reviews
CUt Common REVIEW OF “A Rose is a Rose is a Ruse” WITH Ensemble Offspring
“Wolf has once again proven her place in Australia’s art music scene as a force to be reckoned with.” Read more
CLASSIKON REVIEW OF WANT NOT AT “MUSIC, SHE WROTE” WITH RUBIKS COLLECTIVE
"The work presented a fascinating contrast between the organic and the organized…both aurally and visually engaging.” Read more
CANBERRA CITY NEWS REVIEW OF BULL IN A CHINA SHOP AT “TECHNO FOLK” WITH ENSEMBLE OFFSPRING
"Playful and driving rhythms set up an aural landscape of many things. Its subtle framework and personal voice made it more dream-like than anything else.” Read more
MY MELBOURNE ARTS REVIEW OF THE MORE I THINK ABOUT IT, THE BIGGER IT GETS at THE FOREST COLLECTIVE GALA
"…audiences are taken on a soundwalk, which focused on violence against women and particularly the lack of freedom women have in interacting with the environment.” Read more
Partial Durations review of Imposter Syndrome at Tilde 2017
"A true double bass virtuoso, Patrick Lyons, played new works by the composers Jaslyn Robertson and Sam Wolf. With the help of a whispering electronic part in her work Imposter Syndrome, Wolf helped draw the audience’s focus away from the hulking solo instrument to contemplate sonic minutiae." Read more
partial durations review of this will be our reply
"In Melbourne, the composer Samantha Wolf produced a concert fundraiser for the Safe Steps Family Violence Response Centre. Entitled This Will Be Our Reply, the concert featured five thoughtful responses to the theme of International Women’s Day and violence against women in particular. Each of the five composers eschewed clichés to present an original musical response to these themes." Read more
XS ENTERTAINMENT REVIEW OF THE BINDS THAT TIE US AT THE HUMAN DETAINED
"The piece most fully realised theatrically was The Binds That Tie Us (performed by pianist Alex Raineri, and dancer/choreographer Gemma Dawkins). Raineri and Dawkins are seated at either end of a table, with a glass bowl of eggs on the table between them." Read more
BLUE CURTAINS REVIEW OF THE BINDS THAT TIE US AT THE HUMAN DETAINED
"As with any anthological work, there is sure to be varied standouts to audience experiences. Mine was Samantha Wolf’s “The Binds That Tie Us”, aka ‘the one with the eggs’, which is as enigmatic in realisation as presented in that description." Read more
ARTICLES
Sweethearts, villains and underdogs: Turning The Bachelor into something truly unique - SYDNEY MORNING HERALD FEATURE
“Wolf is passionate about bringing new audiences into the rarefied world of classical music. Writing a song about The Bachelor is one way to do that.” Read more
CUTTING EDGE: SEQUINS, SILLINESS AND SURVIVAl - feature in limelight magazine
“Samantha Wolf explains how bonding with reality TV during the pandemic inspired her new piece, which was composed as the 2022 Noisy Women Commission for Ensemble Offspring.” Read more
All about that bass as musicians prepare new classical festival - The Age
“Wolf, an Australian-born composer currently studying a masters in music and composition at Yale in the US, says she was captivated by the techniques that Gullick had found – “really cool, kind of ethereal, fragile sounds”… Read more
Samantha Wolf wins the 2019 sue W Chamber Music COmposition Prize: feature in limelight magazine
“By reimagining the sounds of everyday objects, Samantha Wolf’s composition Want Not has won the Sue W Chamber Music Composition prize for 2019, worth $7000.” Read more
‘Intriguing work’ wins music prize: University of Sydney
"Want Not is an intriguing work taking a sensual, tactile approach to sound that imaginatively responds to a challenging social and environmental issue,” said the chair of the judging panel, Professor Liza Lim.” Read more
SAMANTHA WOLF WINS THE INAUGURAL PYTHIA PRIZE: FEATURE IN LIMELIGHT MAGAZINE
"Samantha Wolf has won the inaugural Pythia Prize, a new commission project launched by Melbourne’s Rubiks Collective in order to help address the underrepresentation of female composers in Australia." Read more
A SUNBURNT COUNTRY: Interview with CutCommon Magazine
"Composer Samantha Wolf was commissioned to write Unbelonging for the project A Sunburnt Country, which premieres in Antwerp on 19 May. With the project exploring themes of identity, we settled in for a chat with Samantha about how her personal experiences have influenced the themes of her composition in this project." Read more
in praise of day jobs: rehearsal mag
"I’m going to tell you something I wish somebody had told me years ago: having a day job does not make you any less of an artist. In fact, having a day job can actually make you a better artist." Read more
This will be our reply: resonate magazine
"I want the listener to be bombarded with the threatening messages that surround women every day. I want the listener to be shocked and appalled, because violence against women is shocking and appalling. Most importantly, I want the listener to be moved enough to want to help, because that's what me and my team are doing." Read more
PODCASTS
ABC NEW WAVES PODCAST: KUPKA’S PIANO - ELEMENTAL
“New music from Kupka's associate artists, Samantha Wolf and Jakob Bragg, flutist Hannah Reardon-Smith, and contemporaries Lisa Illean and Samuel Smith.” Listen
ABC NEW WAVES PODCAST: RUBIKS COLLECTIVE - SPECIES
“Introducing a dynamic new ensemble from Melbourne with music by contemporaries Samantha Wolf, Samuel Smith, Holly Harrison and Rubiks keyboardist Jacob Abela.” Listen
MAKING CONVERSATION EPISODE 25
“Try to tap in to what interested you in music in the first place. For me, that’s an element of play, it’s an element of intuition as well, and an element of physicality. Try to nail down what it is that gets you excited and build it in to your music as much as you can.” Listen
'THE BINDS THAT TIE US': interview with partial durations
"Musical egg shells, a dancing pianist, and a long-distance collaborative relationship all feature in this month’s podcast. The composer Samantha Wolf, dancer Gemma Dawkins, and pianist Alex Raineri discuss their piece The Ties That Bind Us for Kupka’s Piano’s program The Human Detained." Listen