Professor Larry Sitsky

Larry Sitsky, born in China of Russian-Jewish parents, travelled to Australia in 1951 and settled in Sydney.  He studied piano from an early age and was granted a scholarship to the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, where he studied piano 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.  A grant from the Myer Foundation 1n 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 is now Head of Composition Studies.

Larry was the first Australian to be invited to the USSR on a cultural exchange visit, organised by the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1997. He has received many awards for his compositions, including the AH Maggs Award twice; for his Violin Concerto No. 1 in 1971 and the Clarinet Concerto in 1981; the Alfred Hill Memorial Prize for his String Quartet in 1968 and a China Fellowship in 1983.  His work Maherq, for bassoon, won the inaugural prize awarded by the Fellowship of Composers in 1989, and his Secret Gates of the House of Osiris won the inaugural National Critics’ Award in 1989.  In 1984 Larry received the inaugural Australian Composer’s Fellowship presented by the Music Board of the Australia Council.  This gave him the opportunity to write a large number of compositions ranging from solo instrumental pieces to large orchestral works, including a second Violin Concerto, Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, and Concerto for Orchestra, as well as work towards his current list of seven operas.  It also enabled him to revise his book Busoni and the Piano and to commence work as pianist on the Anthology of Australia Piano Music.  He has also had published his two volume The Classical Reproducing Piano Roll, and Unknown Russian Avant-Garde 1900-1929 and Music of the Repressed Russian Avant Garde, 1900-1929. He has recorded a CD of the complete sonatas of the Australian composer Roby Agnew.  Larry Sitsky was the recipient of a Fulbright Award in 1988-89 and won an Advance Australia Award for achievement in music in 1989.  He also has a CD of Australian Piano Music. He was awarded a personal chair at the ANU.

Larry has had works commissioned by many leading Australian and International bodies, such as the ABC, Musica Viva, The International Clarinet Society, the Sydney International Piano Competition, Flederman and the International Flute Convention.  Workds from the last few years include a Piano Concerto, for voice and piano.  In Pace Requiescat for voice and strings, a Trio for flute, clarinet and piano and a Book of Songs.

1993 marked a huge national success with his opera The Golem, whilst 1994 was marked by concerts and performances all round Australia to mark his 60th birthday. His big collection of teaching pieces, Century, has been released with Currency Press in Sydney. He has an open contract to publish anything he wishes with his New York publisher, Seesaw Music Corporation.

In recognition of his various achievements he was made Professor (personal Chair); the Australian National University also awarded him its first Higher Doctorate in Fine Arts in 1997. A biography was published in the USA in 1997.

Other works include a book on the piano music of Anton Rubinstein, a book of transcriptions for oboe/piano (22 Russian romantic miniatures) and Violin Concerti Nos. 4 and 5. In 1998, Larry Sitsky was elected Fellow of the Academy of the Humanities of Australia.

In January 2000, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Australia Day Honours List for "services to music as composer, pianist, musicologist and educator."