Peter Sculthorpe(1929-2014)
- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Aged 16, he went to Melbourne University, graduating with a Bachelor of
Music in piano in 1950. His Piano Sonatina (1954), based on an
Aboriginal legend, was the first work of a resident Australian chosen
for performance at the International Society for Contemporary Music
Festival in Baden-Baden, Germany. In 1958, he was awarded the Lizette
Bentwich Scholarship by the University of Melbourne, which allowed him
to undertake postdoctoral studies at Oxford, England where he studied
composition with Edmund Rubbra and Egon Wellesz and came into contact
with contemporaries such as Peter Maxwell Davies and John Cage. Sculthorpe returned to
Australia in 1960 and in 1963 accepted the first appointment in
composition at the University of Sydney's Music Department. Sculthorpe
continues to be actively involved in the national and international
music scene, attending festivals and performances and teaching at
summer schools, as well as composing.
