Troy Grant MP Deputy Premier Minister for the Arts
MEDIA RELEASE
25 October 2014
NEW FELLOWSHIP TO HONOUR PETER SCULTHORPE
A Fellowship will be created to honour the contribution of Peter Sculthorpe AO OBE to Australia’s musical heritage.
Deputy Premier and Minister for the Arts, Troy Grant, said the $30,000 Sculthorpe Fellowship will be offered by the NSW Government and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney every second year beginning in 2015.
“Peter Sculthorpe is internationally-renowned and widely acknowledged as Australia’s most significant composer and his passing this year was felt by those who worked with him and enjoyed his music,” Mr Grant said.
“The Fellowship will support the professional development of an emerging NSW- based composer or performer dedicated to producing new Australian music.
“The NSW Government will fund the Fellowship in line with its commitment to support the professional development of artists across NSW,” Mr Grant said.
“The Conservatorium is honoured to continue the legacy of Peter’s composition and support for new Australian music with the announcement of this new Fellowship,” said Dr Karl Kramer, Dean of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
"Peter was a passionate Australian and a renowned teacher whose contribution to the development of Australian music is immense. It is appropriate that this legacy is recognised through the establishment of a new fellowship in his name for an emerging artist. He would have been delighted and honoured,” said Anne Boyd, on behalf of the Peter Sculthorpe Trustees.
A committee will be established comprising representatives from the Sculthorpe Trustees, the NSW Government and the University of Sydney to administer the Fellowship.
Further details on the Sculthorpe Fellowship will be made available early in 2015.
Media: Rachael Hayes 0408 235 997
Peter Sculthorpe AO OBE
Peter Sculthorpe AO OBE was born in Launceston in 1929 and educated at the University of Melbourne, and Wadham College, Oxford. He was an Emeritus Professor at the University of Sydney, where he began teaching in 1964.
He was a visiting fellow at Yale University, USA, and Sussex University, UK, and taught at universities within and outside Australia. He held honorary doctorates from the universities of Tasmania, Sydney, Melbourne, Sussex and Griffith. He was an Officer of both the Order of Australia and of the British Empire, and in 1998 he was elected a National Trust of Australia National Living Treasure. In 2002, he was elected to Foreign Honorary Membership of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Peter Sculthorpe wrote works in most musical forms. His output relates closely to the social and physical climate of Australia, and the cultures of the Pacific Basin. He was influenced by the music of Asia, especially by that of Japan and Indonesia. In recent years he was deeply influenced by Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music and culture.
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