“As composer, my curiosity for the ‘novel’ has always led me on a path of discovery; seeking the unusual, and the unconventional in order to nurture not only my artistic practice but my growth as an individual – remaining always true to myself, and completely open to the possibilities.  This is what keeps me excited about music and music composition.  It is this philosophy of a total freedom to explore the actual compositional process that has led me on a path to the adoption of ‘novel’ ideas, such as the connections between mathematics, science and music...”

Andrián Pertout was born in Santiago, Chile, 17 October, 1963, and lived in Gorizia, Northern Italy for several years before finally settling in Melbourne, Australia in 1972. In 2007, he completed a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree at the University of Melbourne on Tweddle Trust, Australian Postgraduate and Melbourne Research scholarships, studying composition under the guidance of Brenton Broadstock. He is currently the Vice-President of the Melbourne Composers’ League (2021-); Member of the Executive Committee (Treasurer) of the Asian Composers’ League (2022-), Australian delegate of the Asian Composers’ League (2007-); Member of the Editorial Board, Eurasian Music Science Journal, The State Conservatory of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan (2022-); and was Honorary Fellow at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne (2008-2015), and President of the Melbourne Composers’ League (2009-2013, 2017-2021). He is also the International Coordinator of the PUENTE Festival Interoceánico, which is presented yearly in the UNESCO World Heritage City of Valparaíso by the Fundación Orquesta Marga Marga with the participation of Chilean conductor Luis José Recart and the Orquesta Marga Marga (one of the ten professional Chilean orchestras). Pertout is a freelance composer, but additionally works as composition lecturer, teacher, supervisor and examiner at various institutions at Bachelor, Masters and PhD levels. In 2019, he was Visiting Professor at Aichi Prefectural University of the Arts (Japan).

As a composer of mixed heritage (Slovenian, Indigenous ‘native’ Chilean [Inca, Aymara, Mapuche], Spanish, Basque, French, Scandinavian, North African, etc.), Pertout’s prolific output is reflected by his recent Opus No. 470 (Dance of the Neutron Stars for Alto Saxophone and Guitar, commissioned by the Japan Federation of Composers in celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Japan Federation of Composers and 50th Anniversary of the Asian Composers’ League. In 2004, L’assaut sur la raison for Symphony Orchestra, no. 386 (2003) was recognized in the US with the Louisville Orchestra Prize (the first time for a non-American in its 40-year history; awarded to film composer James Horner in 1979), and with the APRA Award for Orchestral Composition. More recently, in 2012 Luz meridional, Twenty-four Études for Pianoforte, no. 411 (2012), which was commissioned by Julian Burnside AO QC and composed for Michael Kieran Harvey as part of a 2009 State Library of Victoria Creative Fellowship was recognized with the prestigious ‘Jean Bogan Prize’. Other composition awards include the Boston Metro Opera ‘Mainstage Award’ (USA), ‘John Cage Centennial’ Wolf Museum of Music and Art Composition Prize (USA), Friends & Enemies of New Music Composition Prize (USA), International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition (Greece), Dorian Le Gallienne Composition Prize, Betty Amsden Award, Oare String Orchestra Judges’ and Audience Prize (UK), Michelle Morrow Memorial Award, and the Zavod Jazz/Classical Fusion Award.

Pertout’s music has been performed in more than fifty countries by orchestras, ensembles and performers that include the Melbourne and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, Orchestra Victoria, The Louisville Orchestra (USA), Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra (Israel), Orquestra Petrobrás Sinfônica (Brazil), Auckland Chamber Orchestra (New Zealand), Orquesta de Cámara Simón Bolívar (Venezuela), Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra (Russia), Uzbekistan National Symphony Orchestra (Uzbekistan), Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México (Mexico), Vietnam National Opera and Theatre Choir and National Symphony Orchestra (Vietnam), Sun Symphony Orchestra (Vietnam), Orquestra Cia Bachiana Brasileira (Brazil), Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico), Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Chile (Chile) Orquesta Sinfónica de Concepción and La Serena (Chile), Orquesta Marga Marga (Chile), Orquesta de Cámara de Chile and Valdivia (Chile), Arcko Symphonic Ensemble, Australian Discovery Orchestra, Logos Foundation Robot Orchestra (Belgium), University of Hong Kong Gamelan Orchestra (China), Orquesta Andina PUCV (Chile), La Chapelle Musicale de Tournai (Belgium), Oare String Orchestra (UK), Noah Getz (USA), Phyllis Chen (USA), Michael Kieran Harvey (Australia), Ónix Ensamble (Mexico), Ensamble Contemporáneo (Chile), Ensemble MD7 (Slovenia), Quinteto CEAMC (Argentina), Sonemus Ensemble (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Ensemble TIMF (Korea), Omni Ensemble (USA), and the Ensemble für Neue Musik Zürich (Switzerland).

He has received numerous commissions, including orchestral works commissioned by the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar (Venezuela), Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Chile (Chile) Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra (Russia), American Harp Society, Inc. New York, NY (USA), Swiss/Chilean conductor Rodolfo Fischer (Switzerland), and Australian barrister, human rights and refugee advocate, and author Julian Burnside AO QC. Film Music commissions include works that have been written to accompany over thirty documentary and short films, television programs, as well as commercials, computer games and stage productions. Highlights of this part of Pertout’s career include composing for documentary films such as East Meets West (1984), Ibrahim (1984), The Murray River Quest (1985), Hope Street (1987), The Australian Ballet (1990), Tunnel Vision (2016), and Danzantes (2017).

