Lazar "Larry" Sitsky (born 10 September 1934) is an Australian composer, pianist, and music educator and scholar. Sitsky was the first Australian to be invited to the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

on a cultural exchange visit, organised by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs in 1977. He has received many awards for his compositions: the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award in 1968, and again in 1981; the Alfred Hill Memorial Prize for his String Quartet in 1968; a China Fellowship in 1983; a Fulbright Award in 1988–89, and an Advance Australia Award for achievement in music (1989). He has also been awarded the inaugural prize from the Fellowship of Composers (1989), the first National Critics' Award, and the inaugural Australian Composers' Fellowship presented by the Music Board of the

Australia Council Creative Australia, formerly known as the Australia Council for the Arts and 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 announ ...

, which gave him the opportunity to write a large number of compositions (including concerti for violin, guitar, and orchestra), to revise his book ''Busoni and the Piano'', and to commence work as a pianist on the Anthology of Australian Piano Music.

Life and career

Larry Sitsky was born in

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

(formerly Tientsin), China, of Russian-Jewish émigré parents. He demonstrated perfect pitch at an early age, by identifying notes or chords played in a different room. He studied piano from an early age, gave his first public concert at the age of nine, and started writing music soon thereafter. His family was forced to leave China during Mao's rule. They came to Australia in 1951 and settled in Sydney.Cotter (2004a) p. 5. He had sat for

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

Overseas Matriculation before leaving China. His first studies at university were in engineering, at his parents' insistence. This was not successful and "he convinced his parents to allow him to pursue his passion, music". He obtained a scholarship to the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, where he studied piano, briefly with Alexander Sverjensky but mainly with Winifred Burston (a student 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 ...

and

Egon Petri Egon Petri (23 March 188127 May 1962) was a Dutch-American pianist. Life and career Petri's family was Dutch. He was born a Dutch citizen in Hanover, Germany, and grew up in Dresden, where he attended the Kreuzschule. His father, a professi ...

), and composition, graduating in 1955. In 1959, he won a scholarship to the San Francisco Conservatory, where he studied with Egon Petri for two years. Returning to Australia, he joined the staff of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, after being accepted sight unseen based on a recommendation from Petri. His Australian studies and his subsequent studies in the United States, "combined with the Russian heritage from his early studies in China, akehim a unique repository of piano techniques and tradition which is acknowledged internationally". A grant from the

Myer Foundation The Myer Foundation is a major Australian philanthropic organisation. History The Sidney Myer Charitable Trust was established by the will of Sidney Myer, who died in 1934, leaving a portion of his estate for the benefit of the community. Myer's ...

in 1965 enabled him to conduct research into the music of Ferruccio Busoni, on whom he has written extensively. In 1966 he was appointed Head of Keyboard Studies at the Canberra School of Music, was later Head of Musicology and was Head of Composition Studies. He is currently Emeritus Professor of the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

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. Sitsky has always performed as well as composed, and as a student won performance awards. He believes that composers should perform, saying that "without this communion with a live audience, music-making all too easily becomes over-intellectualised, sterile and arid". As a performer, he champions twentieth-century repertoire. In terms of composition, Sitsky has regularly changed his musical language to "express himself in ways that are not familiar and 'easy'". Larry Sitsky attracted attention when he, among others, criticised the Keating government for giving successive artistic fellowships to the pianist Geoffrey Tozer. He explained that his criticism was not personal against Tozer, who was a friend of his, but that it was a matter of principle. A biography of Sitsky was published in the USA in 1997.

In the media

The

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composer and writer, William Green, compiled a brief biographical and musical overview of Sitsky in a radio program on Radio New Zealand Concert.

Works

Sitsky has published the two-volume ''The Classical Reproducing Piano Roll'' and ''Music of the Repressed Russian Avant-Garde'', 1900–1929, and has recorded a number of CDs of Australian piano music, including the complete sonatas of Roy Agnew. He has had works commissioned by many leading Australian and international bodies, such as the ABC, Musica Viva Australia, the International Clarinet Society, the Sydney International Piano Competition, Flederman and the International Flute Convention. His collection of teaching pieces, Century, has been published by Currency Press, and he also has an open contract to publish anything he wishes with his New York publisher, Seesaw Music Corporation. In August 2011, Sitsky announced plans to write a series of operas based on the stories of

Enid Blyton Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968) was an English children's writer, whose books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Her books are still enormously popular and have been tra ...

. The works were premiered by the ANU School of Music.

Personal life

He is married to the Czech-born Magda Sitsky.

Selected works

Opera

*'' The Fall of the House of Usher'', 1965, Libretto:

Gwen Harwood Gwen Harwood (née Gwendoline Nessie Foster, 8 June 19205 December 1995) was an Australian poet and librettist. Harwood is regarded as one of Australia's finest poets, publishing over 420 works, including 386 poems and 13 librettos. She won num ...

