Anne Boyd began studying at the Department of Music at the University of Sydney in 1963 where her principal composition teacher was Peter Sculthorpe. A number of her works were performed at the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) concerts in Sydney and Melbourne and at the Adelaide Festival of the Arts in the years 1964-1972. In 1969 she was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship enabling her to undertake studies in composition for a DPhil at the University of York, where her supervisors were Wilfrid Mellers and Bernard Rands. In 1972 she was appointed Lecturer in Music at the University of Sussex, a post she held for five years. She composed two of her best-known works during this period: Angklung for piano, and As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams for unaccompanied choir, both of which are now part of the standard contemporary repertoire. She signed a general agreement with Faber Music Ltd. in 1977. Boyd returned to Australia to compose full-time on an Australia Council composer grant in 1977, writing successful chamber works, operas and other works drawing on Australian and Asian themes including the oratorio The Death of Captain Cook, the choral symphony Coal River, the chamber works My Name is Tian and Cycle of Love; the pieces for flute and piano Goldfish Through Summer Rain, Red Sun Chill Wind and Cloudy Mountain, and the choral works The Last of His Tribe and The Burning Babe. In 1981 Boyd was appointed Reader and founding Head of the Department of Music at the University of Hong Kong. In spite of administrative duties reducing the time she could spend on composition, her new compositions from this period were well received. These included the ABC's choice of Cycle of Love to represent Australia at the 1982 Paris Rostrum; the 1986 Australian Opera Company production of The Little Mermaid, and an orchestral work Black Sun commissioned by the San Francisco Bay Area Women's Orchestra in 1989 and subsequently performed by several major Australian symphony orchestras. In 1990 Boyd was appointed Professor and Head of Department of Music at the University of Sydney. Her latest compositions include her String Quartet no.3, the Concerto for Flute and Strings, commissioned by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and Grathawai for orchestra, first performed by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in 1993. Of the recent work Revelations of Divine Love (1994) for six unaccompanied voices, Peter McCallum of the Sydney Morning Herald wrote "it combined imaginative and translucent vocal writing ... with effective simplicity." Boyd's music is regularly performed worldwide. The hallmarks of her musical style are its transparency, gentleness and delicacy, attributes which reflect her long involvement with Asian traditions, especially those of Japan and Indonesia. The royalties from her ABC Classics disc Meditations on a Chinese Character (1997) supports the Australian Women's Music Fund which aims to assist women composers achieve their goals. Boyd's action during a funding crisis faced by her department at the University of Sydney was the subject of the 2002 film documentary Facing the Music.
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Anne Boyd was appointed Professor and Head of Department of Music at the University of Sydney in 1990. Over twenty-five years earlier, in 1963, Boyd had commenced her studies in music at the same university with Peter Sculthorpe as her principal composition teacher. Boyd was awarded a Commonwealth Overseas Scholarship in 1969 and, under the supervision of Wilfrid Mellers and Bernard Rands, she prepared a portfolio of compositions for her Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of York. In 1972 she was appointed Lecturer in Music at the University of Sussex, and held the position for five years. She returned to Australia in 1977 as a freelance composer before becoming Reader and founding Head of the Department of Music at the University of Hong Kong in 1981. Boyd is a recipient of many awards including in 1996 an AM in the Order of Australia for service to music as a composer and educator. She featured in Facing the Music, a documentary about the University of Sydney's Department of Music.
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