Mace Francis (born 1978) is an Australian composer, band director, and academic.
Career
Francis moved to
Perth
Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...
, Western Australia from
Victoria in 2000 to study jazz composition and arranging. He graduated from
WA Academy of Performing Arts in 2004 and completed a PhD at
Edith Cowan University
Edith Cowan University (ECU) is a public research university in Western Australia. It is named in honour of the first woman to be elected to an Parliaments of the Australian states and territories, Australian parliament, Edith Cowan, and is, , t ...
in 2015.
In 2003, he was nominated for the
Australian Jazz Bell Awards' Best Australian Jazz Song of the Year for ''Land Speed Record'' off his album of the same name The album was recorded with a
nonet in New York and included American saxophonist
Jon Gordon. It was released on Listen/Hear Collective, a record label run by Francis and Johannes Luebbers in Perth.
In 2005, Francis formed the Mace Francis Orchestra and they released seven albums over the next 15 years.
Their album ''Music for Average Photography'' was nominated for two awards, making the 2016 Australian Jazz Bell Awards shortlist for Best Australian Jazz Ensemble, and winning 2015's
Art Music Awards for Jazz Work of the Year.
Since 2008, Francis has been Artistic Director of the
West Australian Youth Jazz Orchestra, and Musical Director for their Wednesday Night Orchestra. He has also held the position of Festival Director at the
Perth International Jazz Festival since 2017 after the festivals founder and previous Festival Director
Graham Wood died.
For his 2021 album ''Isolation Emancipation'', Francis recorded himself playing the trombone for the first time, after he began learning the instrument in 2015. The album was released with a new band Mace Francis Plus 11.
Awards
Academic papers
''From traffic rises: Site specificity and the compositional process'' (2016)
''Music in Site: Integrating elements of site-specificity into composition'' (2015)
''Site in Sound: A Review of Four Musical Works that Integrate Site Into Sound'' (2012) with
Cat Hope
''Bob Brookmeyer: composer, performer, pedagogue'' (2006)
References
External links
*
Mace Francis on Edith Cowan University Research Online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Francis, Mace
Living people
Australian composers
1978 births
Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts alumni
Edith Cowan University alumni
Musicians from Geelong