Peter Sculthorpe

Peter (Joshua) Sculthorpe
(b Launceston, Tasmania, 29 April 1929). Australian composer. Of all Australian composers since Grainger, he is seen by the Australian musical public as the most nationally representative.

He studied at the University of Melbourne (BMus) and later at Wadham College, Oxford (1958–60), where his teachers included Rubbra and Wellesz. In 1963 his music was performed at a conference of composers held in Tasmania. Although his works were not the most daring of those presented – he had by this time explored and largely rejected serial techniques – they exhibited a clarity and polish that identified him as a persuasive intermediary between the new wave of Australian composers and a generally conservative public. After the conference, he was offered a lectureship at the University of Sydney.