Michael Easton (27 November 1954 – 6 February 2004) was a British-Australian composer, musician, and music critic. He was a co-founder of the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival. Easton was born in

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...

and (after encouragement from

Elizabeth Poston Elizabeth Poston (24 October 1905 – 18 March 1987) was an English composer, pianist and writer. Early life and career Poston was born in Highfield House in Pin Green, which is now the site of Hampson Park in Stevenage. In 1914, she moved ...

) trained at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

with

Lennox Berkeley Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley (12 May 190326 December 1989) was an English composer. Biography Berkeley was born on 12 May 1903 in Oxford, England, the younger child and only son of Aline Carla (1863–1935), daughter of Sir James Char ...

(composition) and

Norman Del Mar Norman René Del Mar CBE (31 July 19196 February 1994) was a British conductor, horn player, and biographer. As a conductor, he specialised in the music of late romantic composers; including Edward Elgar, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss. H ...

(conducting).Biography, Wise Music
/ref> He worked in music publishing before moving to Melbourne, Australia in 1982, where in 1986 he became a freelance composer. His activities included arranging, performing (in a piano duo with Len Vorster) and writing and broadcasting on music. With Vorster and the English composer Michael Hurd he co-founded the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival in 1990. Easton and Michael Atkinson were nominated for the 1994

ARIA Award 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 ...

for Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album for their music to the Australian TV series ''Snowy''. A Naxos CD issued in 1998 includes recordings of five of his orchestral works: ''Concerto on Australian Themes'' (1996), ''An Australian in Paris'' (1995), ''Beasts of the Bush'' (1995), the ''Concerto for Piano Accordion, Piano and Strings'' (1996, for Bernadette Conlon) and ''Overture to an Italianate Comedy''.Naxos 8.554368 (1998)
/ref> His other works include three symphonies, nine operas – including several children's operas, such as ''The Emperor's New Clothes'' (1993), and ''The Selfish Giant'' (1995) – and a successful musical, ''Dorothy Parker Says'' (1993).Notes to Naxos 8.554368
/ref> ''A Voice Not Stilled'', a concerto for piano and orchestra on a fragment of music recovered from a victim of the holocaust, was premiered in July 2000. He scored the short comedy film ''The Moment of Accepting Life'', shown at the 2001 Cannes International Film Festival. He died on 6 February 2004, one day after suffering a fall.

Awards and nominations

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 ...

is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of

Australian music 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 of ...

. They commenced in 1987. ! , - ,

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, ''Snowy'' (with Michael Atkinson) , Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album , , ARIA Award previous winners. , -

References

External links

Michael Easton (1954-2004) : Represented Artist
at Australian Music Centre {{DEFAULTSORT:Easton, Michael 1954 births 2004 deaths 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century British male musicians Australian male composers British male composers Australian music critics British music critics Australian classical pianists Male classical pianists British classical pianists