Peter Sculthorpe

Peter Sculthorpe was an Australian composer who was born in Launceston, Tasmania, on 29 April 1929. He showed an early interest in music and began composing at the age of seven. He studied at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and later at Wadham College, Oxford, where he was influenced by the music of Bartók, Stravinsky and Sibelius. He returned to Australia in 1954 and became a lecturer at the University of Sydney. He developed a distinctive musical style that incorporated elements of Aboriginal Australian music, Asian music, environmental sounds and Australian folk songs. He composed works for various ensembles and genres, such as orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental music. Some of his most famous works include Irkanda IV (1955), Sun Music I-IV (1965-1974), Kakadu (1988), Earth Cry (1986), Requiem (2004) and his 18 string quartets. He also wrote two operas: Rites of Passage (1972-73) and Quiros (1982-2007). He was widely regarded as one of the most important and original composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, not only in Australia but also internationally. He received many awards and honours for his work, such as the Order of Australia, the Order of the British Empire, the Don Banks Music Award, the Silver Jubilee Medal, the Australian National Living Treasure and the Kyoto Prize. He died on 8 August 2014 in Sydney at the age of 85 from complications following a stroke.