Marshall McGuire

Born in Melbourne, Marshall McGuire studied at the Victorian College of the Arts, the Paris Conservatoire and the Royal College of Music, London. Following his acclaimed London debut for the Park Lane Group, he has established an international career as a leading exponent of contemporary and baroque harp music. He has commissioned more than 30 new works for harp, and in recognition of this received the 1997 Sounds Australian Award for the Most Distinguished Contribution to the Presentation of Australian Music. He has performed as soloist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, English String Orchestra, Les Talens Lyriques, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony and the Australia Ensemble and has appeared at international festivals including Aldeburgh, Melbourne, Milan, Geneva, Brighton, Vienna, Huddersfield, Huntington and Adelaide. From 1988-1992, Marshall was Principal Harpist with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra. He has been a member of the ELISION ensemble since 1988, and was lecturer in harp at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music from 1990-2005.

In 2003 he was appointed Artistic Director of Sonic Art Ensemble, and was awarded an inaugural Creative Fellowship from the State Library of Victoria to research the works of Peggy Glanville-Hicks. Marshall received a Churchill Fellowship in 2004.

He made his conducting debut in performances of Mozart’s The Magic Flute with Pacific Opera in 1999. From 1996 - 2000 he created a series of chamber music concerts for the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival, the first of their type in the world. From 1999-2001 he was curator of the Twilight Chamber Music Series for Sydney Festival, and in 2003 he was artist-in-residence at the Bundanon Trust. Marshall has released seven CDs, and has received three ARIA award nominations.

Marshall is also Founding President of the New Music Network, curator of the Utzon Music Series at the Sydney Opera House, and Music Director of the Australian Youth Orchestra's National Music Camp 2008. Marshall was appointed Executive Manager, Artistic Planning with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra in 2006.

Performances in 2010 include concerts with the Australian String Quartet, in recital at the Adelaide Festival, at the Four Winds Festival, and in performance with ELISION in London and Bremen.

Updated January 2010