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Abbey Felton
"During her time as our Hatched Associate Artist, Abbey really shone on stage with a natural stage presence. I was also really impressed with how hard she worked on a very challenging program of duos, trios and quartets featuring the guitar - and the concert was super memorable"
"Abbey's playing is poised and polished, with her crystal-clear sound and innate expression shining through in every performance"
Solo - Guitar
Instrumentation
- Abbey Felton - Guitar
Repertoire
Abbey is a passionate proponent of classical guitar works by contemporary Australian composers and women composers, and incorporates these works into her programs. Examples of her solo repertoire include:
- Julia Florida by Agustin Mangore Barrios
- Tangible by Kate Moore
- Tarantella by Johann Kaspar Mertz
- In Flow by Olivia Bettina Davies
- Stele by Phillip Houghton
- All in Twilight by Toru Takemitsu
- Sarabande by Francis Poulenc
Abbey also performs improvised and semi-improvised ambient music using looper, guitar, vocals, and other instruments.
Biography
After stumbling across the classical guitar at eleven (a dangerous thing to do given it's made of delicately crafted wood), Abbey began to love the instrument. She began seriously considering tertiary studies on the instrument in high school, and so began her Bachelor of Music (Classical Guitar) at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) in 2017.
Abbey is a guitarist, composer, and teacher from Perth, Western Australia. She is passionate about the performance and creation of contemporary classical guitar works, particularly by Australian and female composers. Abbey continues to develop her practice, collaborating with artists from a diverse range of fields. She has studied guitar with Dr Jonathan Paget and Dr Duncan Gardiner, and has participated in master classes with Karin Schaupp and Slava Grigoryan, among others. She specialises in composition and improvisation with looping station. Highlights of her composing career include performing with contemporary dancers for The Blue Room Theatre’s Winter Shorts 2019 program, participating in the first development of Stratified Knowing with Bethany Reece in 2020 (supported by Regional Arts Australia), and composing music for Enneagon Movement’s 'Ignorance Was Bliss' which is being toured later in 2024.
In 2020 Abbey undertook honours research into contemporary classical guitar works by Australian women composers, culminating in a recital of four works. Abbey has since performed selections of these works throughout 2021, in concerts in Perth, at the Twisted Spruce online symposium-competition based in the United States, and as a semi-finalist of the 2022 Adelaide International Guitar competition.
In 2023 Abbey was selected from a national call out to work with Ensemble Offspring, Australia's leading contemporary ensemble, as their Hatched Associate Artist. This is a year-long mentorship which involved commissioning a new chamber work and performing with the ensemble in Sydney in October 2023. She has since begun to form a mixed-instrumentation chamber ensemble in Perth that performs contemporary classical music, particularly works by local Western Australian composers.
Abbey is commencing a Master's of Music at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in September 2024. She looks forward to championing the works of Australian composers while abroad and returning to Perth with the skills to build into the local musical community.
Contact
