Biography

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PAUL JARMAN BIO 2023 170 words

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Paul Jarman is a composer, lyricist, performer, musical director, and sought-after conductor, presenter, and adjudicator. He has been commissioned over two hundred times by ensembles in Australia and abroad including Gondwana Choirs, Voices of Birralee, Hunter Singers, Young Adelaide Voices, Melbourne Singers of Gospel, The Song Company, Festival of Voices, The Western Australia Massed Choir Festival, The Arts Unit NSW, New England Sings, The South Australian Primary Schools Festival of Music, and The Beat Festival. Many of Paul’s works have become modern choral standards. His choral music is published worldwide.

As a cultural ambassador he has worked extensively throughout Australia, Europe, Asia, North America, the Indian and Pacific Ocean, in over forty countries, in festivals and special events with theatre productions, Aboriginal-Anglo Celtic performance groups, choirs and orchestras, and as a multi-instrumentalist in Australia’s pioneering ‘world music’ ensemble Sirocco, since 1996, representing Australia in Pakistan, India, Taiwan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam, Singapore and the Philippines for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Musica Viva. He has also performed on various Australian movies and television series and composed the music to Mike Dillon’s award-winning adventure documentary films including ‘Ocean to Sky’, a film to honour the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Sir Edmund Hillary.

Paul has composed various choral works for the Rafiki Youth Choir Canada, Dulwich College International China, and the Boston City Singers USA who commissioned Paul in 2008 to compose a work to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jnr. In 2010 this piece was performed for President Barack Obama in the White House. Paul has also written and performed music for various historical events including the Canonization of Mary Mackillop, the Sesquicentenary of Hobart Town Hall, the Centenary of Coffs Harbour, the Sesquicentenary of the Tasmanian Education System, and commemorations on the Western Front, including the D-Day 60th Anniversary in Normandy and the Centenary of the Battle of Fromelles. He is known for writing music about important people and places including Malala Yousafzai, Pemulwuy, Shackleton, Terry Fox, Helen Keller, Jessica Watson, Aung San Suu Kyi and the Wild Boar soccer team cave rescue. Paul was the only composer from the Southern Hemisphere among a group of some of todays most accomplished choral composers, commissioned by Oxford University Press to write a piece for the 400th Anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare.

Paul has composed and conducted the music for Australian special events including the Centenary of Federations, the Bicentenary of the Battle of Vinegar Hill, Year of the Outback, The Olympic Arts Festival, The Rugby World Cup Opening Ceremony, United Nations Year of the Mountain, The Queensland 150th and the Australia Day Spectacular. Paul was the Musical Director for the Deadly Awards in 2004, working with leading Indigenous Artists including Jimmy Little, the Stiff Gins and Troy Cassar-Daley at the Sydney Opera House. In 2005 Paul wrote and performed the music for William Yang’s ‘Objects for Meditation’ which toured arts festivals in Europe, Asia and Reunion Island.

Paul has also composed over one hundred school anthems and is continually active in the development and promotion of choirs and music institutions across Australia and Asia. He has been the artist in residence at many of Australia’s leading schools including Sydney Grammar, Tintern Grammar, International Grammar, The King’s School, Caulfield Grammar, Geelong Grammar, Newcastle Grammar, Somerville House, Moriah War Memorial College, and PLC where he was composer in residence from 2009 – 2019. Paul is the patron of the Orange Male Voice Choir.