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Peter Myers : Associate Artist

Random Audio Sample: Pasar (solo piano) by Peter Myers, from the CD Australian piano miniatures


Photo of Peter Myers

Peter Myers holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours (1984) in music and a Master of Arts (1989) in composition from La Trobe University; a Graduate Diploma in Education (1991) from the University of Melbourne, and a PhD (2007) in composition from Monash University. In 1989, he undertook private studies in composition with Prof. Eugene Kurtz in the USA.

Myers' compositions are based on a number of technical axioms that form the foundation of his musical aesthetic. These axioms or intentions are that all musical materials in his works have reasons for being; that minimal musical materials be used and developed to maximal advantage; that musical materials be inextricably related to, even derived from the idiosyncrasies of the instrument(s) for which they are written; that large-scale musical structures evolve organically from musical materials' inherent characteristics and potentialities; that musical structures, especially pitch structures, be coherent, self-referential and self-enclosed; that pitch structures be hierarchical; that melodic and harmonic materials be intrinsically and systematically related; and that harmonic and melodic motion be directed towards pitch goals.

Myers' works have been featured at local (Australian) and international new music festivals including the 1988 ISCM World Music Days held in Hong Kong; the 1988 New Music and the Orchestra Composers' Project held in Queensland; the 1992 Sendai Asian Music Festival held in Japan; the 1995 Composers' Forum on the String Quartet held in Adelaide with the Australian String Quartet; Asian Music Festival 2000 held in Yokohama, Japan; Federation Music Week held in Melbourne in September 2001; Asian Music Festival 2003 held in Tokyo, Japan; the 29th Asian Composers League Conference and Festival 2011 in Taiwan; the 2012 Spectra Conference at the CSIRO Discovery Centre in Canberra; and the 2014 Australasian Computer Music Conference in Melbourne.

Myers' works have been performed by members of the Japanese Chamber Orchestra, the Tokyo Sinfonietta, the Australian National Academy string ensemble, the Queensland Philharmonic, the Victorian State Orchestra, New Music Forum, the Coruscations Ensemble, the Elision Ensemble, the Pipeline Project, the Southbank Contemporary Music Ensemble, the Australian String Quartet, the Black Quartet, the Silo String Quartet, Quartet Excelsior (Japan), the British Music Society of Victoria, Gruppo Bruno Maderna (Italy), the University of Melbourne Orchestra, the Victorian College of the Arts Orchestra, the Band of the Third Military District and many distinguished individual performing artists including Michael Kieran Harvey (piano), Arabella Teniswood-Harvey (piano), Linda Kouvaris (piano), Jack Barnes (piano), Jennifer Yu (piano), Bruce Petherick (piano), Mark Knoop (piano), Robert Chamblerlain (piano), Haydn Reeder (piano), Stuart Campbell (piano), Danae O'Callaghan (piano), Kim Bastin (piano), Christopher Redgate (oboe), Duncan Tolmie (oboe), Martin Mackerras (clarinet), Susan Pierotti (violin), Elizabeth Holowell (violin), Spiros Rantos (violin), Ellen Mentiplay (violin), Ceredwin Lever (violin), Helen Eadie (violin), Phillip Carrington (violin), Jung Sook Yoon (violin), John North (violin), Rosia Pasteur (viola), Erkki Veltheim (viola), Joy Fletcher (cello), Peter Neville (percussion), Genevieve Lacey (recorder), Natasha Anderson (recorder), Kara Ciezki (recorder), Mardi McSullea (flute), Julia Ryder (cello), James Wilkinson (trombone), Brett Kelly (trombone), Eric Klay (trombone), Barry Webb (trombone), Ken McClimont (trombone), Deborah Kayser (soprano), Jeannie Marsh (mezzo soprano), Nick Tsiavos (contrabass), Tristram Williams (trumpet), Fletcher Cox (trumpet), Michael Olson (trumpet), Sarah Henderson (trumpet) and others.

Myers has been the recipient of composition and academic awards including a Commonwealth Postgraduate Research Scholarship (1984), a Melbourne University Research Scholarship (1997), a Melbourne Abroad Travelling Scholarship (2000), a Graduate Research Assistance Grant (2000), the inaugural New Audience Award (1987); the Jacobena Angliss Award (1987), the Fellowship of Australian Composers' Composition Award (1988), and the Dorian Le Gallienne Award (1991). He has been the recipient of a Skills and Arts Development Grant (2003) and seven composer commission grants from the Australia Council, the Australian Government's Arts funding and advisory body.

Myers has taught music theory, counterpoint, composition and music analysis at La Trobe University (1984 - 1990), The University of Melbourne (1990 & 1999), Monash University (2001), and Box Hill Institute where he was Head of Music (Higher Education) from 2007 until 2013. Myers is currently Head of Music at Northern College of Arts and Technology (NCAT) in Preston, Melbourne.


Peter Myers — current to October 2020

Awards & Prizes

Year Award Placing Awarded for
1991 Dorian le Gallienne Composition Award Recipient

Selected Commissions

  Work Commission Details
Digital sheet music sample Antipathy : mezzo-soprano voice with chamber ensemble (1988) Commissioned by Elision Ensemble.
Digital sheet music sample Vex : for solo violin (1987) Commissioned by Susan Pierotti.

Analysis & Media

- Program note: Peter Myers' "Renovatus"