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Canberra Today 18°/22° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Sitsky wins another honour

NEWS is out today that composer, pianist and scholar Larry Sitsky is to receive the Distinguished Services to Australian Music Award at the ART Music Awards next week.

Larry Sitsky, photo by Judith Crispin
Larry Sitsky, photo by Judith Crispin

Previous recipients of the award, determined by the APRA Board and AMC, have gone to conductors John Hopkins and Patrick Thomas, composers Peter Sculthorpe and George Dreyfus, and music educator Richard Gill.

Sitsky, one of Canberra’s cultural treasures, will receive the honour at the ceremony in Sydney’s City Recital Hall on Tuesday August 11 for his “monumental and enduring contribution to Australian music.”

Born in China Sitsky moved to Australia in 1951. As a composer, Sitsky has collaborated with every major orchestra in Australia, with pieces commissioned by many leading Australian and international bodies.

He 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 Don Banks Award. His academic career has taken him to the San Francisco Conservatory, the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, and the ANU School of Music in Canberra.

His teaching activities have spanned that of adjudicator, examiner, broadcaster, and guest lecturer for many professional music education societies. Now 80, Larry Sitsky continues to perform, research and compose, with over 200 pieces on his list of works to date.

Joining Sitsky onstage at the ceremony hosted by hosted by broadcast Fenella Kernebone, will be an impressive line-up of performers and presenters, including Lieven Bertels, director of the 2015 Sydney Festival, CEO of the Australia Council for the Arts, and our own Robyn Holmes, National Library of Australia curator.

2015 Art Music Awards, at City Recital Hall, Sydney, Tuesday August 11.

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Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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