A CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY of AUSTRALIAN COMPOSERS and THEIR COMPOSITIONS 1901-2020

About the Book

This is Volume II of the improved 2nd edition. There are 6 volumes in all comprising some 900 composers and 40,000 compositions. Included is the founding and demise of music ensembles, institutions, venues and festivals. With musicians, performers, conductors, entrepreneurs, educators, administrators, instrument makers, musicologists, music critics and philanthropists part of the broad narrative. Touring artists in Australia are admitted at the bottom of each year. This edition has been enhanced by the inclusion of many hundreds of relevant photographs, drawings and artwork. The most comprehensive account of Australian Classical music is in your hands.

About the Author

Stephen Pleskun was born 6 weeks prematurely in Crown Street Women’s Hospital in Sydney on 8th December 1955. Having taken music as an elective subject at High School, he started to consider the subject seriously during the 1970’s and took private lessons with Clarence Albert Phillips (harmony ad counterpoint), Anatolij Mirosznyk (piano) and Dave Martin (jazz). During this time, Stephen secured occasional work as a music teacher before spending 4 years at Sydney University studying English, Philosophy, Education and Medieval History, the first 3 at honours level. From 1986 onwards, Stephen wrote and presented lectures on the History and Development of Western Music at the Liverpool Academy of Music. The Chronological History of Australian Composers and their Compositions was begun in January 2008 and continues to be researched, compiled and edited to this day.