Michael Edwards (Australian composer)


Michael Edwards is an Australian composer and pianist based in Berlin. He composes music for Film, TV and Theatre. Edwards is also known for his work with Lisa Gerrard, Dead Can Dance, Skye Edwards, Patrick Cassidy, Darren Hayes, Christian Tschuggnall and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin.

Biography

Edwards was born in Melbourne, Australia. He studied viola at the Queensland Conservatorium and played in the Queensland Youth Orchestras. In 1993 he won the Australian national Nescafe Big Break Award whilst studying jazz piano at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. He graduated with a music degree from QUT in 1994 and a graduate diploma in philosophy from the University of Sydney in 1998.
His sister is author and columnist Kasey Edwards.

Career

Music and television

After relocating to Sydney Edwards began his composition career writing music for advertising and television including writing the theme for the news program Today Tonight.
In 2003 he relocated to London, where he was one half of the production duo Lief, together with Adrian Watkins. They had UK Top 10 chart success with their remixes "Put 'Em High" for StoneBridge and "Cannot Contain This" for Moloko. Some years later Lief completed their own debut album "Photogenic", released in 2017 on Native Music.

Film

Edwards moved into composing for film after meeting Lisa Gerrard. First collaborating with her on the film Whale Rider. Further collaborations include Layer Cake, the Japanese film Ichi, and the albums The Silver Tree and The Black Opal.
In 2009 he scored the film The Tomb, starring Wes Bentley. Other notable films featuring his music are The Front Line, Fuga Per La Liberta, Kill the Irishman, Calvary and 1916: The Irish Rebellion, all of which he composed in collaboration with Patrick Cassidy.
His score to the award-winning film The Clockmaker's Dream won him Best Music at Los Angeles Cinefest 2016 and a nomination for the Deutscher Filmmusikpreis 2016.

Orchestral work

Edwards relocated to Berlin in 2009 focusing more heavily on orchestral composition. In 2017 he was commissioned to compose for the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin for which he and co-composer Christian Tschuggnall won multiple international nominations and prizes, including the Music and Sound Awards 2017, Golden Award of Montreux, Deutscher Preis für Onlinekommunikation, and Gold at the Cannes Corporate Media and TV Awards 2017.
With Tschuggnall, Edwards runs the music studio "unheard" in Berlin.

Theatre

Edwards has composed music for multiple theatre-productions. He has worked with Ice and Fire Theatre London and the network Actors for Human Rights in Germany. His work includes the original score for the documentary theatre pieces Rendition Monologues, Asylum Dialogues and NSU-Monologues.

Pianist

As a live performer and pianist Edwards toured with Dead Can Dance in 2005 and with Skye and Darren Hayes from 2006 till 2008.

Discography

Albums