Graeme John Koehne (born 3 August 1956), is an Australian composer and music educator. He is best known for his orchestral and ballet scores, which are characterised by direct communicative style and embrace of
tertian harmony. His orchestral trilogy ''Unchained Melody'', ''Powerhouse'', and ''Elevator Music'' makes allusions to Hollywood film score traditions, cartoon music, popular Latin music and other dance forms.
Life and career
Koehne was born in
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
. He completed his undergraduate and post-graduate studies at the
Elder Conservatorium of Music in that city, studying composition with
Richard Meale
Richard Graham Meale, AM, MBE (24 August 193223 November 2009) was an Australian composer of instrumental works and operas.
Biography
Meale was born in Sydney. At the time the Meale family lived in Marrickville, an inner suburb of Sydney. Meale' ...
– a pupil of
Winifred Burston
Winifred Charlotte Hillier Crosse Burston (3 April 1889 – 24 June 1976) was an Australian pianist and teacher.
She was born near Caboolture, Queensland, of English-born parents, raised in Brisbane, and taught by her mother, an accomplished pia ...
, who had been a pupil of
Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni (1 April 1866 – 27 July 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary ...
.
In 1982 he won the Young Composers Prize at that year's
Adelaide Festival
The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...
, gaining him national attention for his orchestral work ''Rainforest''.
[Martin Buzacott, "Powerhouse", '' ABC Radio 24 Hours'', April 1999, p. 38] In 1984, Koehne was awarded a
Harkness Fellowship
The Harkness Fellowship (previously known as the Commonwealth Fund Fellowship) is a program run by the Commonwealth Fund of New York City. This fellowship was established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships and enable Fellows from several cou ...
to work at the
School of Music
A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger ins ...
,
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...
. Here he studied with
Louis Andriessen
Louis Joseph Andriessen (; 6 June 1939 – 1 July 2021) was a Dutch composer, pianist and academic teacher. Considered the most influential Dutch composer of his generation, he was a central proponent of The Hague school of composition. Althoug ...
and
Jacob Druckman. For two years of the fellowship he also took private lessons with
Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclass ...
.
[
He returned to Australia in 1986 and was appointed Lecturer in Composition at the Elder Conservatorium of Music. In the early 1990s he collaborated with librettist Louis Nowra on the chamber opera ''Love Burns'', which was premiered at the 1992 Adelaide Festival.][ Around this time, he commenced his long and fruitful collaboration with choreographer Graeme Murphy, which included a children's ballet based on ]Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
's '' The Selfish Giant'' and the full-length work ''Nearly Beloved''.
As of 2005, Koehne is Head of Composition at the Elder Conservatorium of Music. Until recently he also chaired the Music Board of the Australia Council
The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austr ...
and was a board member of the council.
Graeme is married to former model, now advertising Creative Director of Oranje Creative, Melinda Parent. Graeme and Melinda have one son Willem Lukas Christiaan (Born 2007).
Works
Ballets
*''Nearly Beloved'' (1986; Sydney Dance Company
Sydney Dance Company is a contemporary dance company in Australia. The company has performed on stages around the world, including the Sydney Opera House in Australia, the Joyce Theater in New York, the Shanghai Grand Theatre in China, and the ...
)The Australian Ballet
The Australian Ballet is the largest classical ballet company in Australia. It was founded by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1962, with the English-born dancer, teacher, repetiteur and direc ...
)
*''The Selfish Giant'' (1983; Sydney Dance Company)Tivoli
Tivoli may refer to:
* Tivoli, Lazio, a town in Lazio, Italy, known for historic sites; the inspiration for other places named Tivoli
Buildings
* Tivoli (Baltimore, Maryland), a mansion built about 1855
* Tivoli Building (Cheyenne, Wyoming), ...
'' (2001; Sydney Dance Company/The Australian Ballet co-production)Spitta's Johann Sebastian Bach
''Johann Sebastian Bach'' is a 19th-century biography of Johann Sebastian Bach by Philipp Spitta. The work was published in German in two volumes, in 1873 and 1880 respectively.
The English translation by Clara Bell and J. A. Fuller Mait ...
: "...so that Bach was henceforth totally blind... On July 18 he suddenly found his eyesight restored, and could bear daylight; but this was life's parting greeting...he died on Tuesday, July 28, 1750..."
Concertos
*''InFlight Entertainment'' (2000, oboe concerto)
Orchestral
*''Rainforest'' (c. 1982)
*''Unchained Melody'' (1991)
*''Powerhouse'' (1993)
*''Elevator Music'' (1997)
*''Way Out West'' (2000)
*''Sleep of Reason'' (2008)
*''Song of the Open Road'' (2017)
Albums
Honours and awards
In 2001, Koehne was awarded the Centenary Medal
The Centenary Medal is an award which was created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the centenary of the Federation of Australia and to recognise "people who made a contribution to Australian society or g ...
.
In the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours List, Koehne was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Go ...
(AO), "for distinguished service to the performing arts as a composer of chamber, concert and ballet music, and through substantial contributions as an educator and arts administrator."
APRA Awards
The APRA Awards are held in Australia and New Zealand by the Australasian Performing Right Association
APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwri ...
to recognise songwriting skills, sales and airplay performance by its members annually.
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File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...
, , ''Tivoli Dances'' , , rowspan="2", Orchestral Work of the Year , , , , rowspan="2",
Bernard Heinze Memorial Award
The Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award
The Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award, was inaugurated following the death of Sir Bernard Heinze in 1982.
The award is in the form of a medallion and is given to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to music in Australia.
The Award ...
is given to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to music in Australia.
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, -
, 2003 , , Graeme Koehne, , Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award , , , , Canberra International Music Festival
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References
Notes
Sources
*Bebbington, W. (ed.) (1997), ''The Oxford Companion to Australian Music'', Melbourne, Oxford University Press, pp. 324–325.
* Kennedy, Michael (2006), ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'', 985 pages,
*Williams, L. (1988) "Emerging Australian Composers", ''The Musical Times'', Vol. 129, No. 1749. (Nov. 1988), pp. 591–594.
External links
Graeme Koehne: Represented Artist
profile at the Australian Music Centre
The Australian Music Centre (AMC), formerly known briefly as Sounds Australian, is a national organisation promoting and supporting art music in Australia, founded in 1974. It co-hosts the Art Music Awards along with APRA AMCOS, and publishes ...
Elder Conservatorium, Graeme Koehne: Professor of Composition, contact details
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koehne, Graeme
1956 births
Living people
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
APRA Award winners
Australian male classical composers
Australian music educators
Ballet composers
Harkness Fellows
Musicians from Adelaide
Pupils of Jacob Druckman
Pupils of Louis Andriessen
Officers of the Order of Australia
Recipients of the Centenary Medal
University of Adelaide alumni
Yale University alumni
20th-century Australian male musicians
20th-century Australian musicians
21st-century Australian male musicians
21st-century Australian musicians