The Firm is an Adelaide-based organisation that promotes the performance of new solo and chamber works, particularly those of South Australian composers.
Biography[]
The Firm's annual concert seasons are conceived, programmed, curated and directed by composers Quentin Grant and Raymond Chapman Smith. Their approach to music presentation invites audiences to engage with newly written - 21st Century - art music that embraces a poetic, romantic aesthetic, alongside works from the repertoire of the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries.
History[]
The Firm was formed in 1996 through the collaboration of composers Raymond Chapman Smith, Quentin Grant, David Kotlowy and John Polglase. Known then as Chapman Smith, Kotlowy, Polglase & Grant, the long, corporate-sounding list of surnames quickly earned the organisation the affectionate nickname of ’The Firm’. In 2005, Raymond Chapman Smith and Quentin Grant took on the management and core composing activities for the organisation.
Ensembles[]
The Firm have created their own ensembles to perform in the concert series - the Langbein String Quartet, the Settembrini Piano Trio and the vocal quartet Ensemble Iona.
The Langbein String Quartet was established in recognition of the late Brenton Langbein, violinist of international repute, friend and mentor to many South Australian composers and musicians, and a composer whose works are just beginning to be appreciated. The establishment of this ensemble is also an acknowledgement of the leading players from the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra with whom the Firm has been privileged to work.
Musicians and established ensembles regularly performing for the Firm include the Robert Walser Ensemble, Eve Vocal Trio, Seraphim Piano Trio, the Zephyr Quartet; pianists Leigh Harrold, Jamie Cock, Marianna Grynchuk and Anna Goldsworthy; sopranos Emma Horwood and Greta Bradman; tenor Robert Macfarlane; violinists Nicholas Milton, Michael Milton and Hilary Bruer; violist Rosi McGowran and cellist David Sharp.