Resonate Magazine | Australian Music Centre

Image: Larry Sitsky at his 80th birthday celebration at the National Library in October 2014  
© National Library of Australia/ Sam Cooper

[Update 14 August - Sitsky's acceptance speech is available here.] Composer, pianist and scholar Larry Sitsky AM has been announced as the recipient of the 2015 Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music. Sitsky will receive this honour, for his significant and enduring contribution to Australian music, at the 2015 Art Music Awards ceremony at Sydney's City Recital Hall on Tuesday 11 August.

As a composer, Larry Sitsky has collaborated with every major orchestra in Australia, with pieces commissioned by many leading Australian and international bodies. Among his best-known compositions are the massive solo piano piece The Way of the Seeker; concertos for various solo instruments, including four for violin; the operas Lenz, The Golem and The Fall of the House of Usher; and an ever-expanding series of works spanning a number of different media, all entitled Fantasia.

Larry Sitsky became a Member of the Order of Australia in 2000 for his service to music as a composer, musicologist, pianist, and teacher, and his numerous other honours include the prestigious Don Banks Award.

His academic career has taken him to the San Francisco Conservatory, the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, and the School of Music in Canberra (now part of the Australian National University). Over the years, his teaching activities have spanned that of adjudicator, examiner, broadcaster, and guest lecturer for many professional music education societies. His students have also played an important role in his creative life.

Now 80, Larry Sitsky continues to perform, research and compose, with over 200 pieces on his list of works to date. His curiosity for new ideas and quest for discovery, in both his own music and the music of others, has made him a powerful force in shaping Australia's contemporary cultural life.

The recipient of the Distinguished Services to Australian Music award is determined each year by the APRA Board of Directors. Find out more about this year's Art Music Award finalists.

AMC resources

Larry Sitsky - AMC profile (biography, works, recordings, articles, events)
Commercial CDs and MP3s of Larry Sitsky's music available from the AMC Shop
AMC Calendar 4 September 2015: world premiere of Larry Sitsky's new work A Feast of Lanterns II by Halcyon at Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Articles on Resonate about Larry Sitsky and his music: 'Interview with Larry Sitsky' (by Andrew Ford); 'Larry Sitsky at 80' (by Judith Crispin) 'Three observations after thirty years with Larry Sitsky's Sonata for solo flute' (by Laura Chislett)