Photo by James McLean
I respectfully acknowledge the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung people of the Kulin Nation, the traditional custodians of the land on which I live and most regularly work and perform. I also acknowledge the Noongar people, on whose land I grew up and developed my musical practice. I pay my respects to Elders past, present, and emerging, as well as to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the wider Narrm/Melbourne community and beyond. Indigenous sovereignty has never been ceded.
Callum G’Froerer is an Australian trumpet player and composer based in Narrm/Melbourne. Through improvisation, interpretation, and collaboration, he explores the expressive possibilities of unique trumpet techniques and treats the trumpet as an interface for combining and activating diverse materials.
Recent projects include: Gradient with Olivia Davies and Nick Roux – a 6-hour audio-visual performance-installation for trumpet and interactive video projections and audio processing, presented at the 2023 Perth Festival; Bullhorn – an outdoor ceremony and performance-installation with Clint Bracknell and Trevor Ryan for the 2021 Fremantle Biennale; and The Sculpted Trumpet, an internationally-touring recital of new electro-acoustic works for double-bell trumpet by composers including Ann Cleare, Laure Hiendl, and Sarah Nemtsov.
G’Froerer is a founding member of Phonetic Orchestra, an ensemble exploring the intersection of improvisation, composition, and installation. Phonetic Orchestra received the 2021 APRA Art Music Award for Jazz/Improvised Performance of the Year for Silent Towns, a 24-hour online livestream project featuring JackTrip international audio networking. Phonetic Orchestra presented the telematic audio-visual work Tower Lake Temple at the Melbourne Recital Centre in August 2022.
G’Froerer is a co-founder and Artistic Committee member of New North, a concert series presenting exploratory music in Melbourne’s north. New North’s inaugural season in 2021 includes three concerts at Brunswick Mechanics Institute and was funded by the Australia Council for the Arts. New North’s 2022 season includes six concerts at Brunswick Mechanics Insitute and is funded by the City of Moreland’s Flourish fund.
His long-term composition project Charcoals spans electro-acoustic works, field recordings, performance pieces, and acoustic chamber music – all performance/site-specific. In November 2022, he presented a recital of compositions from the Charcoals series at the Melbourne Recital Centre. His PhD research through Monash University engages textile metaphors as catalysts for performance-installation works featuring solo double-bell trumpet.
He has worked closely with composers including Ann Cleare, Anthony Pateras, James Rushford, Alice Humphries, Laure Hiendl, Cat Hope, Simon Charles, and Iain Grandage, and has performed national and world premieres of works by Luciano Berio, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Liza Lim. He has performed solo recitals at the Melbourne Recital Centre and for presenters such as Unerhörte Musik (Berlin), La La La (Sydney), Tura New Music (Perth), and International Society for New Music (Bern). He is currently involved in long-term performance-installation projects as a performer with Matt Laing and Alice Humphries.
As a jazz performer and composer, his output includes: quintet album ‘City Speaks’, released in 2013 on the Listen/Hear Collective label; his quartet album ‘Space Available’, released independently in 2015. G’Froerer was long-listed for the 2014 Freedman Jazz Fellowship, and the 2015 Freedman Classical Fellowship.
Other projects include boat concerts on the Spree with contemporary chamber ensemble Smallroom Berlin; the bass/piano/trumpet trio DRUM with Andy Butler and Jonathan Heilbron; membership of Marco Blaauw’s trumpet ensemble, Monochrome, with performances of Anthony Braxton’s Composition No. 103 at the Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music and Ruhrtriennale.
G’Froerer performed HARMONIEN at the 2015 Stockhausen Memorial Concert in Kürten, Germany, and was a prize-winner at the 2011 and 2015 Stockhausen Courses in Kürten, Germany for his performances of ARIES and HARMONIEN. He performed at the 2010 and 2011 Chosen Vale Trumpet Seminar in New Hampshire, USA and the 2010 Sillico Trumpet Seminar in Tuscany. His teachers include Tristram Williams, David Elton, Scott Tinkler and Marco Blaauw. G’Froerer has presented trumpet workshops at the Nelson Composers Workshop, Australian National Academy of Music, Melbourne Conservatorium, and Monash University.
Ensembles and artists he has performed with include ELISION Ensemble, Ensemblekollektiv Berlin, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Australian Art Orchestra, Sydney Chamber Opera, Ensemble Offspring, Manufaktur für Aktuelle Musik, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Martha Wainwright, Ensemble Schwerpunkt, Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Kate Miller-Heidke, Ed Partyka Jazz Orchestra, Ora Clementi, Konzert Minimal.
Festival performances as a soloist and ensemble member include Bendigo Festival for Exploratory Music, Fremantle Biennale, Ruhrtriennale (Essen), MaerzMusik (Berlin), Huddersfield Festival for Contemporary Music, Munich Biennale, Serralves em Festa (Porto), Soft Soft Loud @ Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth Festival, Tura New Music Totally Huge New Music Festival, Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, Wangaratta Jazz Festival, Sydney Festival, and CTM Festival.