Professional Biography
His music has been performed in America, Australia, UK, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Malta, Mexico, Italy and Uganda. Jes' audiences have included Princesses, Presidents, Prime Ministers and Diplomats in venues including The Melbourne Town Hall; The Picture Gallery, London;
The National Museum of Kenya; The President's Palace, Malta; The High Court of Australia, Canberra and Carnegie Hall, New York.
Major commissions and performances include CHOGM (Uganda 2007 and Malta 2005) representing Malta as part of the Commonwealth Resounds! Festival and Commonwealth Peoples Forum. His music also opened the National Multicultural Festival (2007), Canberra which is Australia's largest annual cultural festival. Opening nights have also included the inaugural annual Maltese Australian Cultural Week (2004) where his piano toccata and presentation of contemporary Australian music wowed audiences and premiered this genre to Maltese audiences. Commemorations include Nairobi Orchestra's 60th Anniversary (2008) where Jes' composition was specially commissioned for the programme. Similarly Jes' orchestral music brought together the Maltese Diaspora of Australia by combining traditional instruments of both islands for Malta's 40th Anniversary of Independence (2004) which was graced by HRH Princess Anne and the President of Malta. Notably, both orchestral works marked him as the first composer to receive a commission from the National Orchestra of Malta and the Nairobi Orchestra. Innovately he has also contributed to the appreciation and development of Sacred Music composing a modern concert mass for two soloists and ensemble (2005) which centred on St Paul's conversion to Christianity.
Jes collaborations span burgeoning artists to world class performers including Baroque Flute player Horacio Franco, Trombonist Barrie Webb, Concert Pianist Michael Kieran Harvey, Harpists Marshall McGuire and Cecilia Sultana De Maria, Saxophonist Grant Chamberlain, Percussionist Peter Neville, Guitarists Simon Schembri and John Couch, Malic Symen Recorder Quartet (Netherlands),
Silo String Quartet (Australia) and Conductors Marco Zuccharini and Michael Laus.
Publication of Grixti’s music includes the MPS (UK) and MCL (Australia) label.
...he is a composer of unique gifts who has already written music of great distinction...
The Sunday Times, March 18 2007
The Sunday Times, March 18 2007
...from my diary
Adagio da concerto for recorder, string orchestra and percussion. A commission received from Recorder player and conductor Horacio Franco, to celebrate Mexico Bicentennial Anniversary of Independence and Centenary of the Revolution, 2010
Professional Affiliations
- Australian Guild of Screen Composers
- Australasian Performing Right Association
- Australian Music Centre
- Fellowships of Australian Composers
- International Music Council
- Melbourne Composers' League
Biography provided by the composer and current to 2010
The stand-out work was Jes Grixti's...
The Melbourne Age April 20, 2004
In a Nutshell
Jes Grixti as a recipient of The Jandtha Stubbs Trust earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and Master of Music (MMus) degrees in composition from the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Jes Grixti as a recipient of The Jandtha Stubbs Trust earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and Master of Music (MMus) degrees in composition from the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Undergraduate study comprised a Bachelor of Music First Class with Honours (BMusHons) in Composition and Theory from the London College of Music,University of West London, [previously known as Thames Valley University], UK; diplomas and certificates from UK (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, London College of Music); and Italy (Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena; Civica Scuola di Musica, Milano; Accademia Internazionale Superiore di Musica, Biella; Conservatorio di Musica Giuseppe Verdi, Milano) through the support of an Italian Government Scholarship.
Jes' composition teachers have included Carmelo Pace (Malta), Michael Regan (UK), Franco Donatoni (Italy), and Brenton Broadstock (Australia) www.brentonbroadstock.com.
Jes read musicology with Michael Christoforidis (Australia) and conducting with Emilio Pomarico (Italy).
Jes participated in composition workshops with Simon Holt and the Endymion Ensemble at Royal Holloway, University of London (2004) and with the Universities of Malta and Melbourne.
Photograph by Angela Hopkins Grixti
Copyright 2006
IL Divertimento from 3 Bagatelles for Guitar performed by John Couch
As a visiting scholar (2007) he worked with Don Freund at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University USA, addressing seminars at this institution and the University of Louisville. Jes was also invited to Yale University to attend a composition seminar hosted by Prof Martin Bresnick. Jes has been selected as one of the composers-in-residence for 2009 at Visby International Centre for Composers, Sweden.
Appointments include The University of Melbourne where he taught Orchestration and Twentieth Century music techniques; Canberra Grammar School as Composer-in-residence, lecturer at the United States International University (USIU), Nairobi, Kenya, and External examiner for Makumira University College, Tanzania.
Jes' other interests include scoring for film music and multimedia, (recipient of the Billy Joel award in screen compostion for his outstanding talent, New York, USA) music theory, sacred music, indigenous music and performance.
