".
His conducting debut was with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra
in 1997.
His
works have been performed by :
John
Williams, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, The Takacs Quartet, The Australia Ensemble, Michael
Kieran Harvey, Synergy
Percussion, Amsterdam Percussion Ensemble, Trilok
Gurtu, New York Percussion Quartet, Craig
Ogden, Slava Grigoryan, Leonard
Grigoryan, Timothy
Kain, Karin
Schaupp, , Goldner
String Quartet, Elektra String Quartet, Macquarie
Trio, Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony, The Queensland
Orchestra, West Australia Symphony, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Saffire, Guitartrek, Ogden Tanner, The Seymour Group, Australian Virtuosi, The Academy of Melbourne, Simon Tedeschi, Ensemble Aark, Percadu, Rebecca Lagos, & Catherine McCorkill, Schoenberg Ensemble, Berlin Philharmonie, 4-Mallity Percussion quartet.
and conducted by :
Kent Nagano, Paul Daniel, Richard Hickox, Markus Stenz, Ola Rudner, David Porcelijn, Yaron Traub, Jean Louis Forestier, Richard Gill, Brett Kelly, Benjamin Wallfisch, David Stanhope, Vladimir Verbitsky, Andrew Litton, Michael Christie & John Demain, Reinbert de Leeuw
His
opus one, Omphalo Centric Lecture (1984) for percussion quartet has become one
of the most frequently performed and recorded works in the percussion repertoire by
groups in the USA, Japan, Europe and Australia.
In
2004 Nigel Westlake was awarded the HC Coombs Creative Arts Fellowship at the Australian
National University.
In 2008 he was voted onto the board of APRA as Writer Director.
In 2008 he formed the Smugglers of Light Foundation in memory of his son Eli, focussed on the empowerment of storytelling
through film and music in youth and Indigenous communities.
"Missa Solis" a requiem for Eli, composed for large symphony orchestra, chorus and solo boy soprano receives premiere performances by major Australian orchestras in 2011.
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