David Page
Composer

Born 1961 in Brisbane, descended from the Noonukul people of Stradbroke Island and the Munaldjali clan of the Yugambeh nation of south-east Queensland. His music career began as a solo singer when he was 13, recording two singles for the Atlantic label. He made several TV appearances on the Mike Walsh Show and Countdown.

In the 1980s, he pursued music seriously at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music at Adelaide University, where he studied saxophone, voice, composition and song arrangement, and toured with its performing ensemble. He became a musician and songwriter for an Aboriginal and Islander band Azur, and sang, acted and danced in stage productions Murras by the Aboriginal playwright Eva Johnson, and in Reg Livermore's Big Sister.

David first teamed up with his brother Stephen as composer and choreographer in 1989 for Kayn Walu, a NAISDA College production. They also worked on Mooggrah together for the Sydney Dance Company's Shakespeare Dances. In 1991, David joined Bangarra Dance Theatre as resident composer and performer, composing and collaborating on the music for Ninni, Praying Mantis Dreaming and the Atlanta Olympic Games flag handover ceremony in 1996, amongst other projects.

He is particularly proud of his music for Ochres, which was released as a CD through Larrikin records and won the 1995 Deadly Sounds Award for Best Soundtrack. He went on to win that award for the next two years: with Alchemy, which Stephen choreographed for the Australian Ballet in 1996, and Fish for Bangarra in 1997.

David composed music for ABC TV's Poison, Pride and Songlines. He collaborated with Chris Neal on the theme music for the ABC TV series Heartland, which was nominated for an APRA Award. He composed soundtracks for six short films for the Australian Film Commission and for the documentary on Indigenous copyright issues, Copy Rites. He was the subject of a documentary with his brothers, Urban Clan, screened on TV in Australia and the UK.

As well as performing with Bangarra at Womad concerts in Adelaide and Johannesburg in 1999, he took the leading role of Frank Doyle in Wesley Enoch's musical production The Sunshine Club for the Queensland Theatre Company. In 2000 he collaborated with Stephen Francis on the music for Bangarra's Skin and contributing music to the opening ceremonies of the Sydney Olympic Games and the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival. He is also featured in the Brisbane Festival as an actor in the play Fountains Beyond, as well as a composer for Skin and a commissioned orchestral piece for the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra.

David has recently featured in Sydney Theatre Company's 2001 production of The Cherrypickers.

In 2002 David Page and Steve Francis were honoured by the Indigenous community when they received a 'Deadly Award' (National Indigenous Music, Sport, Entertainment and Community Awards) for Excellence in Theatrical Score.
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Steve Francis
Composer & Producer
Steve Francis is a music producer and composer who has worked with performers as diverse as Bob Geldof, the Divinyls and the Australian Ballet.

Born in the U.K., he grew up in Adelaide and divided his time between uni and playing in local original bands doing the 'pub circuit'. After touring Australia with Fat Lip, a hard rock band most know for long hair, tight jeans and far too many Marshalls, Steve moved to Sydney to pursue his career. After signing a major record deal with his band Kamsha, in the mid-eighties, Steve again toured live as well as performed on Countdown, Sounds and other TV shows. From this Steve decided to move into the production side of the business.

At first freelance and for the past 10 tears with his own recording facility Steve has produced, engineered and programmed for a huge variety of artists.

Starting with chart topping pop acts such as Melissa, Euphoria and Toni Pearen, Steve moved into more organic styles with bands such as The Divinyls, Matt Finish and more recently young Triple J unearthed winners, Sick Puppies. He even recorded Bob Geldof in a field in Goondiwindi for Channel 4 in Britain.

Steve has also composed music for ABC TV's award-winning Box, SBSTV's Passing Through, the Australian Film Commission's Saturday Night, Sunday Morning and Leah Purcell's amazing solo show Box The Pony.

For Bangarra Dance Theatre he has produced the music for Fish, co-composed Bipotim for DanceClan, acted as musical director for the company's WOMAD performances and produced and composed music for Skin and Corroboree.

Steve produced and co-composed music for Awakenings, the Indigenous section of the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.

Most recently Steve composed the score for Black Talk, a film written and directed by Wayne Blair whose performance in Bangarra's Skin was not easily forgotten. Black Talk debuted at the 2002 Sydney Film Festival.

In 2002 Steve Francis and David Page were honoured by the Indigenous community when they received a 'Deadly Award' (National Indigenous Music, Sport, Entertainment and Community Awards) for Excellence in Theatrical Score.
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The beautiful music David and Steve have created for various Bangarra productions is available on a number of CDs. These can be purchased by contacting Bangarra Dance Theatre or can be purchased online through ChaosMusic.

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