Biographies

Donald Hall
Nicole Denington
Erin Murphy
Doug Eaton
Brandden Lassells

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Donald Hall

Donald Hall was born in the Mareeba Base Hospital in Far North Queensland, one of identical twins, on November 18th. 1953. This was the closest hospital to Normanton, way up on the remote Gulf of Carpentaria, where the family lived at the time.

Although beginning his musical education on a piano accordion given to them by an opera singer aunt who had gone deaf, he moved to piano and violin, finally studying cello at the Queensland Conservatorium with Julie van der Klei, as well as doing a couple of degrees in psychology and anthropology at the University of Queensland

Upon graduating, Donald went into the public health system to become the first music therapist to work in the public hospitals of the state. He traveled widely holding training sessions and lectures on music therapy for the State Health Department and the Education Department, as well as establishing clinical sessions in three of the major metropolitan hospitals covering the fields of aged care, post-operative rehabilitation and both adult and the then very new field of child psychiatry. He served for many years as the secretary of the Music Therapy Association, and along with musician Moya Evans, psychologist Cathy Brown, nursing superintendent Helen Menzies, conductor Brian Stacey and physiotherapist Lynn Thompson, managed to organize a number of national conferences and establish a full course in music therapy at the University of Queensland.

After this he moved into the theatre, which went on to consume the major part of his career. Working first as a repetiteur and arranger, he has gone on to compose the scores to over one hundred and fifty productions, ranging from full operas through to hip hop settings of Shakespeare. He has composed music for productions with most of the major theatre companies and festivals in Australia, including the Queensland Theatre Company, the Sydney Theatre Company, The Melbourne Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne, Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney, Adelaide Festival, Sydney Festival, Perth Festival, Brisbane Festival, Queensland Opera, and for twenty years was music director for Bryan Nason’s celebrated touring Shakespearean company Grin and Tonic. Outside Australia, he has written music for the National Theatre, London and the Royal Shakespeare Company. He played piano at the Savoy and the London Fields Pub, read Philosophy at Oxford and was a tutor for singers at the Madrid Conservatorium.

Away from theatre he has composed for Channel TenTelevision, SBS Television and ABC Radio. His favourite scores from his time in the theatre were a massive score for Bertholdt Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle, commissioned by the Queensland Performing Arts Trust, Shakespeare’s The Tempest, commissioned by Paul Sherman and the Brisbane Arts Theatre, and Garcia Lorca’s Bodas de Sangre, commissioned by the Queensland University of Technology. Shakespeare has been his constant colleague, and he has composed four different scores for productions of Hamlet, six scores for MidsummerNights Dream, three scores for Macbeth, The Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night and The Tempest as well as duplicates of most of the remaining comedies and tragedies, and dozens of silly setting of the songs of Shakespeare for schools, in the style of Elvis, Madonna etc.

During this time he was appearing frequently as a solo pianist in recital series at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, where he had the distinction of performing solo more often than any other artist in the Twentieth Century.

He came to the harp through theatre, having composed the score for the Queensland Theatre Company’s enormous twenty-first anniversary production of The Epic of Gilgamesh for well-known Australian harpist Mary Doumany, whose fee was so high that the administrator suggested to me that it would be cheaper to buy a harp and learn to play it oneself before the show opened. Which is what happened. The resultant press reviews were so overwhelmingly favourable, that he began playing more frequently, eventually adding little bits of harp to his piano recitals. He has since gone on to perform as a harpist in theatre, opera, ballet and concert. and record the European repertoire with quartet Viva La Musica, the Celtic repertoire with the trio Paddytown and the Persian repertoire with the Middle-Eastern quartet Khidir. He has supported international artists such as Stephane Grapelli, Otmar Liebetz, Marianne Faithful and The Chieftans during their Australian tours.

