Listen to Natalie’s composition recorded by the Australian Youth Orchestra.
Listen to Natalie’s original composition submitted with her entry.
Natalie Wihandono (Age 21, NSW)
FANFARE: Carnival
My name is Natalie Wihandono and I’m a fourth-year music student studying at UNSW. I am currently taking up a Bachelor of Music and am a composition major in the Music Creative Practice stream.
Music has always been a big part of my life and since I was young, I had always planned to pursue music. Though I knew I wanted to study music at university, I was quite unsure about what path to take; despite growing up as a classically trained pianist, I didn’t see myself further continuing down that road. However, when it came to composing for Music 1 in high school, I realised how enjoyable composition was. Choosing to pursue composition at university has broadened my creative mind in an abundance of ways, where I’ve composed not only chamber and orchestral compositions, but have also dabbled in other areas such as jazz composition, production using DAWs and performance art.
Currently, I aspire to find my unique sound and compositional style while simultaneously continuing to learn and expand my knowledge of composition.
Composition inspiration
The first keywords that came to my mind when I thought about fanfares were ‘grand’, ‘extravagant’ and ‘festival’. After ruminating on these words, I settled on creating something fun and carnival-like – hence its title – and from there, the motifs started filling my head. Focusing on articulation, instrumentation and dynamics, I aimed to compose a piece that was bright and full of momentum. I constantly tried to envision what music would suit a carnival or carnival-like games such as ‘Mario Party 8’. I didn’t take any direct inspiration from any other compositions but the aforementioned game was a great source and visual prompt that aided me in the process of composing ‘Carnival’.