Anne Elizabeth Boyd AM (born 10 April 1946) is an Australian composer and emeritus professor of music at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

Early life

Boyd was born in Sydney to James Boyd and Annie Freda Deason Boyd (née Osborn). Her father died when she was age 3, and her mother sent her to live with relatives on a sheep station (Maneroo) near

Longreach Longreach is a rural town and locality in the Longreach Region, Queensland, Australia. It is the administrative centre of the Longreach Regional Council, which was established in 2008 as a merger of the former Longreach, Ilfracombe, and I ...

, in central Queensland. This intimate experience with the Australian landscape – its expansiveness, its dramatic changes, and its "indescribable energy" – had a profound influence on her future as a composer. She began composing while still at Maneroo, at the age of eight, for the resources she had available: recorder and voice. She moved to

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

aged 11. In New South Wales, she received her education at

Albury High School Albury High School is a government-funded co-educational comprehensive secondary day school located in Albury, a city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1920, the school enrolled approximately 1,000 student ...

and Hornsby Girls' High School. Boyd studied music at the University of Sydney, where she was one of

Peter Sculthorpe Peter Joshua Sculthorpe (29 April 1929 – 8 August 2014) was an Australian composer. Much of his music resulted from an interest in the music of countries neighbouring Australia as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of Aborigi ...

's first students. Sculthorpe had a profound influence on her; she said that his music was the first time she had heard music which expressed her experience of the Australian landscape. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree, she received a PhD in composition from the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

in England.

Career

In 1990, Boyd became the first Australian and the first woman to be appointed to a professor of music at the University of Sydney. Before that Boyd was the foundation head of the Department of Music at the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is a public research university in Pokfulam, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese by the London Missionary Society and formally established as the University of ...

(1981–90) and taught at the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

(1972–77). In 1996 she was appointed a Member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

for her contributions to music as a composer and as an educator. Boyd's struggle to maintain funding for music courses in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Sydney was featured in the documentary '' Facing the Music'' (2001). The Department of Music was incorporated into the

Sydney Conservatorium The Sydney Conservatorium of Music (SCM) — formerly the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music, and known by the moniker "The Con" — is the music school of the University of Sydney. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious music ...

at the same university from the start of 2005.

Music

Many of Boyd's compositions have an

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

n influence, especially the music of Japan (such as the wood flute and the Japanese mode) and Indonesia (such as the

gamelan Gamelan (; ; , ; ) is the traditional musical ensemble, ensemble music of the Javanese people, Javanese, Sundanese people, Sundanese, and Balinese people, Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussion instrument, per ...

orchestra and the Balinese modes). Many of her works are of a spiritual or meditative nature, such as the

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

work ''As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams'' (1975). She has written

song cycle A song cycle () is a group, or cycle (music), cycle, of individually complete Art song, songs designed to be performed in sequence, as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online'' The songs are either for solo voice or an ensemble, or rarely a combinat ...

s, opera, piano, choral, orchestral and chamber music. Her musical compositions include: ''Goldfish Through Summer Rain'' 1979, ''The Little Mermaid'' 1980, ''Black Sun'' 1990, ''Revelations of Divine Love'' 1995, ''Meditations on a Chinese Character'' 1996, ''A Vision: Jesus Reassures His Mother'' 1999, and ''YuYa'' 2005. Her 2017 orchestral composition ''Olive Pink's Garden'' was inspired by the

Olive Pink Botanic Garden Olive Pink Botanic Garden is a botanic garden in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia, specialising in plants native to the arid central Australian region. History The 16 ha area that is now Olive Pink Botanic Garden was gaz ...

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

, and her 2022 opera about the life of

Olive Pink Olive Muriel Pink (17 March 1884 – 6 July 1975) was an Australian Botany, botanical illustrator, Anthropology, anthropologist, gardener, and activist for Aboriginal rights who spent much of her life in Central Australia. Pink spent much of h ...

was premiered there. CDs include: ''Meditations on a Chinese Character'' 1997, and ''Crossing a Bridge of Dreams'' 2000.

Athletic performances

Boyd is an endurance runner and marathoner, who has won her age group in marathons, half marathons and 10 km races. Boyd ran her first marathon after only 18 months' training. She has been described as a 'lady of musical and running talents' and an 'inspiring distance runner', running with her daughter and raising money for cancer. She won her age group in the Sydney Striders marathon trophy.

Awards and recognition

* Member of the

(AM),

1996 Australia Day Honours The 1996 Australia Day Honours are appointments to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by Australian citizens. The list was announced on 26 January 1996 by the Governor General of Australia, Bill Hayden. The Australia ...

, "in recognition of service as a composer and educator" * Awarded honorary degree by

, 2003 * Recipient of a Special Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music at the APRA/AMC Classical Music Awards in 2005.

Bernard Heinze Memorial Award

The

Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award The Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award is an Australian music award. History and description The award was inaugurated in 1982. It honours the memory of Sir Bernard Heinze (1894–1982), who for 31 years was Ormond Professor of Music at the Unive ...

is given to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to music in Australia. ! , - , 2014 , , Anne Boyd , , Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award , , , , , -

References

External links

Composer biography Australian Music Centre

on ABC Classic FM'

* "Anne Boyd – A Sense of Something of the Sacred" adio transcript 2008. In ''Talking to Kinky and Karlheinz – 170 musicians get vocal on The Music Show'' ed. Anni Heino, 292–304. Sydney: ABC Books. . *

Thérèse Radic Thérèse Radic (born 1935) is an Australian musicologist and playwright. Early life and education Maureen Therese O'Halloran was born in Footscray, Victoria in 1935 and grew up in Melbourne. She graduated from the University of Melbourne wit ...

(2001). "Boyd, Anne (Elizabeth)", ''

Grove Music Online ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and t ...

'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Boyd, Anne 1946 births Living people Academic staff of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Academic staff of the University of Hong Kong Academics of the University of Sussex Alumni of the University of York Australian classical composers Australian women classical composers Members of the Order of Australia University of Sydney alumni