Details: Acclaimed Australia-based composer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, conductor, arranger, and frequent collaborator of bands such as The National and Clogs, Padma Newsome releases his new album, The Vanity of trees, through New Amsterdam Records. Padma Newsome was born in Alice Springs, Australia in 1961. He trained as a concert violist in Sydney, touring throughout Australia, China and the Pacific. In the mid 1980's, he left classical performance to spend six years on an ashram in New South Wales where he taught yoga, studied Indian classical music and participated in the center's musical activities. Newsome began formal studies in composition in the 1990's at the University of Adelaide and continued at Yale University on a Fulbright scholarship. His musical palette expresses colors of the modernist avant-garde, folk music from India and chamber music remnants along with energy of the pop/rock world. He composes for traditional large and small ensemble, the electro-acoustic medium, improvised chamber ensemble and music for dance, theatre and film. Padma resides in Mallacoota, Australia, where he mentors, teaches, and conducts the Mallacoota Choir.