Ross Edwards (composer)

Ross Edwards (born 23 December 1943) is an Australian composer of a wide variety of music including orchestral and chamber music, choral music, children's music, opera and film music.

Life

Ross Edwards was born in Sydney. He received his early musical education at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, completing his Master of Music degree at the University of Adelaide and graduating as Doctor of Music from the University of Sydney. His teachers have included Peter Sculthorpe, for whom he later worked as an assistant, Richard Meale, Sandor Veress and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, with whom he studied in Adelaide and again in London in the early 1970s. Returning to Australia, he held teaching positions at the University of Sydney and the Sydney Conservatorium before becoming a freelance composer in 1980.

Among many awards, he considers two Keating Fellowships received in the 1990s to have been crucial to his development. He is based in Sydney, where he lives with his wife, Helen, spending as much time as possible working in his studio in the Blue Mountains, west of the city.

Works

Ross Edwards’ output includes symphonies, concertos, chamber and vocal music, children’s music, film scores, opera and music for dance.

Well known compositions include his Piano Concerto; a violin concerto titled "Maninyas"; and a symphony "Da pacem domine". His Oboe Concerto, which includes choreography for the oboist-cum-dancer, was premiered in 2002 by Diana Doherty under the baton of Lorin Maazel. Maazel invited her to play and dance it with the New York Philharmonic in 2005, and the concerto and Doherty have since become world-famous.

Works designed for the concert hall sometimes require special lighting, movement, costume and visual accompaniment.

External links

* [http://www.amcoz.com.au/composers/composer.asp?id=436 Biography of Ross Edwards] - maintained by the Australian Music Centre
* http://www.rossedwards.com/