Gordon Kerry (born 1961)

Gordon Kerry’s orchestral music has been commissioned by the ABC, BBC, Symphony Australia, Ars Musica Australis and the Australian Youth Orchestra. Most recently he has made a new completion of the Mozart Requiem commissioned by ABC Classic FM and an overture celebrating the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Centenary. His extensive body of chamber music has been commissioned for or premiered by Musica Viva Australia, Wigmore Hall, London as well as independent ensembles in Australia, Germany, the USA, Sweden and Russia. Recordings of his music appear on Tall Poppies, Vox Australis and ABC Classics, who have released harvesting the solstice thunders, a CD of his orchestral music played by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

A commitment to his local community has produced new works for Opera in the Alps, the Murray Conservatorium Choirs and Orchestra and the Riverina Summer School for Strings. He has written numerous choral works for ensembles including Sydney Philharmonia, the Prague Chamber Choir and the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic. His opera Medea has been performed in Australia and the USA with Chamber Made Opera and in Germany in several seasons with the Berliner Kammeroper. ABC Classics has recently released the opera on CD. The most recent of several awards was the 2004 APRA – Australian Music Centre’s Orchestral Work of the Year for This Insubstantial Pageant performed by the WASO.

Gordon Kerry studied composition with Barry Conyngham at the University of Melbourne, and he has held fellowships from the Australia Council, Peggy Glanville-Hicks Trust and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, USA. He lives on a hill in north-eastern Victoria, Australia.