Blake completed a PhD entitled, The Invisible Man: Roman Palester, at the Sydney Conservaotirum of Music on a full Australian Postgraduate Award. Previously he completed a Master of Philosophy degree researching Polish émigré composer Andrzej Panufnik at the University of Adelaide and also holds a Bachelor of Music degree (Voice) with Honours from the same institution. He has held teaching/academic positions at the Avondale Conservatorium, the Wollongong Conservatorium of Music, Cranbrook School, The British School of Warsaw, and the Kings School.
He has presented papers at conferences all over the world, including, at the University of Glasgow, the University of South Australia, the Lithuanian Composers Union, the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music (UMFC), the Krakow Academy of Music, the Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan, the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, the Melbourne Conservatorium, the Perth Cathedral (Scotland), the Institute of Art - Polish Academy of Sciences, and Griffith University. He has published articles with the Lithuanian Composers’ Union, the Cambridge Scholars, Polski Rocznik Muzykologiczny, and the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. At the invitation of Lady Camilla Panufnik, Blake worked on the revitalization of the Panufnik Archives in London and has presented educational arts and music workshops in China, and throughout Australia.
Blake has received awards and grants from the South Australian State Government (Arts Department), the Herbert Johnson Travel Grant, the Grant in Aid Scheme, ARS Music Australis, the Dundee City Council, the Sydney Savage Club, the Sydney University Postgraduate Research Support Scheme, the Walter and Dorothy Duncan trust, and was a recipient of the prestigious George Boland Post-graduate Scholarship at the University of Adelaide. He has severed on the board of the Musicology Society of Australia (South Australian Branch), the Elder Conservatorium of Music Postgraduate Board, and was one of the founders and the first Vice President of the Adelaide University Sound Exchange Club.
He has presented papers at conferences all over the world, including, at the University of Glasgow, the University of South Australia, the Lithuanian Composers Union, the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music (UMFC), the Krakow Academy of Music, the Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan, the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, the Melbourne Conservatorium, the Perth Cathedral (Scotland), the Institute of Art - Polish Academy of Sciences, and Griffith University. He has published articles with the Lithuanian Composers’ Union, the Cambridge Scholars, Polski Rocznik Muzykologiczny, and the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. At the invitation of Lady Camilla Panufnik, Blake worked on the revitalization of the Panufnik Archives in London and has presented educational arts and music workshops in China, and throughout Australia.
Blake has received awards and grants from the South Australian State Government (Arts Department), the Herbert Johnson Travel Grant, the Grant in Aid Scheme, ARS Music Australis, the Dundee City Council, the Sydney Savage Club, the Sydney University Postgraduate Research Support Scheme, the Walter and Dorothy Duncan trust, and was a recipient of the prestigious George Boland Post-graduate Scholarship at the University of Adelaide. He has severed on the board of the Musicology Society of Australia (South Australian Branch), the Elder Conservatorium of Music Postgraduate Board, and was one of the founders and the first Vice President of the Adelaide University Sound Exchange Club.
Published Works
Parham, Blake. "Sir Andrzej Panufnik; a Study of Musical Dislocation." in Spaces of (Dis)Location. Eds. Hamilton, Rachael , Allison Macleod and Jenny Munro. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013: pp.90-107 ISBN: 987-1-4438-4938-8.
Parham, Blake. "Andrzej Panufnik and Andre Dzierzynski: Art, Music and Poland." in Muzikos Komponzvimo Principai: muzikos ir vaizduojamuju mewu sasajos [Principles of Music Composing: Links between Music and Visual Arts]. 12 2012: pp.92-99. ISBN: 978-609-8071-09-2
Parham, Blake. "Roman Palester the Master of Neoclassical Dodecaphony. How a Modern Composer Combined Dodecaphony with Classical Aesthetics." in Dzieło muzyczne wobec tradycji kulturowych: Musical Works and Cultural Traditions. Bydgoszcz: The Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, 2021: pp. 137-148 ISBN: 978-83-61262-74-9
Parham, Blake. "A New Home Leads to Compositional Evolution: Roman Palester’s Preludes for Piano (1954)" Polski Rocznik Muzykologiczny, vol.19, no.1, 2021, pp.209-256. https://doi.org/10.2478/prm-2021-0003
Parham, Blake. "Andrzej Panufnik and Andre Dzierzynski: Art, Music and Poland." in Muzikos Komponzvimo Principai: muzikos ir vaizduojamuju mewu sasajos [Principles of Music Composing: Links between Music and Visual Arts]. 12 2012: pp.92-99. ISBN: 978-609-8071-09-2
Parham, Blake. "Roman Palester the Master of Neoclassical Dodecaphony. How a Modern Composer Combined Dodecaphony with Classical Aesthetics." in Dzieło muzyczne wobec tradycji kulturowych: Musical Works and Cultural Traditions. Bydgoszcz: The Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, 2021: pp. 137-148 ISBN: 978-83-61262-74-9
Parham, Blake. "A New Home Leads to Compositional Evolution: Roman Palester’s Preludes for Piano (1954)" Polski Rocznik Muzykologiczny, vol.19, no.1, 2021, pp.209-256. https://doi.org/10.2478/prm-2021-0003
Masters Thesis: Sir Andrzej Panufnik, Migration and Music
Many composers have been forced, or chosen to leave their homeland and begin a new life in a foreign country. While this is often observed in composers’ biographies, not a lot of attention is given to what effect the dislocation may have on the composer and their music. Sometimes as a result of dislocation, composers who were acclaimed in their homeland will find themselves outsiders in their new country, and their music ignored. This thesis will examine the effect which dislocation from Poland had on the life and music of Sir Andrzej Panufnik (1914-1991), still an under-rated, under-performed and under-recognised composer of the modern era.
Andrzej Panufnik was considered one of Poland’s most promising composers in the 1940s. After the communist takeover of 1945-47 Panufnik was exploited as a propaganda tool. The regime pressured their favoured young composer to create in the rigid communist cultural doctrine of Socialist Realism introduced to Poland at the infamous Lagów conference of 1949. Later on, following the death of his first child, Panufnik could no longer bear the stress of political, cultural and musical compromise and hence defected to the United Kingdom in 1954. From this point on Panufnik’s music was banned in Poland for over two decades. He did not return to his motherland until 1990, after it had become free and democratic once more. This dislocation greatly affected his compositions from 1954.
A copy of Blake's thesis can be found at http://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/handle/2440/85349
Andrzej Panufnik was considered one of Poland’s most promising composers in the 1940s. After the communist takeover of 1945-47 Panufnik was exploited as a propaganda tool. The regime pressured their favoured young composer to create in the rigid communist cultural doctrine of Socialist Realism introduced to Poland at the infamous Lagów conference of 1949. Later on, following the death of his first child, Panufnik could no longer bear the stress of political, cultural and musical compromise and hence defected to the United Kingdom in 1954. From this point on Panufnik’s music was banned in Poland for over two decades. He did not return to his motherland until 1990, after it had become free and democratic once more. This dislocation greatly affected his compositions from 1954.
A copy of Blake's thesis can be found at http://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/handle/2440/85349