He was close to Beatles producer George Martin, partied with seminal 70s-era artists, produced punk group The Stranglers, was on the creative music team for James Bond film Live and Let Die and has influenced and inspired countless budding Brisbane musicians.
After 20 years at QUT music industry Professor Andy Arthurs is retiring with a spectacular swansong as artistic director of CreateX, a festival celebrating the public opening of the $88 million expansion of QUT’s Creative Industries Faculty at Kelvin Grove on Sunday 28 August.
The first person to obtain a recording degree in the UK, Arthurs began his career with AIR Studios in London, working with the production team who produced the Beatles and, in particular, producer and mentor Sir George Martin.
From the mid-1970s he was a freelance recording producer, sound designer, composer and recording artist, working with the likes of Paul McCartney, Bryan Ferry, Marc Bolan (T-Rex), Cat Stevens, the Waterboys, Harry Nilsson, Todd Rungren, Tom Robinson, Noosha Fox and Peter Sellars.
He discovered and produced Joe Jackson while his film work included the Bond film Live and Let Die and he also rewrote the music for Kenneth Anger’s classic movie Rabbit’s Moon.
Professor Arthurs joined QUT in 1997 as Associate Professor and Head of Music and has continued to compose for theatre, dance and screen. Since 2004 he has been artistic producer of the 21st Century orchestra DeepBlue, an internationally-recognised group which is part band, part orchestra and part movie.
In 2005 he was co-producer of The Ten Tenors CDs Larger Than Life and Tenology which went platinum in Australia and made the top ten in the USA.
A board member of the Brisbane Powerhouse since 2006, Arthurs has been a powerful force in the local music industry. Past students who have gone on to stellar careers include Kate Miller-Heidke, members of The Ten Tenors, music producer Yanto Browning, Hollywood sound designer Katrina Schiller and Hollywood composer Tim Davies
Recently announced 2016 QUT Alumnus of the Year Ms Miller-Heidke had high praise for Professor Arthurs.
“QUT lecturer Andy Arthurs changed my outlook on music. I created a truly original piece of art and found my niche in music,” she said.
The feedback from former students like Ms Miller-Heidke has been the icing on the cake of a colourful career.
“It’s been a great ride and a long way from my childhood notion of becoming a doctor,” Professor Arthurs said.
“I would say the most satisfying aspects of my time at QUT is the incredible depth of talent I have had the honour of helping to nurture and QUT’s world-first approach to creative industries.”
Now he’s ready to take on new challenges but not before putting on QUT’s first CreateX festival to publicly showcase the most sophisticated and technically advanced creative education space in Australia.
The centrepiece of the new QUT Creative Industries Precinct development accommodates dance, drama, music, visual art, creative writing, animation and creative research programs. It is fuelled by a state-of-the-art digital backbone and its design principles celebrate transparency, connectivity and a transdisciplinary approach.
The one-day CreateX festival of dazzling interactive performances and events, immersive games, workshops, films, robotics displays, talks and panels including Flow – the world’s first multi-space music-making experience where the public can walk through a piece of music, even contribute to it, and then create their own version of the captured performance using QUT’s new multi-million dollar state-of-the-art recording studio.
Families, students, industry professionals and anyone else interested in creativity and technology are invited to CreateX which starts at 10am and culminates in a concert featuring alumni singers Kate Miller-Heidke, Carita Farrer Spencer and Naomi Price along with dancer Michelle Ryan and the DeepBlue orchestra.
For more information and to book into a workshop visit the website, telephone 07 3138 3922 or email createx@qut.edu.au.
#QUTcreatex
Media contact:
Amanda Weaver, QUT Media, 07 3138 1841, amanda.weaver@qut.edu.au
After hours: Rose Trapnell, 0407 585 901, media@qut.edu.au
