Brenton Broadstock

Who is Brenton Broadstock?

Brenton Broadstock AO is an Australian composer.

Broadstock was born in Melbourne. He studied history, politics and music at Monash University and, later, composition and theory with Donald Freund at the University of Memphis in the United States and with Peter Sculthorpe at the University of Sydney. The University of Melbourne awarded him the Doctor of Music degree in 1987.

From 1982 to 2006 Broadstock was employed in the Faculty of Music, University of Melbourne, as Professor of Music and Head of Composition. During 2007 he was a Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at the university.

In 2008 Broadstock's music was performed at the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games and in 2009 he was Composer in Residence with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, composing a multi-instrumental concerto, Made In Heaven, for trumpeter James Morrison, a chamber concertino, Hall of Mirrors, for trombonist Brett Kelly and a symphony for soloists, choir and orchestra, Tyranny of Distance which was premiered at the 2009 Melbourne International Festival of the Arts.

Broadstock has won numerous prizes for composition, including First Prize in the 1981 Townsville Pacific Festival's National Composition Competition for his orchestral work Festive Overture;'; the Albert H. Maggs Award; two APRA Music Awards for his orchestral works The Mountain and Toward The Shining Light; First Prize in the Hambacher Preis International Composers' Competition, West Germany for his 'Tuba Concerto'; and in 1994 he received the Paul Lowin Song Cycle Award, Australia's richest composition prize, for 'Bright Tracks' for mezzo soprano and string trio. His orchestral work 'Stars In A Dark Night' received four 'Sounds Australian' National Music Critics' Awards including 'Best Australian Orchestral Work in 1989' and was the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's entry to the prestigious Paris Rostrum of Composers in 1990. In 2001 he received the Australian Music Centre's Victorian Award for Best Composition – 'Dark Side Symphony #5', and in 2002 his 'Federation Flourish' was nominated for an APRA/AMC “orchestral Work of the Year”.