Rate My Professor Elliott Gyger

Elliott Gyger is Professor in Music (Composition) at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music in the University of Melbourne's Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. Born in Sydney in 1968, he began composing at around age ten. Gyger holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Sydney, awarded in 1990, where he studied with Peter Sculthorpe, and a PhD in Music from Harvard University, completed in 2002, with additional teachers including Ross Edwards, Bernard Rands, and Mario Davidovsky. Following his doctoral studies, he served as Assistant Professor of Music at Harvard from 2002 to 2007. He joined the University of Melbourne in 2008 and has since advanced to his current professorial role. Gyger has held significant leadership positions, including Associate Director of Teaching and Learning at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and involvement in executive roles within the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music.

As a composer, Gyger has created works for orchestras, choirs, chamber ensembles, soloists, and in collaboration with visual artists, writers, and directors. His chamber operas include Fly Away Peter (2015, after David Malouf's novel, premiered by Sydney Chamber Opera) and Oscar and Lucinda (2019, adapted from Peter Carey's novel, also for Sydney Chamber Opera, joint winner of the Art Music Award for Work of the Year: Dramatic in 2020). Other key compositions are Concerto for Orchestra (2020, premiered by West Australian Symphony Orchestra in 2022), on air (2011, dialogue for orchestra, winner of the Sydney Symphony 80th Anniversary Composition Prize), giving voice (2012, for mezzo-soprano and five instruments, winner of the Paul Lowin Song Cycle Award), and Autobiochemistry (2019, for mezzo-soprano and cello, winner of the Paul Lowin Song Cycle Award). Ablaze, a chamber work, was a finalist for the Art Music Award for Work of the Year: Chamber Music in 2024. Gyger's accolades include the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Fellowship, the Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and commission grants from the Australia Council and the Fromm Foundation. He has performed as a choral singer at venues such as the Sydney Opera House, Tanglewood, Carnegie Hall, and the Royal Albert Hall, and worked as a new music conductor and concert curator. Gyger has written extensively on new music, including journal articles, program notes, and a book on Australian composer Nigel Butterley published by Wildbird Press in 2015. He has tutored in young composer development programs with Halcyon, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and National Music Camp.