Stephanie McCallum | Piano

Gerald Glynn: Three Astronomer Sonatas for piano solo (2018)

Copernicus

Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) was born in Torun, northern Poland. His uncle Lucas, the bishop of nearby Varmia, sent him to the University of Krakow, and some years later helped him to become a canon of the Catholic Church. Copernicus spent 10 years in Italy, beginning in Bologna where he studied canon law, then Rome where he taught mathematics, then Padua where he studied medicine, finally taking his doctorate in canon law in Ferrara. Once back in Poland, Copernicus had an observation platform built, which enabled him to pay special attention to eclipses and comets. In 1539 he was joined by Rheticus, a young mathematician from Wittenberg who persuaded Copernicus to publish his text 'De revolutionibus erbium coelestium' - Copernicus had hesitated, fearing ridicule from colleagues and censure from the church hierarchy.

Kepler

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was born at Weil der Stadt in Swabia. He graduated from Tübingen University, then attended theological college for four years before going to Graz to teach mathematics and astronomy. His first work, 'Mysterium cosmographicum', was published in 1597 and he sent a copy of it to Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) who carried out his observations and research into the stars, planets, comets and eclipses on the island of Hven which at the time was part of Denmark. Tycho shared his data with Kepler, who then used it to deduce and formulate his three Laws of Planetary Movement.

Galileo

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was born in Pisa and he enrolled at the University of Pisa in 1581, but did not take a degree. His experiments included dropping heavy or light objects from the Leaning Tower to prove they fell at the same rate; when the first telescope arrived from Holland, Galileo improved the instrument to further explore the moon and the moons of Jupiter.

In 1965, Brisbane born Gerald Glynn (b.1943) gained his Bachelor of Arts degree with First Class Honours from the University of Queensland. The following year he studied with Peter Maxwell Davies at the University of Adelaide before moving to Sydney and gaining his M.A. from the University of Sydney in 1967. Glynn was awarded a French Government Scholarship in 1967 which enabled him to travel to Paris to study at the Conservatoire de Paris in the composition class of Olivier Messiaen, and then at the electronic studios of the French Radio (1968-1970).

Glynn has lived in Paris since 1967, working as a piano teacher, lecturer, and translator, but visits Australia regularly.

Stephanie appears by courtesy of The University of Sydney, Conservatorium of Music, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.