NIGEL WESTLAKE
Works include: Miss Potter; Horseplay; The Nugget; Babe: Pig in the City; A Little Bit of Soul; Children of the Revolution; Babe; Backsliding; Candy Regentaq; Stepfather of the Bride; Hell has Harbour Views; Act of Necessity
Nigel Westlake's career in music has spanned more than 3 decades.
He studied the clarinet with his father, Donald Westlake (a prominent Australian musician & principal clarinettist with the Sydney Symphony orchestra 1961-1979) & subsequently left school early to pursue a performance career in music.
Nigel toured Australia & the world playing with ballet companies, a circus troupe, chamber music groups, fusion bands & orchestras to the cities of London, New York, Rome, Washington, Tokyo, Beijing, Paris, Amsterdam, Vancouver, Moscow, Hong Kong, Berlin, New Delhi & Singapore, to name but a few.
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 & circus. Commissions for TV & film soon followed. In 1983 and 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 & composer for tours of the United Kingdom & Australia. Since then he has given his primary attention to composition.
His romantic score for the Beatrix Potter biopic "Miss Potter" was awarded "Feature Film Score of the Year" & "Best Soundtrack Album" at the 2007 APRA/AGSC Screen Music Awards.
Nigel's work has been widely performed & has earned numerous awards, including the Gold Medal at the New York International Radio Festival & several APRA & Screen Composer Guild awards for his film & concert music.
His works have been performed by :
- John Williams
- London Symphony Orchestra
- Royal Scottish National Orchestra
- 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 amongst many others .
His opus one, Omphalo Centric Lecture (1984) for percussion quartet has become one of the most frequently performed & recorded works in the percussion repertoire by groups in the USA, Japan, Europe & Australia.
In 2004 Nigel Westlake was awarded the "HC Coombs Creative Arts Fellowship" at the Australian National University. Current commissions for 2008 include orchestral works, music for theatre & feature film scores.
For more info see http://www.rimshot.com.au
FILM
Miss Potter
Chris Noonan / Phoenix Pictures
Babe
(winner of 1996 Golden Globe Award for "Best Feature Musical/Comedy"),
Chris Noonan / Kennedy Miller
Babe - Pig in the City
George Miller / Kennedy Miller
Children of the Revolution
Peter Duncan / Tristram Miall
A Little Bit of Soul
Peter Duncan / Faust Films
The Nugget
Bill Bennett / Bill Bennett, Jennifer Cluff
Heart of the Sun
John Weiley / Heliograph
Horseplay
Stavros Kazantzidis / Allanah Zitserman
Antarctica
John Weiley / Heliograph
Imagine
John Weiley / Heliograph
The Edge
John Weiley / Heliograph
Solarmax
John Weiley / Heliograph
Backsliding
Simon Target / Cast films
Kiss the Night
James Ricketson / Rainy Day productions
TELEVISION
Stepfather of the Bride (telemovie)
Roger Hodgeman / Essential Films
SBS News theme
SBS television
Hell Has Harbour Views (telemovie)
Peter Duncan / Hilton Cordell
The Celluloid Heroes
Film Australia
Roads to Xanadu
Film Australia
Act of Neccessity
Film Australia
Marathon Man
Film Australia
SBS station idents
SBS television
Pepperminarti
SBS television
Masterpiece
SBS television
SBS evening movie intro
SBS television
The Business Show
SBS television
Dateline
SBS television
Sunday Afternoon
ABC Television
The Prime Ministers
ABC Television
Backchat
ABC Television
The Greatest Little Show on Earth
ABC Television