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Mirrie Hill was a pianist, teacher, music examiner and composer who was born into a musical family in Sydney. She had early piano tuition with an aunt and then was a piano student of Josef Kretschmann, while at the same time studying theory with Ernest Truman, the Sydney city organist. Mirrie said of the early compositional attempts: “…... a friend of mine, Isabel Varney composed. And I thought if she could do it I could too.”
When Mirrie reached her twenty-fourth year she decided to study overseas in Leipzig, Germany. Unfortunately, the First World War intervened and Mirrie was forced to remain in Australia. However, on March 6th, 1916, the NSW Conservatorium of Music opened its doors to students and the 26-year-old Mirrie Solomon was one of the first to enrol. She attended classes in composition, chamber music and interpretation of piano music, and later became a teacher of those subjects in a position she held as Assistant Professor for 26 years from 1918 until 1944.
In 1921 Mirrie Solomon married her mentor Alfred Hill and the fact that she became the wife of a celebrated, divorced man who was (in her eyes at least) seen as the greater composer dictated how she viewed herself and probably how others viewed her for the remainder of her life. Most of her compositions, reputedly some 540, were written for the piano and she was later employed as an examiner for the Australian Music Examinations Board.
Very sadly most of Mirrie Hill’s wonderful piano compositions had never been published and her other works have never been performed. In this presentation I will play those forgotten compositions and show the diversity and skill of this amazing composer.
*This event is a reschedule from 9 May 2024.
Dr Jeanell Carrigan AM Biography
Dr Jeanell Carrigan AM is an Associate Professor in Collaborative Piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney. She has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and collaborative artist in Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and throughout Australia, and has recorded for the Bavarian Radio Corporation, the ABC, and for regional stations in Australia on many occasions. She holds a Doctor of Creative Arts exploring Australian post-1970 solo piano repertoire, and in July 2023 released her thirty-fourth compact disc of Australian piano and chamber music. Carrigan has experience at all levels of teaching and specialises in coaching chamber music and instrumental, vocal, and piano collaboration. She is passionate about promoting Australian Music and has published widely on Australian solo piano repertoire and, more recently, the piano music composed by early 20th Century Australian women composers. Carrigan has recently recorded almost the entire collection of compositions by Dutch-born Australian composer Meta Overman, including two of her operas, Grotesque and Psyche, all the piano music, twelve chamber music works and songs for voice and piano. In 2019 Carrigan was awarded an Order of Australia Medal (AM) for “For significant service to music education, particularly piano, and to the performing arts.”
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