William Barton, didgeridoo

I had an uncle, his name was Uncle Arthur Petersen, and basically he was a really great player of the didgeridoo. I used to sit down and listen to him and think, Geez, this is a really great sound that can really affect people in different ways.

Growing up, I wanted to be able to share the culture beyond Mount Isa and take the didgeridoo out of its box and put it with an orchestra so that the violin and didgeridoo can be as one.

William Barton, The 7.30 Report, ABC, 2003.

William Barton is considered one of Australia’s leading didgeridoo players and composers and a powerful advocate for the wider perception of his cultural traditions.  

Born in Mount Isa in North-western Queensland, Australia, William was taught the instrument at an early age by his uncle, an elder of the Wannyi, Lardil, and Kalkadunga tribes of Western Queensland. In 1998, at 17 years of age, William played his first classical concert with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.  

His association, since 2001, with leading Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe, has led to the inclusion of didgeridoo parts in several of Sculthorpe's orchestral works. Requiem (2004), a major work for orchestra, chorus and didgeridoo, premiered 2004 Adelaide Festival with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and at the UK’s Lichfield Festival with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, was composed with William Barton in mind, while five earlier works (Earth Cry, Songs of Sea and Sky, Mangrove, Kakadu, and From Ubirr) were re-arranged so as to include didgeridoo parts in them.  

The latter five were recorded by Barton and the Queensland Orchestra under Michael Christie. The 2004 CD release, Songs of Sea and Sky (ABC Classics 476 192-1) was nominated for 'Best Classical Album' in the 2004 Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Awards. Requiem was released on ABC Classics in late 2006.  

Other Australian composers that William has worked with include Ross Edwards, Sean O'Boyle, Matthew Hindson and Philip Bracanin. Liza Lim’s work for orchestra, didgeridoo and flute, ‘The Compass’, jointly commissioned by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra received its World premiere at the Sydney Opera House in August 2006. The Munich Premiere took place January 2007.  

In 2003 William composed and performed a major commission for the Queensland Biennial Festival of Music called Songs of Mother Country. The Festival produced "http://www.didgesphere.com/17.html"  Kalkadoon Man, a documentary screened on the ABC, which sees William journey back to his homelands to find and make a didgeridoo out in the bush in the Argilla and Selwyn ranges of Queensland. He also performed it at the Colorado Music Festival, US that year.  

Other recent engagements have included the Sydney Festival’s Symphony in The Domain with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s Huntington Festival, Canada’s Edmonton Festival, the Estonian Music Festival, the Wassoi World Music Festival in Japan, Brisbane Festival, Australian Festival of Chamber Music and concerts with The Song Company, the Phoenix and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras.  

In 2005 William performed at the 90th Anniversary ceremonies at ANZAC Cove, Gallipoli, Turkey, toured with the Goldner String Quartet, nationally for Musica Viva, and at the Aldburough Festival, UK, and debuted in concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival in London.  

William appeared as a featured soloist in the Queensland Music Festival’s multimedia music theatre work Credo The Innocence of God, a project by Fabrica with the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. Composed and Conducted by Andrea Molino, it was performed simultaneously via satellite in Belfast, Istanbul, Jerusalem and Brisbane, Australia. William spent three months living in Italy, collaborating with Fabrica musicians prior to this Festival premier.

Also in 2005, William was guest artist in an Australian Indigenous Music Project for Cite de la Musique in Paris. In November 2006 he returned to Paris for the European premier of his own compositions for string quartet, didgeridoo and voice at the Pompidou Centre – a project titled "Journey of the rivers" de William Barton.

Other highlights of 2006 included a German tour with the Queensland Ballet and concerts with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Western Australian Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Philharmonia.  

In February/March 2007 William performed with the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, the Reno Chamber Orchestra and The Jena Philharmonic in Germany and the Queensland Music Festival in July. Other international engagements include a performance at the Venice Music Biennale.  

William’s ongoing collaborations and commissions with orchestras, choral directors and composers in Australia, America and Europe are creating a strong and positive sustainable future for the instrument and Australia’s Cultural Heritage.  

Through such collaborations and projects, William Barton aims to present the virtuosic potential of his instrument and richness of his Australian culture to audiences throughout the world. He hopes they will see this music, not just as an illustration of some exotic antiquity, but as a living, dynamic process, requiring considerable technique, stamina and study, equal to that of any conventional classically trained professional musician.  

Awards
In 2003 William was Artist-in-Residence with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the first appointment of an Indigenous musician to an Australian symphony orchestra. In 2004 he was a recipient of the Brisbane Lord Mayor's Fellowship to study music theory and composition at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, and was a metropolitan finalist in the 2005 Suncorp Young Queenslander of the Year Award.  

Discography
William’s recording projects include the 2004 Aria nominated ABC Classics Songs of Sky and Sea by Peter Sculthorpe with conductor Michael Christie and The Queensland Orchestra. He has also recorded works by Peter Sculthorpe with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra on Naxos and a self released recording of his own compositions for solo didgeridoo, Journey. Peter Sculthorpe’s Requiem, a major work for orchestra, chorus and didgeridoo, with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, was released on ABC Classics in 2006.  

More information about William Barton can be found at www.williambarton.com.au