Taran Carter
Biography
Taran Carter (b. 1980) is an Australian composer and educator.
In 2001 Carter completed a Bachelor of Music degree at the Victorian College of the Arts, returning in 2004 to complete his Honours year. He now focuses much of his energy on musical education and has subsequently had several works included on the AMEB saxophone, clarinet and guitar syllabi as well as a clarinet work on the British ABRSM syllabus. It was as a school teacher that Taran met the author Scott Hatcher with whom he has since written several musical theatre works including Sanctuary Springs, H2Oh! and Odes to the Baglady in A minor.
Carter's music has been described as having a "quasi-populist vocabulary" and a "distinctive compositional voice, precociously adept at orchestration and form". He has written music for orchestras, wind bands, an opera, several musicals, a percussion concerto, saxophone quartets, chamber works, pop songs, educational works. and in 1999 Carter was asked to write two songs to which the Australian Synchronised Swimming Team swam at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
Other highlights in Carter's career include the sold-out premiere season of his first opera, Busking Hugs, (commissioned by Opera Australia) in 2001 and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra commission and premiere of Moondani Music in 2004.
Carter's music has also been performed by groups and individuals such as Speak Percussion, EnsembleBash, Romp Duo, Questing Spirit, Locana Quartet, Peter Sheridan, Jason Xanthoudakis, Tehai, Collision Theory, Daniel Richardson and the Grainger Wind Symphony.
Works for Winds
- Nett Interference (2008)
- Black Moondani (2014)
- Somewhere Near 1770 (2004)