Khidir

He began playing the chromatic harp after seeing Andrew Lawrence King, the English harpist and scholar, who with his group The Harp Consort, toured Australia in the early nineties, giving concerts and masterclasses. After playing in the renaissance style of the Spanish method and exploring that repertoire for a number of years, he changed his technique over to the French style, with the advice of Madame Francette Bartholomee, one of the twentieth century’s major performers and teachers on the chromatic harp, as well as receiving invaluable guidance from Professor Florence Sitruk from the Geneva School of Music.

He has performed on the chromatic harp, in solo, duo and ensemble capacities in many concerts over the past ten years, including nationally at the Adelaide Festival, The National Sacred Music Festival, the National Shakespeare Festival, the International Shakespeare Congress, the National Harp Festival and the Woodford Music Festival. Along with colleague chromatic harpist Nicole Denington, Spanish guitarist Andrew Vievers, cellist Danielle Bentley and percussionist John Thoms, he performed Ribayez’s seventeenth century suite of court dances in concerts at the University of Queensland, City Hall and the Woodford Festival. He used chromatic harp in composer Kim Cunio and Soprano Heather Lee”s Temple Project, a reconstruction of the music of the ancient Temple of Jerusalem, and has used it extensively over the last six years in performing the Persian classical and traditional repertoires, firstly with the quartet Khidir, with Ceiavash Arean, Ben Kashi and James Coates, then later with the quintet Noor, made up of Ceiavash Arean, Siroos Alavi, Amir Naderi and soprano Dania Cornelius. The harp, once a standard part of Persian music, fell into disuse with the advent of Islam, and the music of these two groups has been one of the only places in the world where you can actually hear the full complement of Persian instruments. The chromatic harp is ideal for this style of music, particularly because you can tune quarter tones on the pentatonic row, without effecting the tuning of the other row of strings. Locally, he has performed on the chromatic harp at all the major performance venues of the city, (the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, City Hall, The Powerhouse etc.) as well as in a series of concerts in twenty of the city’s municipal libraries sponsored by the City Council.

He has taught for many years at the Queensland University of Technology, working in the Music Department and the Drama Department where he teaches courses in music theatre and musicianship as well as voice studies. He has also worked variously as an orchestral cellist, a choir conductor, Gipsy accordionist and church organist, to make ends meet. His C.D’s include “CREATION” featuring actress Diane Cilento and flautist Jane Rutter, “Classical Moments” “Celtic Harp” “KHIDIR” and “Santa’s Favourite Songs.”

Away from music he has been a writer, and has penned seven plays that have been produced and a book of Persian literature, containing his translations of seventy of the poems of Thirteenth Century Persian mystic Hafiz, a new translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and a totally new translation and re-edition of the 2,500 year old Hymns of Zarathustra. His plays include “Eccentrics”, based on the book of Dame Edith Sitwell, three comedies for the Supernumeraries, a group of five deeply talented disabled women; “Ladies in Waiting”, “Acting Up” and “Angels, Unicorns and Other Mythological Creatures”, an all-girl script for the Education department-“ The Heroine Trade” and two one woman shows for the internationally known Australian cabaret and comedy singer/performer Annie Lee-“ Transformations” and” Stained Glass Windows.”

He has received awards for his contribution to music in the areas of theatre, therapy and the community.

He lives in Brisbane, Australia, with his cat Jellybean.

Nicole Denington

Born in Australia, Nicole completed a degree in Drama at the Queensland University of Technology and then went on to win a scholarship to a post-graduate diploma in Acting at the London Academy of Performing Arts.  She completed a graduate Degree in Education at the University of Queensland, with a major in English and a minor in music in July 2004, completing her final teaching practicum on scholarship in Vancouver Canada. She is currently teaching at Hillbrook Anglican School, Brisbane. 

