Judith Clingan - a short history in pictures
Judith (Judy) Clingan, born Sydney 1945, is a multi-facetted Australian artist: musician, visual artist, writer, director, educator. She is best known as a musician.
1971
discussing composition with Larry Sitsky
1966
Graduation from ANU in French and Early English (also visible are Prime Minister Robert Menzies and H.G. Coombs, as well as Prof. Hans Kuhn)
1972
learning to conduct Donald Hollier's opera In Dulci Jubilo
1980
Receiving Social Services Award for Services to Children, presented by Margaret Whitlam
1976
Conducting Canberra Children's Choir SSA at first National Choral Festival in Hobart
1985
teaching Kodály musicianship to
Gaudeamus young children
1985
playing bassoon with Gaudeamus
Early Music Group
1986
being invested as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) by Her Majesty the Queen
1987
with bass crumhorn, on tour with
Gaudeaumus Adult Early Music Group
1987
with the Gaudeamus cast of my musical version
of Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood
(performed with my musical and stage direction)
1987
backstage at the ANU Arts Centre
during Paul Thom's of production Handel's Joshua
(the most experienced Gaudeamus singers formed
one of the choruses)
1988
explaining Nganbra, music theatre looking at the coming of English settlers to the Canberra region
1990
conducting David Fanshawe's African Sanctus
1989
Creative Arts Fellow at the ANU - painting the set for Terra Beata - Terra Infirma
1990
Gaudeamus Early Music Group preparing for tour of Finland (ISME conference)
2000
conducting combined Wayfarers Choir
in Italy
2002
Wayfarers performing in the National Museum
2004
with A Chorus of Women in Parliament House - gagging in response to censorship
2006
Judy singing soprano solo in
Wayfarer's Messiah
2008
2010
2013
Performing with A Chorus of Women during the
So Good A Thing Festival, in the Albert Hall
2013
at the So Good A thing Festival in Albert Hall, conducting the finale of Donald Hollier's opera In Dulci Jubilo with the audience
2016
Conducting in China
2014
painting backdrop for Judy's opera Marco in Taiwan
2017
discussing the program during
Canberra Children's Choir's 50th Anniversary
2019
speaking about the beginnings of the Summer Music Schools for Children
at the Young Music Society's 50th anniversary gala afternoon at the Albert Hall
MUSICIAN
Composer
A self-taught composer from childhood, Judith studied with Larry Sitsky at the Canberra School of Music in 1971, and also worked with mentor Donald Hollier (Canberra School of Music). A fully represented composer with the Australian Music Centre since 1986, she has received many commissions, fellowships and awards, many funded by the Australia Council. Her compositions are most often for voices: choral songs, SSA and SATB, song cycles, operas, cantatas, masses, ballet, film music and music theatre. She has also written for recorder ensemble and other chamber instrumental combinations. Besides music for performance, Judith has written many songs for use in schools - some are published in Songs of the Tree of Life, volumes 1 and 2. Details of major compositions can be found in musical life.
Conductor
Judith studied choral conducting with Donald Hollier and Hans Günther Mommer in Canberra and with Péter Erdei in Hungary. She has conducted many of the European choral masterpieces, as well as all of her own compositions and new works she commissioned from other Australian composers. She has been the Musical Director / Conductor of SCUNA (ANU Choral Soceity), Canberra Children's Choir, Tasmania University Choral Society, Sundry Singers Hobart, National Choral Festival Youth Chorus, Combined Youth Choirs of Canberra, Gaudeamus, Lady's Mantle, Voicebox Youth Opera South Australia and Canberra, Wayfarers Australia (aka Waldorf Wayfarers), the Variables (Canberra), Canberra Choral Society, Cyrenes Women's Choir, Gay and Lesbian Choir Canberra, and Oriana Chorale Canberra. She has shared these positions with the Canberra Recorder and Early Music Society (CREMS) and A Chorus of Women.
Singer
Judith studied voice from the age of 18 with Pat Davey, Eleanor Houston, William Herbert (Canberra School of Music), and Lois Bogg in Canberra, and with Boldizsar Keönch in Hungary. She has sung Lieder and solos in medieval and renaissance repertoire and many contemporary works in Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Adelaide, and worldwide.
Wind Player
Judith played recorder (both C and F fingerings) from childhood, taught by her father (Victor Clingan had been a professional clarinettist and saxophonist). Subsequently she studied from time to time with Hans-Dieter Michatz. She has performed many baroque sonatas as well as performing in early music ensembles and contemporary compositions. Judith took up the bassoon in 1968, studying with Martin Woolley and Ric McIntyre at the Canberra School of Music, and played in the Canberra Youth Orchestra, the Boccherini Orchestra at the ANU, and the Tasmanian University Players.
