Jane Stanley is a UK-based, Australian-born composer specialising in chamber and orchestral music.

Jane’s music has been performed and broadcast throughout the world and featured at festivals including Tanglewood, ISCM World Music Days, Gaudeamus Music Week, Asian Composers League, Wellesley Composers Conference, and June in Buffalo. She has received commissions from Tanglewood, Musica Viva, Robert Irvine, Bernadette Harvey, Continuum Sax, Ensemble Offpsring, and Halcyon.

Her music has been recorded for release by artists internationally. Her solo ‘cello piece Winter Song features on Robert Irvine’s CD Songs and Lullabies, released by Delphian Records, and the recording of her Piano Sonata by Bernadette Harvey was launched on the Tall Poppies label early in 2018. One of her most often performed pieces Helix Reflectionfor flute and clarinet was recorded by Ensemble Offspring and appears on their Cycles and Circles album.

She received her PhD from the University of Sydney and in 2004-5 she was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University. Her teachers include Anne Boyd, Peter Sculthorpe, Ross Edwards, and Bernard Rands. Jane was a composition fellow at Tanglewood Music Center in 2008, who commissioned Palimpsest for large brass ensemble. In 2009 she was a Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and School.

In 2015 her piece Pentimenti for piano duo represented Australia at ISCM World Music Days in Wrocław, performed by the Lutoslawski Piano Duo. A highlight of 2017 was the premiere in Sydney of her Piano Sonata, commissioned by Bernadette Harvey and supported by a grant from the Australia Council for the Arts.

Her most recent pieces feature delicate ornamental textures and agile, virtuosic writing for instruments. She aims to exploit and maximise the colouristic potential of ensembles for which she composes and to construct nuanced and distinctive gestures. This can be heard most clearly in her Suite for clarinet, violin, cello and piano.

Jane is a Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Glasgow. She is founder of the Scottish Young Composers Mentoring Project, a year-long programme that provides university students with experience in mentoring secondary school-age people in composition. She is a founding member of the Young Academy of Scotland, a represented composer at the Australian Music Centre, and her music is also published by Composers Edition.

Further information about her music can be found on her personal website. 

• Embodiment
• Reserach on musical encultration
• Music education, with an emphasis on composition, ranging from early years to tertiary level
• contemporary approaches to notation
• Australian Music

List by: Type | Date

2020: australia council for the arts 

2020: ppca/australia council for the arts

2014: grant from australia council for the arts

2013: heriot watt university (with dr. emilie combet aspray)

2012: grant from the carnegie trust for the universities of scotland 

2011: scottish crucible small research grant (co-recipient with dr. lorraine kerr, centre for systems biology at edinburgh (csbe), school of biological sciences)

2011: grant from the bliss trust to support recording of new work for flute and marimba

2010: grant from the carnegie trust for the universities of scotland in support of travel to sydney to consult new music practitioners and to compose a new work for flute.

2009: grant from the carnegie trust for the universities of scotland in support of travel to aspen music festival and school.

2007: grant from the john robertson bequest to record new work for oboe and piano

2007: grant from the australia council for the arts to compose new work for percussionist claire edwardes

2005: grant from the australia council for the arts to compose st. marks inflection for saxophone quartet

2004: grant from the australia council for the arts to compose impulsion for percussion duo

2004: sydney moss scholarship (university of sydney) to travel to harvard university as a visiting fellow

2004: albert travelling scholarship (university of sydney) to travel to harvard university as a visiting fellow

2004: tempe mann travelling scholarship (australian federation of university women) to travel to harvard university as a visiting fellow

2004: grant from ars musica australis to travel to harvard university as a visiting fellow

2004: grant from the ian potter cultural trust to travel to harvard university as a visiting fellow

2003: grant from the australia council for the arts to compose spindrift/interiors for flute/alto flute, mandolin/mandola, and piano 

2003: support from the australian music center and the australia council for the arts to compose drifting tracer for orchestra

2001-4: australian postgraduate award (apa) — stipend for phd

2001: commission from symphony australia to compose splintered rose for orchestra

1999-2000: university postgraduate award (upa) — stipend for master of music

Jane welcomes applications from prospective PhD and M.Mus students specialising in Composition, including projects involving collaboration with other disciplines and non-academic partners. 

• Baird, Alan
  The components of spoken language as relates to music: Exploring phonological and linguistic features in language which can be utilised and inform my composition practice
• McKay, Aleks
  'Polar Harmony' and 'The Polar Method': A New Compositional Approach

Completed PhD and M.Mus Students:

Thomas Arthur (M.Mus Research)

Graeme Brooks (M.Mus Research)

Samuel Clark (M.Mus Research)

David Duncan  (PhD)

Euan Fulton (PhD)

Lauren Gerig (M.Phil Research)

Ronald MacNiven (M.Mus Research)

Catriona Thomas (M.Mus Research)

Musical Techniques, Foundation (level 1/2)

Composition (all levels)

Dissertation Supervision (honours)

Analysis (honours)

Composition in the Classroom (honours)

Professional & learned societies

• 2001: Represented Composer, Australian Music Centre
• 2011: Alumnus, Young Academy of Scotland of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Administration

• Head of Subject Area
• Member of University of Glasgow Senate 

Awards, prizes, recognition

• Member, Young Academy, Royal Society of Edinburgh
• Participant, Scottish Crucible, 2011
• Member, New Voices, Sound and Music 2009
• Fellow, Aspen Music Festival and School, 2009
• Fellow, Tanglewood Music Center, 2008
• Represented composer, Australian Music Center (AMC) since 2001
• Winner Open Age Composition, City of Sydney Performing Arts Challenge (awarded for the composition Firefly for solo flute) 1999-2000
• MBS Young Composer of the Year (awarded for the composition Whistling Kite on Yellow Water for flute, clarinet, violin, and cello) 1997
• Sarah Theresa Makinson Prize for Musical Composition (awarded for the composition Whistling Kite on Yellow Water for flute, clarinet, violin, and cello) 1997

Releases

• 2019    On Bright Air, recorded by Laura Chislett-Jones for a compilation of flute solo music, for ABC Classics, Australia (upcoming release)

  2017    Piano Sonata, The Sonata Project, Bernadette Harvey, Tall Poppies, Australia, TP251

  2016    Winter Song recorded by Robert Irvine on Songs and Lullabies, Delphian Records DCD34173

  2015    Helix Reflection recorded by Ensemble Offspring https://ensembleoffspring.bandcamp.com/album/cycles-and-circles

  2015    Round the Bay recorded by Halcyon on Kingfisher: songs for Halcyon, Tall Poppies, TP236

  2009    Firefly recorded by Lamorna Nightingale on Eat Chocolate and Cry: Australian Flute Music 1999-2009. Fluteworthy.

  2004    Spindrift/Interiors for recorder (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass), mandolin/mandola, and piano on Harmonia: Australian Music featuring Recorders, Sidereal Records: SRCD01

  2006    Celestial Dance for marimba and congas on Vertigo One, Duo Vertigo, Karnatic Lab: KLR 00

   

Selected List of Works