South Solitary hits the right collaborative note
Professor Mary Finsterer Photo: Dean Golja
Composing music for film is a collaborative experience, according to an internationally renowned composer and University Vice-Chancellor’s Professorial Fellow.
Professor Mary Finsterer, recognised as one of Australia’s most original orchestral composers, will speak to the collaborative nature of composing music for film at a free public lecture tonight. She will draw on her personal experience of working on historical drama South Solitary (2010), a unique Australian woman’s story set in in the wake of World War 1 on a remote lighthouse island off the coast of Tasmania.
Very much ‘a women’s film’, South Solitary was produced by a team of women in key creative roles, including production, direction, script, editing, cinematography and music.
Tonight's lecture will be followed by a screening of the film, directed by the award-winning Shirley Barrett, starring Miranda Otto, and a Q and A segment.
A Vice-Chancellor’s Professorial Fellow to the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, Professor Finsterer is helping to build of a robust musical culture at the University by mentoring students through teaching into the various streams of performance, composition and musicology.
Professor Finsterer’s work has won many international awards, including the prestigious Paul Lowin Orchestral Prize in 2009 for her work inspired by Jorge Luis Borges, In Praise of Darkness. Finsterer has also composed for many electro–acoustic events and films, including composing alongside Marco Beltrami for the blockbuster movie Die Hard 4.
The music for South Solitary has been released on the CD label, ABC Classics/Universal.
Free admission with registrations online (maximum seating 200).
Gold coin donation with all proceeds going to Catherine Booth House Women’s Crisis Services, West Melbourne.
Professor Finsterer will present Composing for the Australian Screen on Wednesday 16 October in the Campus Cinema, Building 10, Monash University’s Clayton campus from 6.45pm.
For enquires contact Therese Davis on 9905 4219 or Therese.Davis@monash.edu.