William Barton

At barely 21 years of age, William Barton is well on his way towards being recognised as Australia's leading player of the didjeridu and a pioneer in the wider perception of his cultural traditions. Born in Mount Isa in June 1981, William Barton grew up in a family where many forms of indigenous music were prevalent. From his eighth birthday, he was taught the didjeridu by his uncle, an elder from the Waanyi tribe of NW Queensland. His mother is an accomplished singer and both his father and elder brother were fine amateur guitarists. At the age of eleven, he became the leading didjeridu player at traditional funerals and other ceremonies. Also a direct descendant from the Kalkadunga tribe of the Mt Isa region, he became involved in dance and began to instruct others in aspects of his traditional culture. Having attended a number of regional festivals and conferences, he came to see his ultimate goal as a professional musician in the world of concert music. In 1998, he moved to Brisbane and with the assistance of sponsorship from BHP-Billiton, he made his first steps into this new world of concert halls, orchestras, festivals and composers. In July 2001, he appeared at the Townsville International Festival of Chamber Music, performing in Peter Sculthorpe's From Ubirr: String Quartet No.12 with the Goldner String Quartet. This appearance launched an extraordinary association between the young man and Australia's most revered senior composer. Sculthorpe has now included didjeridu parts in several of his notable orchestral pieces. These were first presented by The Queensland Orchestra and their chief conductor Michael Christie in Brisbane in August 2002 and a month later in Tokyo. With sponsorship from the Queensland Teachers' Union Health Fund, this association led to William's designation in 2003 as TQO's first artist-in-residence, the first appointment of an indigenous musician with an Australian symphony orchestra. With Christie and TQO, William Barton will record several Sculthorpe works in September 2003. Maestro Christie has invited Barton to appear at his Summer Music Festival in Boulder, Colorado, in July 2003. Later that month, Barton will present a new composition of his own in Mackay, as part of the Queensland Biennial Festival of Music. In November, he will feature in a new Sculthorpe composition in Perth, commissioned to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the West Australian Symphony Orchestras. New works for string quartet and didjeridu are also projected in the next few years. William Barton has already appeared at most festivals in Australia, and since 1996, has amassed an impressive roster of international appearances, from Edmonton to Honolulu, from Los Angeles to Vienna, from Spain to Japan. In July 2002, he extended his range of international reference with appearances as a member of the Cathedral Band, the creation of New York-based composer William Duckworth at the inaugural Mini^Max Festival at the Brisbane Powerhouse. Playing alongside legendary trombonist and didjeridu player Stuart Dempster from Seattle, William Barton has achieved another first in Australian music, performing with some of the world's leading classical improvisers of the Internet age. Through such collaborations and projects, William Barton aims to present the virtuosic potential of his instrument and richness of his Australian culture to audiences throughout the world. He hopes they will see this music, not just as an illustration of some exotic antiquity, but as a living, dynamic process, requiring considerable technique, stamina and study, equal to that of any conventional classically trained professional musician.

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