As a writer, Pertout has published over 400 articles in music publications such as Mixdown, Spanish Herald, Australian Musician, Sunday Herald Sun and classikON. His articles range from reviews of new musical technology, compact disc and book releases to interviews with prominent national and international artists, including Herbie Hancock, Steve Reich, Joe Satriani, Rick Wakeman and José Feliciano.

Extended Biography in English and Spanish

Chilean Music Lived its National Holidays in a Big Way with the National Symphony Orchestra: “...Already the opening was totally auspicious, ‘Air for Soro, for Symphony Orchestra, no. 447’ (world premiere), short but vigorous and overwhelming piece. A revisited and deconstructed cueca, by the Chilean composer Andrián Pertout (1963), a very energetic work with great orchestration, where, above all, the percussion and the strings were highlighted with much clarity. Of marked contemporary accent that nonetheless filters the sound of our traditional dance of very clear and unequivocal form. A piece of rich texture that makes us revalue the symphonic possibilities of the cueca, flying here towards classic horizons. In a certain way, it led me to evoke, for example, what the maestro Astor Piazzolla did with tango, in the sense of opening, expanding and projecting all the possibilities of a popular musical rhythm towards the learned…” José Luis Arredondo. “La música chilena vivió a lo grande sus Fiestas Patrias con la Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional.” Toda la Cultura: El blog de Tuiteros Cultura: Tuiteroscultura. 14 Sep. 2018. <https://tuiteroscultura.com/2018/09/17/la-musica-chilena-vivio-a-lo-grande-sus-fiestas-patrias-con-la-orquesta-sinfonica-nacional/>.

Entropia for Symphony Orchestra, no. 441 (2016-2017)
Performance by the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra at the 14th ‘Europe-Asia’ International Festival of New Music, 27-30 September, 2017, Kazan, Tatarstan, Russian Federation
Recorded live at Saydashev Grand Concert Hall, Kazan, Tatarstan, Russian Federation, Saturday, 30 September, 2017
Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Guerassim Voronkov



Andrián Pertout: Southern Light (A Film by Ivan Hexter)
A documentary film about Luz meridional, Twenty-four Études for Pianoforte, no. 411 (2009-2012)
Including performances as part of ‘Michael Kieran Harvey presents Andrián Pertout’s Luz meridional, Twenty-four Études for Pianoforte, no. 411 (2009-2012)’
Recorded live at the Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank, Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, 5 August, 2017



Bénédiction d’un conquérant, Symphonie de guerre for Symphony Orchestra, no. 390 (2003-2004)
Performance by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra at the 30th Asian Composers League (ACL) Festival & Conference, 14-20 October 2012, Tel Aviv, Israel
Recorded live at The Henry Crown Hall, Jerusalem Theatre, Jerusalem, Israel, 15 October, 2012
Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra conducted by Frédéric Chaslin

 

Objetos de imitación, Concertino for Pianoforte and Mixed Ensemble, no. 440 (2016)
Performance by the Orquesta de Cámara Simón Bolívar
Saturday, 22 October, 2022, Sala Simón Bolívar, Centro Nacional de Acción Social por la Música, Caracas, Venezuela
Orquesta de Cámara Simón Bolívar conducted by Alfredo Rugeles; Claudio Rubera – pianoforte



Aristotle’s Rhetoric, No. 7, Envy and Emulation, Suite for Orchestra, no. 380 (2002, Rev. 2016)
Performance by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Chile at the XVII Festival Internacional de Música Contemporánea 2017, 16-20 January, 2017
Recorded live at Teatro Universidad de Chile, Providencia, Santiago, Chile, Friday, 20 January, 2017
Orquesta Sinfónica de Chile conducted by Vicente Larrañaga



Dance of the Neutron Stars for Alto Saxophone and Guitar, no. 470 (2021)
Performance at the Asian Music Festival 2022, 28-30 March, 2022, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan
Recorded live at Muza Kawasaki Assembly Room, Muza Kawasaki Symphony Hall, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan, Tuesday, 29 March, 2022
Masanori Oishi (saxophone) and Gaku Yamada (guitar)



Angustam Amice for A Capella Choir (SSAATTBB), no. 428b (2014-2015, Rev. 2016)
Performance at The Astra Choir ‘Memories for Forgetfulness’ Concert
Recorded live at the Church of All Nations, Carlton, Melbourne, Australia, 3 December, 2017
The Astra Choir conducted by John McCaughey



TV Brasil / A Grande Música: Andrián Pertout / Programa 214
Bénédiction d’un conquérant for Symphony Orchestra, no. 390 (2004)
Recorded live at Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 27 July, 2006
Orquestra Petrobras Sinfônica conducted by Rodolfo Fischer



Riesenschritte for Alto Saxophone, Pianoforte, Contrabass, Jazz Drum Set and Tape, no. 402g (2008, Rev. 2014)
Recorded on 18 January, 2015 by Bob Dawson at Bias Studios, Washington, DC, USA
Mastered on 9 April, 2015 by Michael Costa, Melbourne, Australia
Noah Getz – alto saxophone; Jeffrey Chappell – pianoforte; Richard Barber – bass; Lee Hinkle – drums



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Dr. Andrián Pertout (Composer)
BMus (Hons) MMus PhD Melb
Email: apertout@pertout.com