Graham Koehne

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Graeme Koehne was born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1956. He completed his undergraduate and post-graduate studies at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide studying composition with Richard Meale. He gained national attention at the 1992 Adelaide Festival when he was awarded the Young Composers Prize for his orchestral work "Rain Forest". Around this time, Graeme commenced his long and fruitful collaboration with choreographer Graeme Murphy, which included a children's ballet based on Oscar Wilde's "The Selfish Giant" and the full-length work "Nearly Beloved".

In 1984, Graeme was awarded the Harkness Fellowship to work at the School of Music, Yale University. For two years of the fellowship he also took private lessons with Virgil Thomson in New York, whose influence is immediately discernable in the radically simplified, direct and anti-modern style of subsequent scores.

Upon his return to Australia in 1986 he was appointed as Lecturer in Composition at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide. Recent works include the orchestral trilogy "Unchained Melody" , "Powerhouse" and Elevator Music, the oboe concerto “In-Flight Entertainment”, his 3rd String Quartet and the music for the Sydney Dance Company/Australian Ballet co-production “Tivoli”.

As of 2005, Mr. Koehne is Head of Composition at the Elder School of Music and also chairs the Music Board of the Australian Council (and is also a Board Member of the Australia Council).