The spunky and talented Tim Hansen is treating Canberra audiences to a night of his own compositions on Friday, November 28, 2008 in Joyful Traveller. This is your last chance to catch Hansen before he heads over to Ireland.

Most recently seen as Musical Director and pianist in Singer, Dancer, Actor featuring Jarrad West, Hansen is well known as a cabaret performer. But there is more to his talents than show tunes.

“I have a double-edged sword of sorts when it comes to my creative output,” Hansen said. “I work with both theatre and music, and for me cabaret was a fairly natural and obvious way to join the two. Cabaret however, is sort of my 'bread-and-butter' work I guess, along with tutoring and teaching. While I love them all, at the core of all my work is a passion for music composition, which I love and have done as long as I can remember. But a flair for theatricality pervades all my composition, and my work has often been described as sort of a musical story.”

As noted in the ACTgay feature on Matthew Frawley in October, Hansen has composed some of the music for the pacific school games opening ceremony on Saturday November 29, 2008.

“The opening ceremony is going to (amongst other things) give a bit of a history of Canberra, and so I was asked to write a song about Sheep (because Canberra was a sheep station before it was Canberra) and a song about Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahoney Griffin designing Canberra. It was great fun, especially as it allowed me to bust out a few cheesy puns,” Hansen said. A 200 voice choir and concert band will accompany the thousand kids from around the ACT that will perform.

Songs for a Joyful Traveller will be made up almost entirely of Hansen’s own work, but he’s also bunged in one little Cabaret medley to break it up. “Can't have a show without a show tune,” Hansen said. The concert will include works for solo piano, solo harp, choir, and several chamber ensembles. The title piece 'Songs for a Joyful Traveller' is a written for four cellos.

“My compositional style I guess you could describe as accessible and narrative. I prefer my music to be something that an audience can understand on the first listen, and while I have the greatest respect for composers who create highly complex and process-driven pieces, I have neither the skill nor the patience to work like that. I like my pieces to be raw, emotional and evocative,” Hansen said. We’re in for a treat.

His tastes are very broad but his favourite composers include Carl Vine (another gay composer), Nigel Westlake, the US composer and in Hansen’s words, “very nice man”, Martin Bresnick, Tom Waits and Tori Amos. “But my musical hero would have to be Elena Kats-Chernin,” said Hansen. Kats-Chernin is most widely known as the composer of the Late Night Live theme music, Russian Rag. “She changed the way I thought about music forever, and have had the pleasure of meeting and talking to her on several occasions. A beautiful person who writes incredible music.”

As a gay teen keen on music, Hansen’s CD collection consisted entirely of Broadway shows and Liza Minnelli. But his home town of Orange, NSW, wasn't exactly 'queer-friendly' and like many queers, he never quite fitted in. It took until he’d well and truly left Orange before he came out fully. “Music for me was a way to get out all my frustration and confusion. Still now, after being out and proud for nearly eight years, I still find music to be a vent when my emotions are bubbling overtime.”

Although not yet 30, Hansen has had his works played and recorded in the US, Germany and the UK, as well as numerous concerts around Australia. His personal career highlight will always be winning his first competition in Darwin in 2005. “I think it really cemented for me that this [music] was my career now, and not an amusing distraction that I'd give up when I got a 'real' job,” Hansen said.

Within a few weeks, Hansen will be heading off to Ireland, mainly to give him a break but also to expand his horizons. Ireland seemed to him like a nice place to live, even though he’s perplexed why he chose Winter to arrive. A new theatrical work based on Puccini’s Madame Butterfly in collaboration with Canberra’s Adam Spreadbury-Maher is planned for the end of 2009 in London. And in 2010 he plans to return to Uni and to do his Masters, preferably in the USA.

Like many exceptionally creative people, Hansen also enjoys his physical side. He’s a keen swimmer and gym goer. Being alone in nature is another of his great passions. He loves getting out there with no one else around. His friends are his other big love and his heart and soul.

Once he’s over in Europe, he’ll spend Christmas and New Year with brothers and sisters in Prague. “I can't wait. Although it'll be weird to have Christmas without my Mum and Dad. This'll be my first Christmas away from them,” Hansen said.

Songs for a Joyful Traveller, 8pm, Friday, November 28, 2008. $20. www.timhansen.com.au The Street Theatre. Bookings 6247 1223

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