Marshall McGuire
Marshall McGuire (born 1965) is an Australian harpist, teacher, conductor and musical administrator. Early life and education McGuire was born in Melbourne in 1965. His interest in the harp was sparked when he saw Harpo Marx playing the instrument in the film A Night at the Opera. He was taught by Huw Jones, harpist with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He studied at VCASS, the Victorian College of the Arts, in Paris with Marie-Claire Jamet and the Royal College of Music, London. Career From 1988 to 1992, he was principal harpist with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra. He has been a member of the ELISION Ensemble since 1988 and was lecturer in Harp at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He has performed as soloist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, English String Orchestra, Les Talens Lyriques, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and the Australia Ensemble and has appeared at international festivals including Aldeburgh, Melbourne, Milan, Geneva, Brighton, Vienna, Huddersfield, Huntington, and Adelaide. He has commissioned and premiered more than 100 new works for harp, this achievement was recognised by the 1997 Sounds Australian Award for the Most Distinguished Contribution to the Presentation of Australian Music. His commissions include composers such as Michael Finnissy, Elena Kats-Chernin, Andrew Ford, Gerard Brophy, David Chesworth, Damien Ricketson, Matthew Shlomowitz and Matthew Hindson. Performances and recordings First performances by McGuire include works by Ross Edwards, Anne Boyd, Barry Conyngham, Alessandro Solbiati and Liza Lim. Many composers have sought his guidance in their writing for the harp. He writes: "Composers are always seeking information from harpists about what can and can't be done when writing for harp. While we should always be flattered when approached by a composer, we should also be aware of the boundaries that we set, so that we don't end up with unplayable music – I'd probably have said 'No' to both Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. Mostly, less is more..." McGuire has released numerous recordings and has received four ARIA Music Award nominations, winning the award for Best Classical Album for Bower (with Genevieve Lacey). Artists with whom he has worked and recorded include Riley Lee (shakuhachi); Patricia Pollett (viola); and Jane Edwards and Merlyn Quaife (sopranos). In 2011 he recorded Eugene Goossens' Concerto Piece for oboe and two harps with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, for Chandos. In 1998, with Lyle Chan, he co-created A Tale of Two Cities, a radio feature broadcast on ABC Classic FM, which was a monologue based on the lives of such gay composers as Ned Rorem, Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber, Virgil Thomson, Aaron Copland, Paul Bowles, Francis Poulenc, Stanley Bate and Reynaldo Hahn. He made his conducting debut in performances of Mozart's The Magic Flute with Pacific Opera in 1999. From 1996 to 2000 he created a series of chamber music concerts for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival, the first of their type in the world. From 1999 to 2001 he was curator of the Twilight Chamber