Fretsongs, the CD of Tasmanian guitar music by David Malone has received rave reviews, including The Age, and five stars from ABC Limelight Magazine.

Bridget Douglas's disc of New Zealand flute music, Taurangi, has also been very well-reviewed: Music-Web International, in The Listener, the New Zealand Herald, and the Otago Daily Times.

A Feather of Blue was warmly received for its recording by the NZ Trio on Spark. For more reviews of Spark, click here and follow the links.

Some concert reviews:

“Tasmania: A Musical Tribute – This concert, part of the bicentennial celebrations, ambitiously set out to commemorate 200 years of music-making in this state… A movement from Don Kay’s Tasmania Symphony – The Legend of Moinee followed.  This haunting piece featured a beautiful cello solo from Sue-Ellen Paulsen.  Fine works by Peter Sculthorpe and Maria Grenfell [River Mountain Sky] were interspersed with a couple of rousing opera choruses with the TSO choir in robust good form.  These items, along with conductor Richard Mills’ suite from his opera Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, provided the musical highlights of the evening.” The Mercury (Hobart), 29 November 2004

“The New Zealand Trio’s concert on Sunday to celebrate the ensemble’s new residency at the University of Auckland attracted a capacity audience and left them more than satisfied.  With playing of this stature, Justine Cormack (violin), Ashley Brown (cello) and Sarah Watkins (piano) are set to become a force on the national music scene.  It was the sort of programme dreams are made of, with two New Zealand works and a pair of mainstream offerings that bypassed the expected Central European masters… Maria Grenfell’s A Feather of Blue, a finely tinctured response to a phrase from poet Kevin Ireland, pitted string harmonics against dark piano sonorities in a way that made me think of the dark, lonely sound that producer Mitchell Froom brings to the music of the Finns…” William Dart, New Zealand Herald (Auckland), 24 August 2004

“The IHOS Music Theatre Laboratory in its three short years has showcased more than a dozen innovative and exciting compositions.  This time it’s a short but pithy piece and two operas-in-progress – all by young Australian women composers – all directed with distinction by Robert Jarman.  The Fall of the House of Usher from the sombre pen of Poe is the inspiration for Maria Grenfell’s opera-to-be, and five sketched scenes were presented.  Scored for percussion and cello with an economy of notes and lit only by scarce two dozen small candles, the mystery, foreboding and later sheer horror of the original is exquisitely caught through a cast of four.  Jarman wrote the libretto and in directing powerfully captures the driven and desperate mood – particularly in a spine-tingling scene where an encoffined presumed corpse starts singing a beautiful but wordless song.” The Mercury (Hobart), 24 July 2003

“In A Feather of Blue, Grenfell takes the same elements – layers of textures and harmonics with a subtle rhythmic pulse – to produce an intricate, highly effective work.” Sydney Morning Herald, 3 June 2003

“The orchestra, with Alexa Still as soloist, went straight into the first New Zealand performance of Maui Tikitiki a Taranga, by Maria Grenfell.  It may have taken four years before a hearing in the composer’s home town, but the wait was worth it.  The strength of Maria Grenfell’s writing was impressive… Alexa Still’s expressive strength was never in doubt.  Brian Law guided the orchestra to a convincing performance.” Christchurch Press, 8 July 2002

“Maria Grenfell caught the simple wisdom of Pooh bear perfectly in her flute sketches of Four Pooh Stories.” Christchurch Press, 8 July 2002

“Imaginative, melodious and satisfyingly manic…[I’ve Got Wind] is one of those felicitous collaborations between actors and musicians – and a composer and a writer, both with imagination.  After a chirpy little overture we get into the story… And driving the thing along is Maria Grenfell’s melodious and atmospheric “wind music”. The Mercury (Hobart), May 2002

“I found myself returning again and again to Maria Grenfell's "Stealing Tutunui", a tone-poem which, in its eight-and-a-half minutes, manages to vividly characterise the main elements of the story, in Maori legend, of the theft of a pet whale, and the act of retribution which follows. Grenfell conjures up an opening seascape fully worthy to stand alongside Sibelius's "Oceanides" in its atmosphere and potency, and the recording does its part in capturing the music's breadth and depth, flaring up excitingly as the full orchestral sonority graphically depicts the betrayed whale's death-throes.  No less captivating are the insinuating rhythms and textures characterising the dancing and entertaining games of the women sent to identify and kidnap the whale-thief (the laughter of the unsuspecting audience at the women's antics is almost palpable), the composer skilfully augmenting the rhythmic trajectories in a way that leads unerringly towards the moment of the thief's recognition.  But Grenfell has her eye and ear firmly upon the story's denouement, which, after the kidnapping by enchantment of the thief, and his return to the whale's owner, expresses itself in a rising orchestral tide of growing awareness, determination and horror that bursts upwards and outwards, as the moment of revenge is savoured.  If ever a work was destined to become a standard classic of the New Zealand orchestral repertoire, this, I think, is one. Nothing is over-wrought or clumsily handled - every detail has an engaging sense of its place in the overall structure, beguilingly leading the ear ever onwards.” Peter Mechen, New Zealand Music Reviews, 2002 http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/petermec/

