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Felix Gethen (1916-2002) : Associate Artist

Random Audio Sample: Irish rhapsody by Felix Gethen, from the CD Heritage 15.


Date of Birth: 17th October, 1916

Born in London, Felix Gethen studied at the Guildhall School of Music and the Royal College of Music. During the War he served with the Royal Engineers (1940-46), and was with the Control Commission in Germany between 1947 and 1950.

Arriving in Australia in 1951, Gethen settled in Tasmania and became Musical Arranger with the Hobart Symphony Orchestra. He taught part-time at the University of Tasmania from 1961 to 1967, when he became a temporary Lecturer in Music, and in 1968 joined the ABC as Music Supervisor in Tasmania. Gethen moved to Sydney in 1971 on becoming Federal Executive of Orchestras, and in 1976 was sent to England as Music Adviser to the London Office of the ABC. He returned to Sydney in October 1976.

A supporter of Australian composition, Gethen served on the organising committees of two significant composers' seminars held in Hobart in 1963 and 1965, and has conducted studio broadcasts by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra which have included works by Australian composers. His own compositions were presented at the Paris Rostrum of 1971, and in 1975 won Gethen the Italia Prize.

Felix Gethen died on 27 August, 2002.