. Premiered 19 August 1965, Theatre Royal, Hobart, conductor Rex Hobcroft *''Lenz'', 1970, Libretto: Gwen Harwood. Recorded Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Adelaide) 1982, conductor Christopher Lyndon-Gee; Lenz, Gerald English, tenor. *''Fiery Tales'', 1975, after Chaucer and Boccaccio. *''Voices in Limbo'', 1977, Libretto: Gwen Harwood. *''The Golem'', 1980, Libretto: Gwen Harwood. Premiered by The Australian Opera under Christopher Lyndon-Gee, conductor, in 1993.Miriam Cosic, "A man of many parts", The Weekend Australian, 11–12 September 1999 Commercial CD recording released 2005 by ABC Classics (Polygram), edited from 1993 live performances. *''De Profundis'', 1982, Libretto: Gwen Harwood. *''Three scenes from Aboriginal life: 1. Campfire scene, 2. Mathina, 3. Legend of the Brolga'', 1988

Ballet

*''Sinfonia for Ten Players'' ("The Dark Refuge") (1964)

Orchestral

* Concerto for Orchestra (1984) * ''Symphony in Four Movements'' (premiered by the Canberra Symphony Orchestra under Robert Bailey, 23 May 2001)

Concertante

* Piano Concerto (1991, rev, 1994) * Cello Concerto (1993) * Violin Concerto No. 4 (1998) * ''Zohar: Sephardic Concerto'' for mandolin and orchestra (1998) * Jewish folk song (1955)

Solo instrument

*''Improvisation and Cadenza'' for solo viola (1964) *''Khavar'' for solo trombone (1984) *"Sayat Nova" for solo Oboe (1984)

Vocal

*Incidental music to ''Faust'' for solo piano and three sopranos, 1996 *''Seven Zen Songs'' for voice and viola (2005)

Unclassified

* ''Ten Sepphiroth of the Kabbala'' * ''Mysterium Cosmographicum'' * ''The Secret Gates of the House of Osiris''

Awards and honours

In 1997 the

awarded him its first Higher Doctorate in Fine Arts. In 1998, he was elected Fellow of the

Australian Academy of the Humanities The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Australi ...

. He is currently a Distinguished Visiting Fellow, as well as Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University. In 2000 he 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 ...

(AM) for service to music as a composer, musicologist, pianist and educator; and in the same year he received 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 ...

for service to Australian society through music. In 2017 Sitsky was appointed an

Officer 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 distinguished service to the arts as a composer and concert pianist, to music education as a researcher and mentor, and through musical contributions to Australia's contemporary culture.

ARIA Music Awards

The

ARIA Music Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

are a set of annual ceremonies presented by

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival Records (Australia), Festival, Sony Music ...

(ARIA), which recognise excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of the

music of Australia The music of Australia has an extensive history made of music societies. Indigenous Australian music forms a significant part of the unique heritage of a 40,000- to 60,000-year history which produced the iconic didgeridoo. Contemporary fusions o ...

. They commenced in 1987. ! , - ,

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

, ''Contemporary Australian Piano'' , Best Independent Release , ,

Don Banks Music Award

The Don Banks Music Award was established in 1984 to publicly honour a senior artist of high distinction who has made an outstanding and sustained contribution to music in Australia. It was founded by the

in honour of Don Banks, Australian composer, performer and the first chair of its music board. , - , 1984 , Larry Sitsky , Don Banks Music Award , , -

Notes

References

* Cotter, Jim (2004a) "Larry Sitsky and the Australian musical tradition", ''National Library of Australia News'', XIV (12), September 2004, pp. 3–6 * Cotter, Jim (2004b). ''Sitsky: Conversations with the Composer''. National Library of Australia. . * Crispin, Judith (2007). ''The Esoteric Musical Tradition of Ferruccio Busoni and Its Reinvigoration in the Music of Larry Sitsky: The Operas Doktor Faust and The Golem'', with a preface by Larry Sitsky. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press.

External links

Australian Music CentreAustralasian Performing Right AssociationProfessor Larry Sitsky, Australian National University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sitsky, Larry 1934 births 20th-century Australian classical composers 21st-century Australian classical composers APRA Award winners Australian Jews Australian male classical composers Australian music educators Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities Living people Members of the Order of Australia Australian opera composers Jewish opera composers Piano educators Pupils of Egon Petri Academic staff of Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University Chinese emigrants to Australia Sydney Conservatorium of Music alumni Officers of the Order of Australia Winners of the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award 20th-century Australian male musicians 21st-century Australian male musicians Busoni scholars Prokofiev scholars Scriabin scholars Shostakovich scholars