Prelude Op.3 No.2 In C - Sharp Minor

A short album of pieces that are to be played spontaneously, impromptu.

Recorded 2015 at Burwood Sound Studios on a 1967 Steinway D. 

Impromptu op.90 no.3 in G-flat major

Hope, disdain and hope (2025) for Symphony Orchestra

'Excursion' (2025) for brass ensemble

Written in three movements, this sonata for cello and piano is not in traditional sonata form, yet it carries themes from the opening movement throughout the work. 
It explores aspects of grief in its many representations. The first movement,‘Lament', reflects the sadness and longing that grief brings. The second movement, ‘Naïvety', is denial in disguise, displaying innocent and surface-level emotions. Towards its conclusion, a foreign harmony intrudes - almost a knock at the door of the deeper, repressed feelings beneath the surface. The final movement, 'To another place', is more complex and less tonally centered than the previous two. It explores anger, confusion, depression, and anxiety, ultimately leading toward transformation. Here the opening motif returns, altered and renewed, suggesting healing, growth, and transcendence. Where this “other place” lies — inwardly or outwardly — is left for the listener to decide.


COLCHEEDAS Sonata for cello and piano (2025)

This short and innocent piece captures a fleeting moment of childhood — the end of a summer’s day spent roaming outside with friends or siblings. As the light fades and the streetlamps flicker on, there’s a quiet call to return home. In that pause between play and homecoming, reflection begins: a gentle sadness that the day has slipped away, mingled with the warmth of new memories made.

Calling (2025) for solo piano

Conifer: 'a tree that bears cones and needle-like or scale-like leaves that are typically evergreen.' 'Conifer sounding' was inspired by the pine tree next to my study and bedroom window. When the wind picks up it makes a great thin but strong whistling sound. The musical quote found in this work is from the middle movement clarinet solo of Respeghi's pini di Roma (mvt. III, Pines of the Janiculum). Written for clarinet in A and pre-recorded audio track

Conifer sounding (2025) for clarinet and pre-recorded track

Recorded on a Steinway D in Melba Hall June of 2016

Liszt Transcendental Etude No.1 In C Major, Prelude

S. Rachmaninov morceaux for four hands op.11 no.4, 'waltz'.

Rachmaninov Morceaux Op.11 No.4 Waltz

Rachmaninoff Morceaux Op.11 No.3 Russian Theme

The Dolly Suite, Op. 56, is a collection of pieces for piano four-hands by Gabriel Fauré. It consists of short pieces written or revised between 1893 and 1896, to mark the birthdays and other events in the life of the daughter of the composer's mistress.

Movement VI. "La pas espagnol", is a Spanish dance, a lively and picturesque piece of scene-painting, in the style of España by Fauré's friend Emmanuel Chabrier.

Sam Colcheedas, piano primo 
Chris Wong, piano secondo

Fauré: Dolly suite, op.56, VI. La pas espagnol

Andantino. The third section of the suite, "Le jardin de Dolly", was composed as a present for New Year's Day 1895. It contains a quotation from Fauré's First Violin Sonata, composed 20 years earlier. The Fauré scholar Jean-Michel Nectoux considers this "perhaps the jewel of the suite, with its lovely tune, moving harmonies and limpid, subtle counterpoint.

Sam Colcheedas, piano primo 
Chris Wong, piano secondo

Fauré: Dolly suite, op.56, III. Le jardin de Dolly

Allegro vivo. "Mi-a-ou" was written for Dolly's second birthday in June 1894. The title does not refer to a pet cat, as has often been supposed, but to Dolly's attempts to pronounce the name of her elder brother Raoul, who later became one of Fauré's favourite pupils. The young Dolly called her brother Messieu Aoul, which Fauré took as the original title for the piece. In his finished manuscript the title is shortened to "Miaou" (without hyphens). The Fauré scholar Robert Orledge writes that the title "Mi-a-ou", like that of the "Kitty-valse" later in the suite, is the responsibility of Fauré's publisher, Julien Hamelle.

