“I WAS a strong drawer and painter as a child, but I chose a less familiar road with a career in music.”
These are the words of one of Australia’s leading composers, Mary Finsterer, who added that “images come when I listen to music”.
It is clearly a career decision that has proved fruitful for Dr Finsterer, who recently won Australia’s most prestigious composition award, the Paul Lowin Orchestral Prize.
But perhaps Dr Finsterer’s visually creative abilities were part of the key to her success as a composer.
The Bowral talent, who has stamped her mark as a leader in her field both in Australia and internationally, draws inspiration for her music from different sources - images, sounds, poetry and from her own “imaginary world”.
She said her most recent award winning piece, In Praise of Darkness, was inspired by the writings of Argentinian poet Jorge Luis Borges in his dealing with blindness.
Dr Finsterer said she wanted to “try and emulate in some way, the poetry, the way he used words and the wonderful way he used memory”.
“I tried to make the orchestration feel that it was transparent, that you could move through it and discover memories on your own way,” she said.
It was a method not lost on the jury for the $25,000 prize who described Dr Finsterer’s work as “a strong, imaginative and original work” where they heard a unique voice.
The jury continued that “the composer uses the orchestra individually and inspirationally, demonstrating a creative use of orchestral colour. The orchestration is subtle, with striking textures and gestures...”
As far as Dr Finsterer is concerned the jury’s comments were an acknowledgement of her work and the many months spent creating it.
She said her intentions with her compositions had always been to offer something that could evoke an image or feeling.
“Sensory perception is a complex network of messages. When we hear something it may call to mind an image, a feeling or fragrance. Then music becomes a conduit.”
“In order to be creative we need to listen,” she said.
“If one is patient and listens, then the ideas will follow - and in a very real sense we have to be happy with the form they take.
“They may not be what we expect, but if we are listening they will lead us to a place where we can develop our skills. Trust plays a big part.
“I feel it is important for everyone to have access to music - research has shown that across the board music lifts academic levels by about 20 per cent.”
Dr Finsterer’s musical links started at the age of five when she began playing the piano.
She said she grew up in a family of five children with every sibling being creative.
“My mother was incredibly supportive of us,” Dr Finsterer said. “My older brother is a musician, my old sister has recently made a career move into art history and my younger brother and sister are both actors.”
“I studied a Bachelor or Music, a Masters in Music and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in composition all at Melbourne University.
“I also studied in the Netherlands with the number one Dutch composer contemporary musician Louis Andriessen.
“In fact I have a strong connection with the Netherlands, frequently returning to the country for my work.
“In Praise of Darkness is actually a co-commission between Netherlands and Australia initiated by TURA Music in Western Australia and the Schoenberg Ensemble (Akso) in Amsterdam.”
Dr Finsterer said TURA Music was integral in the support and promotion of contemporary musicians and composers in Australia conducting many national music events and bringing international artists to the country.
But she too is an inspiration to contemporary musicians cementing her place in the industry on both a national and international scale from the late 1980s.
She received the ABC’s Albert H Maggs Awards in 1989 and the Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne’s Forum in 1991.
By 1992 she had won the Paris Rostrum Prize and “Music Lives” in Pittsburgh and in the same year she was the composer-in-residence with the Sydney Syphony Orchestra.
Dr Finsterer represented Australia in five World Music Day Festivals in Zurich in 1991, Essen in 1995, Manchester in 1998, Bucharest in 1999 and Zagreb in 2005.
She received the prestigious award to compose for Ensemble Intercontemporain and IRCAM in 2001.
Other performances of her work have taken place throughout Europe, Canada, United States of America and Australia by leading ensembles including the Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland, Tasmanian and West Australian Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Het Trio, Ensemble Modern, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble Schoenberg Ensemble and more.
Dr Finsterer’s achievements in the industry have grown out of a great passion for her work.
She said there was “something about music that makes me want to understand it at a much deeper level”.
“Composition possibilities are endless and the best work comes from a combination of applying principles and intuition,” she said.
“Listening is an essential component as a composer - the ability to listen gives direction.”
Dr Finsterer is currently composing a film score for a new Australian feature film written and directed by Shirley Barrett, as well as a music theatre work based on the life of Rennaissance figure Gerolamo Cardano.
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