2018-2019 composing & touring, presenter at World Shakuhachi Festival in London; published kid’s book The Car Fairy; concerts in Portugal, Germany, Holland, Switzerland and Japan.
2015-2017 Artistic Director of Tunnel Number Five: festival of underground music in Darwin, creating concerts with a range of artists including songmen from Arnhemland; releasing CDs; school touring; eco-poetry a feature of Anne’s music making; Concert tour of Japan supported by DFAT.
2008-2014 Absurd Publications established as Anne’s company; research trips to Japan, China and India for tea and music; published book Curiosi-tea 2009; performed across Australia in schools through Nexus Arts; engagements as Tea Raconteur in collaboration with tea masters and musicians from many cultures for OzAsia Festival and in regional WA and Vic; performer on a Japanese cruise ship. Ocean Breath CD released. Concert tour of Japan supported by DFAT funding.
2007-2019 Curated the Boite’s annual Box Hill / Matsudo cross-art form performances with Japanese & Australian performers – calligraphers, dancers, swordsman, tea masters & musicians.
2004-2006 performed Australian and Baroque works at the World Shakuhachi Festival in New York with harpsichord; conducted the premier performance of ‘Life’ in Japan composed by Anne for shakuhachi sextet commissioned for the Japanese Shakuhachi Festival in Bisei by Living National Treasure Yokoyama Katsuya. Jouissance performs in festivals in Estonia.
2002 Anne’s composition ‘Sylvia’s Challice’ is played every day for one year on the Field of Bells in the new Birrarung Marr park; workshops for flautists on shakuhachi techniques and aesthetics with Caitlin Williams at the Australian Flute Festival, Melbourne; shakuhachi, flute and harp recital in Adelaide, with workshops for the Flute Society of SA. Questing Spirit perform harpsichord & shakuhachi for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at the Asia Society Dinner Sydney.
2001 Tutor in the honours music program and sessional teacher in the ‘Centre for Ideas’ at the Victorian College of the Arts.
1992-2008 Freelance Musician under the business name of AMN Productions; performance & artistic director roles; improvisation with dancers; composing for theatre and instrumental and choral music; subcontracting other performers and producing work for major festivals & concert series; performances in Melbourne, Sydney, rural Vic & NSW, Perth, Hobart, Adelaide, Canberra, Tasmania and overseas in Japan and America; Jouissance performs in music festivals in Trondheim, Tallin and Parnu sponsored by the Australia Council for the Arts. Releasing several CDs of original music; sessional recording work in studios, and freelancing on other composers projects. Administrating major creative projects with grants from the Australia Council, Arts Victoria, the Sidney Myer Fund, the Japan Foundation…
1992-94 Part time Research assistant for the Japanese Music Archive at Monash University.
1990-92 Japanese Government Monbusho Scholarship to study Japanese Music and shakuhachi performance at the Tokyo University of Fine Art & Music. Studied with Yamaguchi Goro and Tajima Tadashi; several recitals, including two major concerts in Tokyo & Kobe of Anne’s compositions for traditional Japanese instruments with fellow artists; awarded first prize in the ‘Overseas Students Music Contest of Japan’ by the Japan International Cultural Exchange Foundation.
1988-89 MA in Ethnomusicology at Monash University on Commonwealth scholarship; 3 semesters of Japanese Language at Monash.
1986-88 Travelled through SE Asia studying indigenous musics & cultures; lived in Japan teaching English in Secondary schools and to adults and young children; played flute in Kobe Philharmonic Orchestra; studied shakuhachi with Nakamura Shindo; formed ‘The Kansai Wagakki Players’, writing arrangements of Japanese music for a 12 piece ensemble and giving performances and television appearances.
1984-85 Taught classroom music & woodwind and conducted the school concert band at Braemar College, Woodend Victoria.
1979-83 Taught flute at Parkville Music School and Peninsula school.
Languages
English; Japanese
Reviews
‘The sound produced on shakuhachi was of a whole other dimension… with an occasional whiff of progressive rock… Anne’s sound captured not only the ‘wabi-sabi’ of Japan, but I also felt the strength and expanse of a vast land.’ Senō Kensuke, Yokohama.
‘The shakuhachi of Anne Norman showed how moving and vocal this instrument can be in an emotionally mobile context.’ Clive O’Connell, The Age, Melbourne.
‘Utmost mastery… a stream of beautiful melodies, alternating sections of spoken words and shakuhachi incorporating voice while blowing, with the mellow sounds of bass koto, …a mesmerising experience.’ Le Tuan Hung, Melbourne Recital Centre.
‘Anne Norman is one of Australia’s most adventurous artists.’ Therese Virtue, Director of The Boite and presenter of Music Sans Frontiers, 3CR radio.
‘Australian composer-performer, Anne Norman brought a spirit of reconciliation to the WWII tunnel under Darwin … a meaningful and daring adventure… soft multi-phonic elements of the shakuhachi and voice come and go behind walking rhythms of recurring patterns, creating a surreal impression… like an artistic cinematic soundtrack…’ Album Review, Sonic Gallery.
‘…the ability of an instrument to speak with the inflections of vowels and consonants of language itself… you become unsure whether you are hearing her voice, or that of the flute, or both … evoking the whole, joyous chorus of nature.’ Melvyn Cann, violinist, Migration Museum, Adelaide.
‘Like birdsong, but not; like wind, but not; like no other sound, but something higher. It was as if she could lure pixels of sound and whip them into line with the control of her breath…. a master of improvisation and adventure.’ TAS WEEKENDS, Hobart.
‘Anne “sings” the pure voice of the shakuhachi with the freedom and sheer ecstasy of a gifted singer! I don’t remember ever hearing any instrument play such pure voice-like tones!’ Mareid Sullivan, celtic singer, film-maker. Melbourne.
‘In addition to inheriting the music of traditional schools of shakuhachi, Anne employs her own contemporary practice… opening up the potential of the instrument… a concert I feel must be introduced to all Japanese people.’ Suzuki Nobuyuki, Yokohama.
‘Anne’s flute composition Oodnadatta Who is an entrancing work, unique and utterly gorgeous.’ Katharine Rawdon, Principal flute, Lisbon Opera House Orchestra, Portugal.