John Rodgers
John Rodgers is a musician, a composer, a creator of shows, and a producer.
He has recently been touring Australia with Kate Miller-Heidke. Early in 2013, he presented Life and Music, a series of concert/interviews with renowned musicians including Kate Miller-Heidke, Genevieve Lacey, and William Barton. Recent creative projects include Ngangwurra means Heart for the Black Arm Band, Mother Courage and her Children for the QTC, Hipbone Sticking Out for Big hART, The Shadow King for the Malthouse, Hear me, and remember for didgeridus, cellos, guitar, and voice, for the Four Winds Festival, Little Birung with singer/performer Megan Sarmardin, Where the Heart Is with choreographer Natalie Wier (for which he was nominated for a Helpmann Award), Glass for improvising trumpeter Scott Tinkler and the London Sinfonietta, music for Sue Rider’s The Pink Twins, The Dream Catchers, Tulp: the body public (a multimedia meditation) and a suite for recorder based on Australian bird song for Genevieve Lacey.
He has created works for many Australian festivals and companies including Inferno, two shows in Mt Isa featuring dancing bobcats, The Mizler Society (featuring a lego-mindstorms robotic duck) with Anthony Burr, and The Sunshine Club, a swing musical about post World War Two efforts at reconciliation, the music for a 2009 Broadway production of Exit the King starring Geoffrey Rush and Susan Sarandon, and he was the primary creator for the cult band Madame Bones Brothel. John’s Garden of Deep Despair was commissioned and toured by the Australian Chamber Orchestra. He was musical director on Zen Zen Zo’s Cabaret at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, musical creator and player on the QTC’s Elizabeth: Almost by chance a Woman, and performed in Annie Lee’s Dangling my Tootsies at the Powerhouse. He was musical consultant on Neil Armfield’s film Candy starring Heath Ledger.
He is currently writing about JS Bach’s notorious eldest son Friedemann, and working on a film project 8000 Balustrades with Linda Neil and Randall Wood, and Madame Carandini’s Musical Curiosity Show with Sandro Colarelli. His violin album A Rose is a Rose… is available on Extreme and his flamenco album The Uncaring Wind was released in 2011 along with the album of Little Birung. The album of Where the Heart is was released in 2012. His playing and works have appeared on numerous other recordings.
For more information about John’s work, please see his website:http://johnrodgers.com.au