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Photo: John McCrae

Margaret Brandman's career in music as composer, pianist, recording artist, music educator, arranger, and author of music education publications spans over 50 years. Her award-winning compositions receive live performances and airplay both in Australia and internationally. In August 2026 she was named as one of three finalists in the 'Lifetime Achievement' section of the Australian Women in Music Awards. The award ceremony will take place in Brisbane, Australia, in May 2027. In October 2025 owing to her multi-faceted career in both composition and music education she was honoured with an invitation to give the 'Occasional Address' at the graduation ceremony at Sydney University for the graduates of the Music and Education courses.

Career Highlights 2026

1) Concert at Sydney Conservatorium with Clarinetist Jared Mundell in April, featuring the premiere performance of the clarinet arrangements of La Vida Apasionada suite.

2) Classics at Picton concert in May with Mezzo Soprano Désirée Regina, and clarinetist Jared Mundell

Career Highlights 2025.

1) The performance of La Vida Apasionada at the album launch concert 26th of March 2025 at the JSPAC in Penrith. The album, achieved number one position in the ARIA classical/crossover charts that same week.

2) Vov Dylan and his ensemble performed five works from the album for 2MBS Fine Music 102.5 SHOWCASE program that aired on Mother's Day 11th May 2025.

3) Silver Winds suite, commissioned in 2024 by UK Flautist Mark Underwood, premiered on 18-05-25 at the Mosman Art Gallery Grand Hall, with a second performance on the 25th of May for 'Classics at Picton'.

4) As part of her world tour in 2025, Margaret and Mark Underwood performed her works in the UK in November, at St Alfege Church in Greenwich, London.

5) Bossa Sonora, Margaret's version for 'cello with piano was recorded by American artists Ovidiu Marinescu ('cello) and Carl Cramer (piano) for Parma Recordings' Resurgence Vol.2 (nv6729). Bossa Sonora was performed by the recording artists on November 11th 2025 at Carnegie Hall New York. Margaret travelled to New York to attend the concert and was acknowledged on stage following the performance.

6) Australian Guild of Music and Speech 2025 Piano Syllabus. Margaret performed her unique jazzy arrangement of Waltzing Matilda, which is now included in the AGMS 6th Grade Piano Odyssey publication, at the AGMS Spotlight on Pedagogy session in February 2025.

Brandman has twice won the Artemis 'Women in Action' Film Festival - Women Powered Music award for 'Best Foreign Composition' her Symphonic Tone Poem SPIRIT VISIONS (2021) and 2019 for Firestorm Symphony (III) 'All the Trees are Growing' from her SENSATIONS - Wind, Waves, Birds and Fire album (nv6041

Born in 1951 into a musical family, Brandman studied accordion and piano from the age of four, taking up guitar and clarinet in her teens. Her education, supported by formal studies in piano, clarinet, harmony, and composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, covered many styles of music from Classical through to Jazz and Latin-American.

Brandman was awarded a scholarship to the University of Sydney, where she studied composition with Peter Sculthorpe. In 1975 she was awarded a Bachelor of Music (Composition), having already acquired her Associate Performer degree and Teacher of Pianoforte diploma. She has since also been awarded the F.Comp.ASMC, F.Mus.Ed.ASMC and L.Perf.ASMC degrees from the Australian Society for Musicology and Composition, Hon.FNMSM (UK), and the Dip.E in Piano Pedagogy of the World Piano Teacher's Association (Serbia).

To date PARMA RECORDINGS (USA) have produced six albums of Brandman compositions: Resurgence Vol.2 a multi-composer album that includes her Bossa Sonora for cello and piano; Symphonic Chronicles Vol.2 (nv6584), a multi-composer album that includes her orchestral work Gentle Summer Rain; Sensations - Wind, Waves, Birds, and Fire (nv6041) featuring one hour and nineteen minutes of her celebrated orchestral and chamber works; Polarities Vol.2 (nv 6353) a multi-composer album that includes her award-winning orchestral work Spirit Visions; Abrazo (ar0001), a multi-composer album recorded in Cuba, that includes her suite Warm Winds in Havana for saxophone quartet and percussion; and The Cosmic Wheel of the Zodiac (nv6160) a cycle of 12 songs, one for each sign of the Zodiac with lyricist Astropoet Benita Rainer.

AUSTRALIAN RECORDINGS: 'La Vida Apasionada', (AMB292) an eight-movement Latin-American dance suite commissioned by violinist Vov Dylan and the Palace Orchestra on the Ambition Label (AMB292). The violin and piano adaptations of the suite, also recorded by Vov and Margaret, are available on CD and as streams through Margaret's

Gig-Alliance artist page. The suite has also been arranged for 'Cello with Piano, Two Flutes and Piano, Clarinet and Piano, as well as for Solo Piano. The complete solo piano setting of the suite is included in the AGMS syllabus for L.Mus candidates. The video of the TRIO arrangements of the suite, presented at the World Piano Teacher's Association online conference in October 2022, is now also available from the Bloomsbury Video Library.

CELLO WORKS: Australian 'cellist Ari Volovelsky recorded many of Margaret's works: Lady of Grace, As Blue as Turquoise Pearls, and Jucaro Rhumba D'Amor, Binna Burra Dreaming, Four Castles of Stone, Ariel's Dream, Universal Truth Remains, Snowgums in Silver Moonlight. Six of these works are included on BINNA BURRA DREAMING released by Ambition Records (AMB201): Fine Music Reviewer Paul Cooke wrote: ' the album is a pure delight to listen to'.

Bossa Sonora, recorded by the American 'cellist, Ovidiu Marinescu appears as Track 1 on Resurgence Vol.2.(nv6729)

View information on recent concerts in Australia and internationally here: https://margaretbrandmanmusic.com.au/performance-recordings-page/

View performances of Margaret Brandman's works on YouTube.

Margaret Brandman's "music is melodious and intricate, beautifully played.... pieces straddle that indefinable line between jazz and contemporary classical / new music." Jane Mann, London Jazz News 2017

Margaret Brandman — current to January 2026