“I’ll be surprised if Maria Grenfell’s “Chorale Fanfare” isn’t quickly taken up by orchestras as a sure-fire concert-opening showpiece, a piece whose attractive instrumental colourings, infectious rhythms and overall sense of joyous energy and well-being would surely make it a favourite with audiences. From the wonderfully ripe brass flourishes at the piece’s beginning, through chattering dialogues between wind and brass, with strings and percussion adding their syncopated punctuation, and the blood-quickening eruption of movement into a bluesy promenade, to the brass’s steady upward ripening which results in the percussive excitement of the final toccata-like bars, the listener is engaged, whirled away with the music’s obvious love of life… We hear again that crescendo of conglomerated orchestral colour which galvanises the music’s momentum into a jogtrot, and the gloriously saturated string line that swoops and dives around and about the rhythms.” Peter Mechen, New Zealand Music Reviews, 2001 http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/petermec/

“Maria Grenfell’s Stealing Tutunui, already in the TSO’s repertoire, draws on Maori legend – an accessible and declamatory work experimenting with poly-rhythms and ostinati… Performances at Grenfell’s Sunday concert were consistently even, showcasing her diversity and richness.” The Mercury (Hobart), 17 October 2001

“Standouts included the concert Guitar Four Girls and the Song Company.  The guitar group was exceptional in its textural explorations between instruments and satisfyingly expansive of structure and techniques—highlights: Maria Grenfell’s sparkling Tuscan journey [‘Di Primavera’], a lush mosaic and complex, juicy dialogue between marimba and guitar, grape and sun.” RealTime 2001, review of National Women’s Music Festival, Australia

" 'A Feather of Blue' is the finest I have yet heard from the young ex-Christchurch composer Maria Grenfell.  Formerly she had always possessed craft of compositional excellence.  To this she has now added the higher qualities of strongly memorable ideas and a distinct personality.  You don't have to be wildly modern to create a forcefully individual style and expressive depth." Christchurch Star, 2001

"It is rare to leave a concert feeling that the most enjoyable experience has been the hearing of a premiere.  But such was the case yesterday afternoon when the chamber ensemble Ethos played 'Poems of a Bright Moon' by composer Maria Grenfell… Charming idiomatic music for all three instruments was the substance of this three-section composition, inspired by the poetry of eighth-century bard Li Po.  The poet's own tragicomical end when, drunk, he fell out of a boat and drowned while reaching for the moon, is somewhat mirrored in the mood of each poem. Especially notable was the writing for alto flute and its combination with the clarinet." The Dominion (Wellington), 2000

"Grenfell's 'Blue Green Red Black' for percussion quartet plays with poly-rhythms and pitch relationships, creating colours and textures that shift throughout the piece." The Mercury (Hobart), 2000

"… A new work by… composer Maria Grenfell, 'Dancing in the Snake Pit.'  Often this piece was more of a duel than a duet with cross-rhythms and opposing ostinati pitting the oboe against the piano.  I was impressed by both the piece and the performance." Christchurch Star, 1999

"Ed Allen played… a personable and witty 'Prelude, Fugue and Foxtrot' by Maria Grenfell." The Press (Christchurch), 1999

 “The most popular work in this program was the "Four Pooh Stories" by Maria Grenfell. Dr [Alexa] Still provided a narrative to each of the stories introducing each character’s musical theme in such a way that immediately endeared the character to the audience (it might have something to do with the accent).  The adventures of Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Kanga and Roo kept the audience enthralled and there was a rush to purchase a copy of the music straight after the recital had finished.” Review of 1999 Australian Flute Convention

" 'Serenades and Skirmishing' by … Maria Grenfell is an engaging, relatively conservative work that gained the warmest response of the evening.  In both melodic (serenades) and rhythmic (skirmishing) passages it showed very good use of counterpoint.  A lush but varied orchestration also reinforced the piece's contrasts." The Australian, 1997

"Maria Grenfell's commissioned work ['Concertino'] opened with spiky, highly rhythmic motifs; later, it turned to rich sonorities.  A variety of moods were created through skilful string writing and well-controlled dynamic changes.  The solo passages, by the unusual combination of clarinet (Marina Sturm), cello (Rowan Prior) and double bass (Victoria Jones) presented considerable technical difficulty, especially the exceptional use of the higher reaches of the double bass.  An exciting and abrupt ending completed a striking first hearing." The Dominion (Wellington), 1995