Caitlin Rowley - Biography

They say that life begins at 40. However, for Caitlin Rowley, life began at the age of 17, on starting a Bachelor of Music course majoring in Composition at the University of Sydney. Over the five years of her Honours degree, she studied composition with Eric Gross and Peter Sculthorpe, and took elective classes on Stravinsky, palaeography and mediaeval Spanish music while developing a strong interest in the music of the 20th century. In 1994 she discovered the music of Erik Satie, which led to writing her Honours-year research paper on the topic Satie the Neoclassicist. A section of this paper - 'Neoclassical Aspects of Form in the Music of Erik Satie' was presented by invitation at the 1995 Graduate Music Symposium run by the Musicological Society of Australia and was well received.

In her final undergraduate year, Caitlin began to compose for short films. The first film she scored, Toybox, won Third Prize in the National Student Film and Video Competition and received a public screening at Sydney's Valhalla Cinema. Further film-related work has included composing a MIDI score by email for a 3D animation being created in Göteburg, Sweden and a score for an interactive Flash narrative, as well as more 'traditional' films and animations.

Self-taught in QBASIC programming to help with her thesis, after graduation Caitlin eventually (after a brief time working in a record store) landed a job at the Australian Music Centre working on the NFRAM project, a collaborative website project involving the National Library of Australia, National Film & Sound Archives and a number of tertiary institutions.

Following the end of the NFRAM project, Caitlin stayed with the AMC, working mostly on publications and as webmaster, redesigning and hand-coding the entire website of over 1,000 pages. Notable amongst the publications she edited, sub-edited, proof-read, compiled and laid out are the AMC's flagship publication, the journal Sounds Australian and Australia: Exploring the Musical Landscape, a joint publication of the AMC and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of which she was sole editor. The book received good reviews and has been in demand in Australian embassies around the world as an introductory document to the various styles of Australian music.

In 1998, Caitlin was accepted for the Australian Film Television and Radio School's limited-place screen composition course with Jan Preston. This course was a forerunner of AFTRS' current highly-regarded degree course in composition and involved practical composition and group discussion of work, as well as more theoretical sessions. Preston described Caitlin's score for the set short film Nightride as containing 'flashes of brilliance'.

In 1999, Aubade Music Services (now Minim Music & New Media) was established to allow Caitlin to take on freelance work. Notable clients have included the Australian Performing Right Association, New Music Network, Sydney Spring Festival and Harvest Communication, for which Caitlin provided a range of services from website design and coding to an expert-witness report for a copyright dispute.

In 2000 Caitlin began the Graduate Diploma in Design course at the University of Technology, Sydney. She maintained a Distinction average across her graded subjects and gained High Distinctions in Flash Design, Design History and New Media Aesthetics. She also managed to fit in an ungraded class in audio production.

2000 saw her first overseas performance - of Pieces of Eight by Ensemble Decadanse in Montpellier, France - and her first CD release - of Shimmer, performed by Jeanell Carrigan for Vox Australis. 2002 brought an invitation from Vincent Plush to participate in his Minimax Festival in Brisbane, both as a musicologist (for a panel discussion on Satie, Cage and the minimalists), and as a composer.

Caitlin Rowley moved to the UK in July 2005 and is currently working as a freelance composer and web interface developer in London through her UK limited company Raspberry Blue. Her current projects include arranging music by Erik Satie for a commission from the US.