About RHAPSODY IN MOTION
My particular emphasis within the RHAPSODY IN MOTION project is the issue of an Australian republic, seen as the inevitable consequence of a process of national identity started by the advent of Australia’s Federalisation. Given the emotive and rhetorical responses to such a proposition, I see opportunity for the artistic manipulation of these rhetoric possibilities. On this basis, my work comprises of a series of veiled rhetorical questions and answers, designed to lead the audience through the rhetoric typically associated with a debate on the republic.

Artist Statement
As an artist, my aspiration is a music that speaks to the common humanity residing in all of us; a music that, in its abstraction, captures the passions of optimism which make us intrinsically special; a music that is intimate in its touch, but universal in its communication.

Website
JosephGiovinazzo.org

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Nen Dance 1998
Performed by
Carl Rosman (clarinet)
and Rupert Guenther (violin)

Education
Doctorate of Philosophy, La Trobe University
Masters of Arts (Research), La Trobe University
Bachelor of Arts (Honors), La Trobe University

Biography
Joseph Giovinazzo is a Melbourne composer and graduate student at La Trobe University, Melbourne, where he has recently completed his Doctorate of Philosophy in the areas of musical composition and orchestration analysis, focusing on the works of Igor Stravinsky. He is a founding member and current president of the Melbourne Composers’ League, after having served as secretary for a number of years. In 1995 Joseph hosted and co-produced New Music Now, a series of programmes for community television concentrating on a number of contemporary Melbourne composers. In 1996/97 he assisted in establishing MikroPolyphonie, a Web/internet journal dealing with contemporary music. He continues to explore a diverse range of musical and artistic interests through Acts of Expression, an artistic production unit, and is also the conductor and musical director of The Lips of Reason, a music and dance troupe centred on conventional performance but drawing on mixed media, technology, and theatre.

His composition studies began with Dr Tony Gould, with whom he studied modern harmony and composition, emphasising jazz styles and the practices of early Twentieth Century composers. Subsequently, he studied composition with a number of composers, some of whom include Dr Theodore Dollarhide, Dr Stan Link, and Dr Jeff Pressing.

Early performances of his music were as a participant in the 1988 and 1989 'Astra Young Composers Project', with the performances of When I Watch the Living Meet (1988) and Excerpts from W.H. Audens' 'The Shield of Archilles' (1989), both of which were conducted by Professor Keith Humble. In 1991, his composition The Calm was premiered by the American pianist Christopher Allen at the 'Festival of New Music from Australia and New Zealand' in San Diego, USA, hosted by the San Diego State University. In 1992 his Into the Valley of Tears was premiered by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jorge Mester. More recently, his Nen Dance, was performed at the '2000 International Contemporary Music Festival' in Romania, and his Ma-ai was performed by the Black String Quartet at the '2000 Mosaics' series.

Professor Samuel Adler, the distinguished American composer and professor of composition at the Julliard School of Music, New York, says, of Joseph, that he 'exemplifies a person of great taste, and one with the ability to write a work worthy of performance. I believe Mr Giovinazzo is a fine composer with a bright future in the world of composition'.

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