Fata Morgana
for trumpet and piano
Composed for Stephen Mosa'ati
Commissioned by the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) as part The ANAM Set 2025 and written for Stephen Mosa'ati, with its world premiere during ANAM’s 2025 recital season at the Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne.
This ANAM Set commission was generously supported by the Anthony and Sharon Lee Foundation
Program notes:
Fata Morgana takes its name from a rare and distinctive type of mirage that appears on the horizon. These phenomena can make distant objects, such as islands, cities or ships, look bigger, closer, or even suspended in the air, blurring the boundaries between reality and illusion. The music explores these ideas by moving between hushed, lyrical and improvisatory passages (mirages) and bold, strident outbursts (the tangible). Illusions are further explored as murky piano harmonies envelop the trumpet before it pierces through with ascending, soaring lines. Listening to the music of the late and great Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stańko was another significant inspiration, especially his incredible array of timbres that flow seamlessly between the veiled and the crystalline.
About the composer:
Tristan Coelho writes music largely inspired by the natural environment or our digital, data-driven world.
Project highlights include Hokusai Mixtape for flute, viola, harp and live electronics toured by Contra Concerts in 2021 and winner of the 2022 APRA/AMCOS Art Music Award for Work of the Year: Chamber Music; Rhythm City, for piano, live video sampler and electronics performed by Zubin Kanga; Smell of the Earth, commissioned for the Canberra International Music Festival and performed by Tambuco Percussion; read/write error, commissioned by Ensemble Offspring, and an interactive music soundscape walk inspired by the local surrounds of Mount Wilson in the Blue Mountains created in collaboration with harpist Emily Granger.
Tristan’s orchestration and arrangement credits include work for Japanese video game composer Hitoshi Sakimoto, Australian composers Brenda Gifford and Matthew Hindson, oud virtuoso Joseph Tawadros, UK electronic music producer Clark, Sydney Dance Company and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.
Tristan graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2006 with the University Medal and then went on to study at the Royal College of Music from 2007-2008. He has studied composition formally with Michael Smetanin, Damien Ricketson, Mary Finsterer, Trevor Pearce and David Sawer, and piano with Stephanie McCallum.
As a music educator, Tristan has taught the full spectrum of ages and abilities, writes works for student ensembles and runs creative music workshops. In 2020, Tristan collaborated with flautist Lamorna Nightingale on a new music education project entitled Other Voices. The project was funded by the APRA Art Music Fund and the NSW Government and is designed to enhance students’ composition, songwriting and music technology skills.
Tristan is a represented artist with the Australian Music Centre (AMC).