As a harpist, her recent performances include working with Christine Johnston in “Myrtle by the Water” for the Kids’ Asia Pacific Triennial at the Queensland Art Gallery.  Nicole has performed extenisively in south-east Queensland, including several performances at the Woodford Folk Festival and the Sandgate Music by the water festival.  She has performed several times for the Brisbane public libraries, presenting both music and the spoken word performances.  In 2006, Nicole worked with Kanye West in the “Late Registration” Tour. She now owns four harps. The smallest is a portable folk harp.  The largest is a ¾ Classcal style folk harp made by master harp builder, Brandden Lassells.  Her most recent acquisition is a five octave chromatic renaissance Harp made by Mark Blessley of Oregon, USA. It is a fully chromatic harp, without pedals of levers. In July of 2005 Nicole travelled to the International Society of Folk Harpers and Harp Makers Conference in Montana, USA, on an individual professional development grant from Arts Queensland in order to learn more about this extremely rare and difficult instrument. Here she had a master class with Harper Tasche, one of the world’s leading exponents of folk cross-strung harp.

While living in London, she played regularly at the British Museum and several leading London hotels and restaurants.  She is available for weddings, functions or in any capacity that may allow her to bring pleasure to those who hear her play. In addition to having released two CD’s, Celtic Angels (1998) and Convergence (2006).

Nicole plays a wide variety of music with selection from her own compositions inspired by both ancient and contemporary musical styles.  Nicole is developing a fusion style ambient Harp is currently developing a new CD that will introduce listeners to this exciting new sound.

Erin Murphy

At the age of six, my mother offered me a choice between ballet lessons and piano lessons. Since I was perfectly able to fall down without the help of a teacher (to the point where my mother would no longer allow me to wear tights to school), I opted for piano lessons as the safer of the two. I studied for the next twelve years with Mrs Kentish, and then went on to the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, where I learned from the late Charles Glen, finally graduating with a Diploma of Music.
At the age of six, I gave my first public performance as Mary in the school Nativity Play. (In those days nobody got offended by Nativity Plays). I began singing in choirs at the age of five. I sang with my primary school choir, taking part in several Eisteddfods at City Hall along the way, until I was kicked out for having too much fun. I then sang in the Elective Choir at high school, managing to score a small solo performance at St John’s Cathedral at the end of Year 12. I also taught and conducted my House for the Inter-House Choral Competition, finally finding my place within the school. (Well, I mean really – who wants to get up and go hurdling at 5.30 in the morning?)

After leaving school, I joined the Queensland University Music Society (QUMS) for a time, under the baton of Colin Brumby. While at the Conservatorium, I took part in all choral events, first with Ulrich Berstein, then Roy Wales, performing such works as Carmina Burana, Messiah, etc. I also sang madrigals with a small a capella group under the direction of Bruce Brazier. Apart from that, I paid very little attention. My first professional (as in paid) a capella gig came at the end of 1982, at the Cricketers’ Club Christmas Party. Everything’s a learning experience.

Upon graduating from the Conservatorium, I more or less fell into theatre work, performing with all of Brisbane’s theatre companies as an actor and/or musician at various times over the next ten years. During this time, I also toured several different shows with the Queensland Arts Council, both for schools and the general public, and learned how to play several more instruments badly, one of them being the smallest Celtic harp, which Donald made me learn in just under three weeks. That was for La Boite’s production of The Tempest. (He also roused on me for being a noisy forest musician.)

In the late 1980s, I helped form an a capella trio – The Lawless Murphys, which went on to become a quartet, (two girls, two boys) and gained a small but loyal following both in Brisbane and Sydney. During the early ‘90s, I did voice overs for Triple M and the Distance Education program in Queensland, more touring, directed the music for a few plays, had a baby, and then worked with Toadshow on their musical productions as Assistant Music Director, which led me to form, arrange for and conduct Qwired, a contemporary 30–50 voice choir, with a hugely diverse repertoire, many Brisbane performances, and a CD to their credit.

I currently spend much of my time arranging peculiar songs for whoever wants them. Last year, I helped take the “Sing” Workshop for Out of the Box, and this year have so far managed to workshop a choir in Miles (twice), start a piano teaching career, and join a music teaching program for 1 – 5 year olds. I knit a lot.

Douglas Raymond Eaton

Doug Eaton was born in Nowra NSW in 1929. He went to school in Sydney and Brisbane, before studying Civil Engineering at Sydney University. He graduated in 1951 and worked in the Construction Department of the Commonwealth Public Service for the whole of his career, in most States of Australia before retiring in 1988.

