Jodie Blackshaw

Jodi Blackshaw

Biography

Jodie Blackshaw (b. 1971, Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia) is an Australian composer and conductor.

After completing her Bachelor of Music in Composition with Larry Sitsky at the Australian National University, Blackshaw ventured back into the country to provide music opportunities for young students in remote communities. She is currently studying a Doctorate in Musical Arts (Composition) degree at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She is a free spirit, an experienced ensemble director, classroom music teacher, and Orff-Schulwerk practitioner. The nexus of these features has created what she calls ‘Classtrumental Music’. As the name suggests, Classtrumental Music is the fusion of classroom and instrumental music. Put simply, students learn about a piece of instrumental music in an active, creative classroom setting without their instrument before they prepare and perform it with an ensemble.

Blackshaw has been working for years to strike the right balance between each of these worlds, and in 2013 launched the world’s first project piece Belah Sun Woman with GIA Music Publications. In five movements, Belah Sun Woman traces an educational pathway for instrumental students from beginning stages to approximately grade 2 band. The resource provides 30+ lesson plans that are dovetailed with an instructional DVD and an abundance of teaching accessories. Together this package succinctly presents an achievable Classtrumental Music teaching and learning experience for any school band program.

In both 2012 and 2014 Jodie presented her ideas and compositions at the acclaimed Midwest Clinic in Chicago, Ill., and in spring 2015 spent five weeks touring Canada and upper New York State to present her teaching approach to school groups, university students and conference attendees.

Having won the inaugural Frank Ticheli Composition Contest in 2006 with Whirlwind, Blackshaw has since gone on to publish a further five works. Jodie’s work Letter from Sado was commissioned in 2014 for the prestigious BandQuest series hosted by the ACF; she is proud to be the first composer outside of North America to be invited to make such a contribution.

Works for Winds

Adaptable Music

• Earthshine (gr. II) (Flex instrumentation) (2014)
• 13 Moons (Flex instrumentation) (2017)

All Wind Works

• Belah Sun Woman (2014)
• The Blessing of Light (2019)
• The Creation of Faith. See: Symphony No. I
• Devotion (2019)
• Earthshine (Flex instrumentation) (2014)
• Into the Sun (2017)
• Letter from Sado (2014)
• Majesty. See: Salon Morisot
• Peace Dancer (2017)
• Salon Morisot (2019)
  • Majesty (2019)
  • Devotion (2019)
  • Enchantment (2019)
• Soulström (2010/2019)
• Symphony No. I (2019)
  • The Creation of Faith (2019)
• Terpsichorean Dances (2009)
• 13 Moons (Flex instrumentation) (2017)
• Twist (2013)
• Vulnerable Joy (2022)
• Whirlwind (2006)

Resources

• Blackshaw, Jodie. '"The Repertoire (R)evolution." The Horizon Leans Forward…, edited by Erik Kar June Leung, GIA, 2020, 185-226.
• Hand, Caroline. "Letter from Sado." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 11, Compiled and edited by Richard Miles, 232-240. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2018.
• Hand, Caroline. "Peace Dancer." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 12, Compiled and edited by Andrew Trachsel, 588-597. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2021.
• The Horizon Leans Forward..., compiled and edited by Erik Kar Jun Leung, GIA Publications, 2021, p. 266.
• Jodie Blackshaw website Accessed 1 January 2021