Roland Chadwick
About Roland Chadwick
Discography
Guest Appearances
Forthcoming Releases
Performance Hightlights
Current Performance Projects
Reviews
Compostions
Contact Roland Chadwick
Audio Clips
About Roland Chadwick
Roland Chadwick is a Composer, Guitarist and internationally acclaimed recording artist. Born in May 1957, in Australia, Roland made his Sydney Opera House debut in 1988 and has since built a reputation as Australia’s master Guitarist/Composer. Trained as a classical guitarist he plays "anything with frets" - the Classical Guitar, Steel String Acoustic Guitar, Dobro Slide Guitar, Mandolin, Electric Guitar and, Synthesiser Guitar.
From 1979 to 1996 he lived and worked in Sydney as a performer and composer and in 1997 took a sabbatical in Los Angeles where he worked on developing a more personal compositional style. At the end of 1997 he moved to the UK and is now based in West London.
Discography
- THE REVEALING – Original compositions with the English Chamber Orchestra and the Modern Guitar Trio - NewClassical
- ONE – Contemporary Compositions for Classical Guitar – Resonator Records
- KING BISCUIT – MONKEYS TO REMBRANDT – HomeFront Productions
- PPF – EP – with Mike Lindup (Level 42) - HomeFront Productions
- BLUE HEALERS – with Graham Pike - HomeFront Productions
- SIZE OF THE EARTH FOR COMPARISON– Music improvised and experilmentalised – Resonator Records.
Guest Appearances
- TRAVELLING LIGHT – Lesley Garret with Sir George Martin, Michele Legrand, Evelyn Glenny - EMI
- CONVERSATIONS WITH SILENCE – Mike Lindup’s solo piano album – co-producer and arranger – Naim Records
- SAURANG ORCHESTRA – Surinder Sandhu with Steve Vai, Andy Sheppard and the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra – Resonator Records
Forthcoming Releases
- NATIVE TUNG – with Barriemore Barlow (Jethro Tull)
- THE MODERN GUITAR TRIO - Resonator Records
Performance Hightlights
- Sydney Opera House - Debut ('88).
- Italian Tours ('89, '90).
- Australia's representative at Festival Cervantino in Mexico ('89).
- Mike Lindup - Level 42.
- Barriemore Barlow - Jethro Tull.
- Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
- English Chamber Orchestra.
- Britten Sinfonia.
- Boston Symphony Orchestra.
- Australian Invasion with Tommy Emmanuel.
Current Performance Projects
- Native Tung - Roland's blues band teams our "anything with frets" man with Barriemore Barlow on drums and Phil Saatchi on Bass.
- Modern Guitar Trio - This is a ground breaking Contemporary Guitar Trio with Roland Gallery and Vincent Lindsey-Clark.
- The Blue Healers - This is Roland's blues duo with dynamite Harmonica player Graham Pike.
Reviews
In a perfect world, I would be writing individual reviews such as this for each of the compositions on this disc. I have spent countless hours listening, learning, performing, and teaching the music of contemporary greats such as Brouwer, Domeniconi, and Dyens; and to this list I will now add Roland Chadwick. Bluntly, his music is nothing short of genius. The works that Chadwick selected for this recording cover a cross section of his oeuvre, showcasing his awesome versatility as a composer. The pieces range from a single movement gem to cohesive larger scale compositions. Each work is a delicate balance of melodic content, harmonic effect, overall form, and extended guitar techniques. In "Song and Dance No.1" and in "Song and Dance No.2" Chadwick creates evocative soundscapes that possess enormous potential for growth. He often times closes major works with passages that include both plucked pitches as well as strumming, and not once does this pairing come across as forced or ineffective, which is often the case with other composers. Separating these two pieces on the disc both physically and compositionally is "Dances for Winter Oakwood". This five movement work harkens back to baroque compositions with its careful polyphony and stable, peaceful rhythms. This is all complimented by Chadwick's excellent guitar playing, which is at the same time warm and expressive, while being clean and controlled. Feeling that a review of this scope simply does not do justice to this disc, I will leave you with my greatest praise: Chadwick's sheet music is also available at www.sibeliusmusic.com , and as his CD takes an honoured place in my collection, his works will soon too take an honoured place in my personal repertoire.
Timothy Smith, http://www.minor7th.com/
Roland Chadwick is a genius.
… With a typically Australian disregard for convention or stuffiness Chadwick is a composer/performer for classical guitar (and dobro, and slide, and mandolin etc) who blends influences from jazz, blues and Latin styles, and seems able to move in any musical genre at will (witness his full on version of ‘Watchtower’, or the Zeppelin classic, Bron-y-aur stomp).
… Even more fabulous are his own compositions, particularly the beautiful ‘Taormina’, and ‘Commuter Cowboys’ from the stunning album ‘The Revealing’. Watching a man with this level of talent is fascinating. There comes a point where the man and his music are indivisible. Possibly what’s really meant by a ‘consummate performer’. Roland Chadwick is that consummate performer and thrilling to watch and hear.
… He probably also has the distinction of being the only performer to play the half way who people will still be talking about in a hundred years.
Martin Snell – Ryans Gig Guide
" Although Steve Vai is great, Roland Chadwick's acoustic solo on 'Children of the Sand' is exquisite."
Guitar Techniques - June 2003
Roland Chadwick is the 'New Acoustic' Star of the acoustic guitar. Not many musicians know their instrument as well as Roland - the acoustic guitar in his hands becomes a cathedral of sound and if you want to find out what that means then catch his next gig wherever and whenever it might be - he is truly a musicians musician but by the same token wholly accessible to the untrained ear - if you love music -any kind of music, you will love Roland Chadwick...
Steve Ball - Jazz Explorium - Feb 04
Verve and the gleeful release of unexpected effects rippled through pieces that ranged from sweet melodies to the full gusto summoned by a world-class guitarist eager to take musical risks.
DA – Blackmore Vale Magazine 2/7/04
Compostions
Many of Roland’s compositions are available at www.sibeliusmusic.com. Roland’s Home Page at Sibelius is at http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/user_page.pl?url=rolandchadwick.
email: roland@rolandchadwick.com
Contact Roland Chadwick
| Julia Hickman PR | |
| tel: | 020 8374 6903 |
| email: | Julia.E.Hickman@ukgateway.net |
| Roland Chadwick | |
| email: | roland@rolandchadwick.com |
| web: |
http://www.rolandchadwick.com/home.asp Modern Guitar Trio Blue Healers |
Audio Clips
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From CD 'Size of the Earth for Comparison'
10 years in the making, Size of the Earth for Comparison is Roland Chadwick’s World/Jazz masterpiece of “music improvised and experi-mentalised”. This set of 12 original compositions bounce of all sides of the musical universe. Amrit Sond and Arun Gosh guest and the recording was mixed by the legendary Julian Mendelsohn.
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