He has been a hobby woodworker since his school days and in 1974 turned his hand to musical instruments initially to satisfy a lifelong ambition to make a violin and in the next few years made four violins and two violas, all successful instruments.
Around 1982 he became interested in folk harps and made his first harp using as a reference a book written by Gildas Jaffrenou and pictures of a McFall Irish harp that he found in Sydney. This harp was a success but raised many questions about design, and further research was obviously necessary. Drawings from Robinson’s Harp Shop were not much help and the best way forward was to design from scratch, initially doing the string calculations by hand and eventually writing a spreadsheet computer program to eliminate the drudgery.

Since retiring in1988 Doug has developed successful designs for a 23 string lap harp, a "full size” 36 string harp, and a more recently, a 46 string cross-strung (chromatic) harp. A total of 136 instruments completed so far also includes one Paraguayan harp, two double strung lap harps and some wire-strung lap harps. Now 78 he is still making harps and hopes to continue for years to come.
Doug keeps a waiting list of people interested in buying a harp, each harp completed being offered to the next person on the list.

Brandden Lassells

Brandden was born in 1942 on Cape Cod in the USA.  He was raised and educated in America first having receiving a Bachelors degree in Landscape Architecture/Town Planning and later a Master of Fine Arts degree.  His advanced studies included architecture with the likes of Paulo Soleri, furniture design with Wendell Castle and ceramics/sculpture with Frans Wildenhain.

His life experiences and career paths have varied from teaching at university level to building designer-craftsman houses, to being a potter and furniture maker, to project manager of major construction projects.

He migrated to Australia in the late 1980’s as an adventure and fell in love with Australia subsequently becoming an Australian citizen. 

At a mature age, Brandden, found the harp and became intrigued by the design and many variations among harps, he also had some ideas of how to improve the sound.  After some serious soul searching while on a solitary retreat, he decided that what really called him was the possibility of making harps and trying out his ideas.  He then tossed aside his life style and decided to pursue a path of making harps.  The first step was to visit a number of harp makers and luthiers overseas that he had heard of and respected.  He visited these craftsmen/craftswomen and offered to sweep floors or help in anyway that he could in order to spend time with them to find out a bit more about this mysterious world of harp making.  Some he only spent hours with and others weeks.  Some of the more influential were Alan Carruth, Howard Bryan, Dusty Strings, Steve Tripplet, Betty Truitt and the folks at Robinsons.

Brandden returned to Australia, hired a factory in Gosford NSW, hung out his shingle and started building harps.  Word soon got out about the fantastic sound and fine craftsmanship of the harps that he produced.  Before long he had a waiting list and was selling worldwide based on this reputation.

Brandden enjoys the challenges of custom harps and has built many.  Along the way he became interested with chromatic or cross strung harps.  After much research and thought, he embarked on making his first cross strung 3 octave lap harp. Based on this knowledge and success he was soon making larger 5 octave chromatic harps.  Brandden’s cross strung chromatic harps have found homes not only in Australia but in Sweden, America and Indonesia.

Along the way Brandden crossed paths with talented Brisbane harpist Donald Hall.  After making him a “standard” 5 octave cross strung as well as another larger harp with a restored Grecian column, they began discussing in detail what Donald had determined to be the ideal chromatic harp in regard to string angles, spacing etc.  Donald was especially interested in playing using the European or “French” technique.  So Brandden set out to design a chromic harp as Donald wanted which ended up being along the lines of the Pleyel chromatic harps including a deeply curved neck.  A prototype was produced and after more consultation with Donald, modifications made and the final result has been a success.  The first of this series of chromatic harps was produced on a custom basis and had not just the “Pleyel” string design but with a replica 19th Century Grecian column done in 23 karat gold leaf along with polished brass and finished in a gloss black colour.  Donald reports that it is comfortable to play, suits both the “French” and “American” techniques and still has the characteristic warm resonate sound that sets Brandden’s harps above others.