Music: Count Us In (MCUI), Australia’s largest school music initiative, is thrilled to announce one of Australia’s most treasured singer-songwriters Lior as the mentor for 2020. MCUI has a presence in every state and territory, engaging hundreds of thousands of students every year in music participation and delivering much needed resources and training to teachers. Lior will work with four talented students and MCUI Program Ambassador, John Foreman, to write this year’s program song.
“Music makes us better people. The wide ranging positive flow on effects from better music education has been proven time and time again. I’m excited about working with talented young songwriters to create this year’s program song that will be sung by hundreds of thousands of school students around Australia, and to work together with ‘Music – Count Us In’ in celebrating the power of music education.” Lior on being MCUI’s 2020 mentor.
Lior burst on to the Australian music scene in 2005 with his stunning debut album ‘Autumn Flow’ (including much loved and timeless opening track ‘This Old Love’). The album was released at a time when independently funded and released records were still a rarity, Lior being one of only a handful of artists paving the way for a model that is now deemed common place. ‘Autumn Flow’ achieved Platinum status and went on to become one of the most successful independent debuts in Australian music history. A swag of accolades followed, including three Aria nominations including Best Male Artist, as well as Triple J’s prestigious ‘J Award’ nomination for Album of the Year.
Since then he has amassed an incredibly diverse artistic output of albums. His album ‘Doorways of my Mind’ was nominated for a further 2 ARIA awards including ‘Best Independent Release’ and ‘Best Breakthrough Artist’. ‘Corner of an Endless Road’ – debuted at #2 on the Australian Albums chart and picked up another 2 ARIA nominations including ‘Best Independent Release’.
Over the past decade, Lior has toured extensively both in Australia and internationally and has been a regular performer at WOMAD and art festivals around the world, including an entire season at the Edinburgh Festival. Alongside his own tours, Lior has also toured in collaboration with artists such as Melbourne vocal group ‘Invenio’ headed by Gian Slater, as well as several visual artists, string quartets and full symphony orchestras nationally.
Aside from writing and releasing original albums, Lior has developed a keen interest in collaboration and diversification. In 2013, Lior collaborated with renowned composer Nigel Westlake in writing a song cycle for voice and orchestra titled ‘Compassion’ which won the ARIA for ‘Best Classical Album’. Lior also wrote and performed the much loved closing track ‘Hoot’s Lullaby’ to the ABC Children’s show ‘Giggle and Hoot’. ‘Hey Hootabelle’, another Lior track commissioned by the ABC for the show went on to win the ‘Best Original Song Composed for the Screen’ at the 2012 APRA Screen Music Awards.
In 2019, Lior was awarded the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowhship for ‘outstanding talent and exceptional courage’, one of only nine artists nationally across all artforms to receive the award.
Teachers and schools can register now for free access to the Music: Count Us In 2020 resources and song, which will be available in time for Term 3. All schools and teachers are eligible.
