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29 October 2007

Australian Music in London


Australian Music in London

For years a collection of scores, recordings and other resources had been accumulated at the Australian High Commission in London, for use in the promotion of the works of Australian composers within the UK. Over recent times, the collection had languished in a basement storeroom at Australia House in The Strand, London.

To make these materials more accessible, after a period of discussion with Pam Thompson, Librarian at the Royal College of Music (RCM), it was decided to transfer the collection to the Library at the College, where it could be accessed by music students and performers. With the Performing Australian Music Competition taking place again over the coming months, it was also timely for the resources to be easily accessible to entrants in the Competition.

In August, I traveled to London to assess the collection and arrange for its transfer to RCM. With the assistance of Kerry Yong, an Australian pianist living and working in London, I sorted and assessed the collection, discarding materials which were superseded or incomplete. Approx 700 scores, 130 CDs, and various books and sets of performance parts were transferred to the RCM Library. The resources cover a wide range and are for orchestral and instrumental works, by key figures in the Australian compositional landscape.

Data for the catalogue records for these materials has been exported from the AMC catalogue and sent to RCM to facilitate the cataloguing for their collection.

Throughout the project, the assistance of Australia House staff, in particular Rita Fitzpatrick of the Public Affairs Branch, was much appreciated.

The works are currently being catalogued by RCM Library staff and will soon be available for use at the Library. You can find the works which have already been added to the RCM collection, by searching their catalogue for the name Australian Music Centre.

Further Links


Judith Foster is Music Resource Manager at the Australian Music Centre.

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