Anne Boyd (1946-)

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Anne Boyd began studying at the Department of Music at the University of Sydney in 1963 where her principal composition teacher was Peter Sculthorpe. A number of her works were performed at the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) concerts in Sydney and Melbourne and at the Adelaide Festival of the Arts in the years 1964-1972. In 1969 she was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship enabling her to undertake studies in composition for a DPhil at the University of York, where her supervisors were Wilfrid Mellers and Bernard Rands. In 1972 she was appointed Lecturer in Music at the University of Sussex, a post she held for five years. She composed two of her best-known works during this period: Angklung for piano, and As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams for unaccompanied choir, both of which are now part of the standard contemporary repertoire. She signed a general agreement with Faber Music Ltd. in 1977.

Boyd returned to Australia to compose full-time on an Australia Council composer grant in 1977, writing successful chamber works, operas and other works drawing on Australian and Asian themes including the oratorio The Death of Captain Cook, the choral symphony Coal River, the chamber works My Name is Tian and Cycle of Love; the pieces for flute and piano Goldfish Through Summer Rain, Red Sun Chill Wind and Cloudy Mountain, and the choral works The Last of His Tribe and The Burning Babe.

In 1981 Boyd was appointed Reader and founding Head of the Department of Music at the University of Hong Kong. In spite of administrative duties reducing the time she could spend on composition, her new compositions from this period were well received. These included the ABC's choice of Cycle of Love to represent Australia at the 1982 Paris Rostrum; the 1986 Australian Opera Company production of The Little Mermaid, and an orchestral work Black Sun commissioned by the San Francisco Bay Area Women's Orchestra in 1989 and subsequently performed by several major Australian symphony orchestras.

In 1990 Boyd was appointed Professor and Head of Department of Music at the University of Sydney. Her latest compositions include her String Quartet no.3, the Concerto for Flute and Strings, commissioned by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and Grathawai for orchestra, first performed by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in 1993. Of the recent work Revelations of Divine Love (1994) for six unaccompanied voices, Peter McCallum of the Sydney Morning Herald wrote "it combined imaginative and translucent vocal writing ... with effective simplicity."

Boyd's music is regularly performed worldwide. The hallmarks of her musical style are its transparency, gentleness and delicacy, attributes which reflect her long involvement with Asian traditions, especially those of Japan and Indonesia. The royalties from her ABC Classics disc Meditations on a Chinese Character (1997) supports the Australian Women's Music Fund which aims to assist women composers achieve their goals. Boyd's action during a funding crisis faced by her department at the University of Sydney was the subject of the 2002 film documentary Facing the Music.

Information from
Record number
1562817
Other names
  • Anne Elizabeth Boyd
  • Professor Anne Boyd
Born
  • 10 April 1946, Sydney, NSW
Gender
female
Activities
  • composer
  • academic
References
  • "Anne Boyd", Australian Music Centre composer biography, http://www.amcoz.com.au/comp/b/aboyd.htm accessed 11 May 2004

  • Biographical information provided by the composer to AMC.

  • "Anne Boyd", York University Press composer biography, http://www.uymp.co.uk/boyd1.htm accessed 11 May 2004

  • "Anne Boyd", Women's College, University of Sydney famous past students profiles, http://www.thewomenscollege.com.au/history/anne_boyd.htm accessed 11 May 2004

  • "Anne Boyd" in Schultz, Andrew (ed.), Biographical Directory of Australian Composers (Sydney: Australian Music Centre, 1996), p. 22

  • NLA Collections

Updated
11 May 2004
To cite this page
http://nla.gov.au/nla.cs-ma-ANL%3AMA~1562817

Anne Boyd (1946-)

Information from
Record number
000000128945
Other names
  • Anne Elizabeth Boyd (1946-)
Born
  • 1946
Updated
20 September 1985

Anne Boyd (1946-)

Information from
Record number
000000134517
Born
  • 1946
Updated
06 May 2004

Anne Boyd (1946-)

Information from
Record number
000000138094
Born
  • 1946
Updated
06 May 2004

Anne Boyd (1946-)

Information from
Record number
000000138648
Born
  • 1946
Updated
06 May 2004

Anne Boyd (1946-)

Information from
Record number
000000218093
Born
  • 1946
Updated
06 May 2004

Anne Boyd (1946-)

Information from
Record number
000000285340
Born
  • 1946
Updated
17 January 1986

Anne Boyd (1946-)

Information from
Record number
000000372334
Born
  • 1946
Updated
12 January 1989

Anne Boyd (1946-)

Information from
Record number
000000398064
Born
  • 1946
Updated
12 January 1989

Anne Boyd (1946-)

Information from
Record number
000001562817
Other names
  • Anne Elizabeth Boyd (1946-)
Born
  • 1946
Updated
12 September 1985