Roger Smalley, Hovea Music Press composer
Roger Smalley was born near Manchester, England, in 1943. At
the Royal College of Music, London, he studied piano with Antony
Hopkins and composition with Peter Racine Fricker and John White. He
also took private composition lessons with Alexander Goehr and
furthered his studies with Karlheinz Stockhausen at the Cologne
Course for New Music.
Widely recognised for his performances of contemporary piano music, Roger Smalley was a prize-winner in the International Competition for Interpreters of Contemporary Music (Utrecht, 1966), and received the Harriet Cohen International Music Award for contemporary music performance in 1968.
In 1969, together with Tim Souster, he formed Intermodulation---an ensemble specialising in works involving improvisation and live electronics---which performed throughout England and Europe until 1976.
In 1968 he was appointed first Artist-in-Residence at King's College, Cambridge, where he subsequently held a three-year research fellowship. He spent three months as Composer-in-Residence at The University of Western Australia in 1974, returning two years later to become a research fellow and subsequently Associate Professor of Music.
He continues to perform a wide variety of solo and chamber music and has recently recorded CDs of Australian piano music and Schumann song-cycles (with Gerald English) for the Tall Poppies label. Since 1989 he has been Artistic Director and conductor of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra's 20th Century Ensemble.
In 1991 he was the recipient of a Creative Development Award from the West Australian Department for the Arts, and was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In 1994 he was awarded the Australia Council's prestigious Don Banks Fellowship "in recognition of his distinguished contribution to Australian music". In 1995-96 he was Composer-in-Residence with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.
Roger Smalley's compositions have been performed and broadcast world wide. He has been commissioned by many organisations and groups, including the BBC, ABC, West German Radio, Festival of Perth, London Sinfonietta, Fires of London, Flederman, Nova Ensemble, Seymour Group and Australia Ensemble. Twelve of his compositions are currently available on CD. His Piano Concerto---a BBC commission for European Music Year (1985)---was the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's entry in the annual International Rostrum of Composers (UNESCO) in Paris, 1987, and won the top recommendation. This was the first time an Australian entry had been declared the 'recommended' work.
Roger is a Represented Composer with the Australian Music Centre.
© Hovea Music Press 1999
Full List of Works with Piano by Roger Smalley
For other links for Roger Smalley see the HMP Links Page.