Early Music
Judith has been fortunate throughout her life to be directed by some of Australia's leading early music exponents, particularly Winsome Evans. Besides using her voice and recorder skills in early music, Judith has also performed on dulcimers, psaltery, handbells, crumhorns and gemshorns.
Music Educator
Judith has taught music privately since she was a university student: recorder, musicianship, voice and composition. She has also taught classroom music in many schools, both primary and secondary. From 1981-1982 she studied music education at the Kodály Institute in Hungary, gaining a Diploma of Music Education with distinctions in solfège and chamber music performance. Since 1991 Judith has been teaching music to students, teachers, parents and trainee teachers in Steiner / Waldorf schools and teacher training institutions in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, UK and Asia.
VISUAL ARTIST
Throughout Judith's school years she was constantly drawing and painting, and wanted to be an artist. But life turned out differently - and once music was a daily part of Judith's life, her visual art practice waned. But she still yearned to study art: she studied part-time at the Canberra School of Art in 1970-71, full-time at the Hobart College of Advanced Education in 1972, part-time again at the Canberra School of Art 2006-08 and full-time at the ANU School of Art, Canberra 2010-11, majoring in painting.
Judith made a living from drawing and painting portraits in the 1970s and 1980s; she has illustrated several books, notably using scraperboard; using watercolour, she has designed covers for records, cassettes and CDs, and posters and program covers for performances, as well as designing costumes, props and sets. She has taught art in schools and community workshops.
WRITER
Judith has written many poems and libretti for her own songs and larger musical works, receiving Australia Council Literature Board funding for several. Across the decades, she has written more than 100 scripts for Imagine Music Theatre workshops for children and young people, as well as for her other community groups, and schools, which have been performed around the world.
DIRECTOR
Through her performances in many operas, directed by innovative Australian practitioners, Judith gained the impetus to direct her own productions. She studied drama and set design in Canberra, at NIDA and in the UK. She has been the stage director as well as the musical director for many operas and music theatre works which have toured Australia and overseas.
EDUCATOR
Basically, Judith loves teaching anything she loves to anyone who loves learning. She has taught music to all ages from three years to the elderly; all stages from total beginner to tertiary level composition and music education, as well as working with people with varying abilities. Through Wayfarers Australia tours and her Imagine Music Theatre workshops every school holidays in Canberra, she has encouraged children from six years up to explore singing, instrumental work, composition, acting, direction, creative writing, lighting, set design and visual art. And often young people who have enjoyed these processes as children have stayed with her and become her assistant teachers.
AWARDS AND OTHER RECOGNITION
1967 Songs of Middle Earth played on ABC
1971 Invited by Olivier Messiaen to study composition with him in Paris (travel funds unavailable)
1974 Invited by Musica Viva to form and direct a small professional vocal ensemble to tour Australia (motherhood intervened)
1980 Social Services Award for services to children in Canberra
1981 Hungarian Government scholarship
1981 ACT Arts Bureau Travel Grant
1984 Retrospective Australia Council Grant for composition of Modal Magic
1985 Arts ACT commission for Rime of the Ancient Mariner
1986 Kodály Institute Sydney commission for opera Francis
1986 made member of the Order of Australia (AM)
1987 invited by New Zealand Society of Music Education to tour her compositions around schools of New Zealand
1988 Bicentennial funding for Nganbra
1988 ABC gifted studio recording of Nganbra
1989 ANU Creative Arts Fellow (Terra Beata - Terra Infirma)
1990 invited to perform Kakadu at the International Society for Music Education conference in Helsinki
1991 Australia Council Composition Fellowship
1991 inaugural Canberra Times Artist of the Year
1991 Sounds Australian award for Kakadu
1991 Invited to perform with Gaudeamus at Come Out Festival, Adelaide
1992 Australia Council funding for Mythical Beasts
1993 Commissioned by Orana School, funded by Australia council, to write Songs of the Tree of Life
1994 Carclew South Australia funding for opera Marco performance
1996 Adelaide Fringe Festival funding for touring Williamson’s opera The Happy Prince
1997 artsACT commission for Vociebox Youth Opera The Magician's Nephew
1997 Women Composers Festival Sydney commissions
1999 Churchill Fellowship to study music theatre in UK and Europe
1999 CAPO funding to make CD Choralations
2000 artsACT Creative Artists Fellowship
2001-03 Gavemer Foundation funding for vocal improvisation performances
2004 Artist in Residence, Archaeomythology conference, Sofia, Bulgaria
2006 ACT finalist ABC Choir of the Year competition (with Wayfarers Australia)
2009 nominated as ACT finalist for Senior Australian of the Year
2014 Art Music State Award for Excellence by an Individual