Mr Angus McPherson
PhD Candidate
Contact Details
Angus McPherson completed his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where he studied with renowned flutist Alexa Still. He has performed with the Sydney based Orchestra 143, both in the orchestra and as a soloist, and in 2011 travelled to Italy to perform with the International Opera Theater in their production of
Decameron. Keenly interested in contemporary music and extended techniques, Angus wrote his Masters thesis on the Glissando Headjoint, a sliding headjoint for the flute used in jazz, improvisation and new music. His articles have been published on websites such as
Flute Focus and
Flute Tutor Australia, as well as in the British Flute Society’s journal,
Pan, and the Dutch Flute Society’s magazine,
FLUIT.
Research: The focus of Angus’s research is the use of extended techniques in the flute compositions of Gergely Ittzés. This Hungarian flutist and composer has written some of the most technically challenging pieces in the flute repertoire. While Ittzés’s compositions employ a wide range of extended techniques that have been used in the avant-garde flute repertoire for some time, his compositions also require the flutist to perform new techniques and new combinations of these techniques in ways that have not yet been adequately addressed in the existing literature. This study aims to explore they ways in which these techniques have been developed and applied, and will provide a performance guide to aid other flutists studying this repertoire.