Sam Colcheedas, piano primo 
Chris Wong, piano secondo

Fauré: Dolly suite, op.56, II. Miao

Allegretto moderato. The Berceuse, marking Dolly's first birthday, was a very early piece, composed in 1864 for Suzanne Garnier, the daughter of a family friend. In 1893 Fauré made some small amendments and changed its title from "La Chanson dans le jardin" to "Berceuse" – that is, a cradle song

Sam Colcheedas, piano primo 
Chris Wong, piano secondo

Fauré: Dolly suite, op.56, I. Berceuse

Am Springbrunnen depicts a flowing fountain, with cascades of arpeggios underneath its sweet singing melody. Performed and arranged for piano by Sam Colcheedas, live at Tempo Rubato, Melbourne,  Australia, 16th August 2019. Performed on a 102 key Stuart and Sons concert grand.
The German harpist / composer was born in 1834 and was professor of Harp at the St. Petersburg Conservatory not long after Anton Rubinstein founded the institution. Zabel was solo harpist with the Berlin Opera, then becoming solo harpist with the Imperial Ballet – a post which he held to the end of his life. It is therefore likely that he was the first harpist to play in such Tchaikovsky ballet scores as ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘The Nutcracker’, and it is possible that it was his style of harp playing which inspired the brilliant cadenzas Tchaikovsky included in these ballets.

Albert Zabel - Am Springbrunnen (La Source) arr. Sam Colcheedas

Commissioned by The Royal Society of Victoria in 2019, this is a solo piano work written for National Science Week 2019 alongside its theme of ‘ extrasensory’, which was premiered in the Parliament House of Victoria by Sam Colcheedas.
It encapsulates the last moments of NASA's Opportunity Rover that has roamed the surface of Mars for the past 15 years. The main motif in this work directly spells out ‘opportunity’ through note to letter assignment. Throughout this programmatic piece, what can be heard are portrayals of the desolate landscapes of mars, the isolation that Opportunity experienced, and the sandstorm that engulfed the planet and ultimately lead to the death of Opportunity. Prior to the storm, it sent its last transmission to Earth, saying; ‘My battery is low and it's getting dark.'

Performed live in concert at Tempo Rubato and composed by Sam Colcheedas on August 13th, 2019.

It's getting dark

Written in 2019 by Sam Colcheedas and premiered by the Invictus Quartet on November 2nd at Tempo Rubato.

'....particular scents re-ignite fond and distant memories. Whilst they may linger only momentarily, they bathe us in a soothing and euphoric nostalgia.'

"In the presence of particular scents and aromas, seemingly distant and fond memories can come flooding back into consciousness. These memories prior to then would have been stored deep inside the unconscious, and one thing that is possible to revive them is
the replicated scent present during the memory's formation. The feeling that is experienced during these moments of re-ignition can best be described as euphoric nostalgia. It is not just a recollection of a memory, it is the re-living of it to such replication that one is submerged in a momentary time capsule. Whether it be a childhood memory,
a past romance or a physical place and time, these aromatic evocations are indeed powerful and should be warmly embraced.
This piece explores the discovery of such aromas and how we involuntarily surrender to their nostalgic retellings of the past. It is in a single movement and the main 'dolce' theme that is announced in the opening by the first violin, represents a particular memory
that is explored and developed throughout the work. It contains a great amount of silence, representing both the natural rhythm of the breath and also the opportunity for reminiscence.
Subsequent and less central memories are also heard to interject intermittently, however our main theme and harmonies constantly linger in a vivid and nostalgic hue."

'Aromatic' Fantasy for String Quartet in F-sharp

Recorded in Trinity Chapel, December 2019. 
Soprano: Phillipa McQuinn
Cello: Kiya Van Der Linden-Kian
Piano: Sam Colcheedas

Composed by Sam Colcheedas.

Inferius, for soprano, cello and piano

Schubert's Fantasy in F minor D.940, performed by Sam Colcheedas (primo) and Chris Wong (secondo) in Trinity Chapel, Melbourne, 2019.

Thanks to Chris Healey for sound engineering.

Sam Colcheedas

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