Richard Albert Letts (born 3 August 1935, in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

) is a music advocate and administrator.

Life and work

Richard Letts trained as a classical pianist and composer and worked as a jazz band leader in his early years. In 1964 he moved to the University of California (Berkeley) where he completed his Ph.D. in 1971. In 1972 he built and became the director of the East Bay Center for Performing Arts, a community performing arts school in a ghetto on San Francisco’s East Bay. In 1980 he became Director of the MacPhail Center for the Arts, the downtown music school of the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

and in 1981 was elected Vice-President of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts. In 1982 Dr Letts returned to Australia as Director of the Music Board of the

Australia Council The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austra ...

, where he initiated major developments in policy that "had a profound influence in reshaping the pattern of government support for music in Australia" (Bebbington 1997). He became Director of the

Australian Music Centre The Australian Music Centre (AMC), formerly known briefly as Sounds Australian, is a national organisation promoting and supporting art music in Australia, founded in 1974. It co-hosts the Art Music Awards along with APRA AMCOS, and publishes '' ...

in 1987, and introduced programs in digitisation, record production, publishing, retailing, the awards program and others. In 1994, he founded the

Music Council of Australia The Music Council of Australia (MCA) is a national peak music organisation for Australia. It is the official Australian representative to the UNESCO world peak music organization, the International Music Council (IMC), Paris. The MCA It is also a ...

, of which he is currently (2009) the Executive Director. In 2005, he was elected President of the

International Music Council The International Music Council (IMC) was created in 1949 as UNESCO's advisory body on matters of music. It is based at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, France, where it functions as an independent international non-governmental organization. Its p ...

, based in

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

in Paris, and has been responsible for some major innovations in its program including establishment of an international Music Sector Development Program, the weekly e-bulletin Music World News and the initiation of the IMC Musical Rights Awards.

Selected writings

All monographs available for loan fro
Australian Music Centre
*''Creative musicianship and psychological growth : bases in some theories of personality, creativity, instruction, aesthetics and music, for a music curriculum for the late twentieth century''. Thesis (Ph.D. (Educ.)) - University of California, Berkeley, 1971. *''Music board medium range plan.'' Sydney: Australia Council, 1985. *''The Arts on the Edge of Chaos''. Report commissioned by the Australia Council, 1995. Unpublished. *''Opportunities for Australian musical works in North Asia'', 1988. *''Your career as a composer'' Sydney: Allen & Unwin. Australia Council, 1994. *''The ART of Self Promotion : Successful Promotion by Musicians''. Commissioned by the Australia Council. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1996. *''The Effects of Globalisation on Music in Five Contrasting Countries: Australia, Germany, Nigeria, The Philippines and Uruguay''. Global research project commissioned by the International Music Council, 2003. *''A statistical framework for the music sector : for the Statistics Working Group of the

Cultural Ministers Council Cultural Ministers Council was an Australia intergovernmental organisation for ministers of culture and the arts. History It was established in 1984Australia Council, 27 November 1985 (https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display ...

/ a scoping study'' with Hans-Hoegh Guldberg. Canberra : Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, 2004. *''The Protection and Promotion of Musical Diversity'', 2006. Global research project carried out by the International Music Council, commissioned by UNESCO. With consultants from Europe, Latin America, Africa, Arab World, Asia. *''Sound Links: Exploring the Dynamics of Musical Communities in Australia, and Their Potential for Informing Collaboration with Music in Schools'', 2009. Research partnership of Music Council of Australia with the

Queensland Conservatorium Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University (formerly the Queensland Conservatorium of Music) is a selective, audition based music school located in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and is part of Griffith University. History The Conservatori ...

Research Centre, funded by the

Australian Research Council The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than in grants each year. The Council was established by the ''Australian Research Council Act 2001'', ...

. With Brydie Leigh-Bartleet, Peter Dunbar-Hall, Huib Schippers May 2009. A diverse range of articles is available from th
Music Council of Australia's Forum
See further references in the

entry.

Awards

* 1996: Member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

(AM) under the Australian honours system, for services to music.

APRA Awards

The APRA Awards are held in Australia and New Zealand by the

Australasian Performing Right Association APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwr ...

to recognise songwriting skills, sales and airplay performance by its members annually. ! , - ,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, , Richard Letts , , Long-Term Contribution to the Advancement of Australian Music , , , , , -

Bernard Heinze Memorial Award

The

Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award The Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award, was inaugurated following the death of Sir Bernard Heinze in 1982. The award is in the form of a medallion and is given to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to music in Australia. The Award ...

is given to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to music in Australia. , - , 2020 , , Richard Letts , , Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award , , , -

Notes

References

* Bebbington, Warren. 1997. (ed.) ''Oxford Companion to Australian Music''. Melbourne; New York: Oxford University Press. .

External links

Biography at Australian Music Centre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Letts, Richard 1935 births APRA Award winners Members of the Order of Australia Living people