 | Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "George Palmer" composer – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(November 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
George Palmer | |
|---|---|
| Justice of theSupreme Court of New South Wales | |
| In office 2001–2011 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1947 (age 77–78) Egypt |
| Occupation | Composer;jurist;barrister |
George Alfred PalmerAM, KC (born 1947) is an Australian classical music composer and a former Justice of theSupreme Court of New South Wales.
Palmer was born in a Britishmilitary hospital in Egypt in 1947 while his parents, recently demobilised from theBritish Army, were awaiting a ship to take them to a new life in Australia. Palmer's family arrived inSydney when he was three months old and he has lived there ever since.
He received a Jesuit education atSaint Ignatius' College, Riverview, with particular emphasis on the Classics, languages and history. He graduated in Arts and Law fromUniversity of Sydney in 1970.
Palmer studied piano from the age of 10. His most influential teachers were pianists Frank Warbrick andNeta Maughan.
Palmer's interests always lay in composition rather than performance, and he began writing music at an early age.
After graduating, Palmer joined a city law firm where he specialised incommercial law. He developed expertise in oil and mineral exploration law at a time when the resources boom was just beginning in Australia. Within two years of graduation, he became a partner of his law firm.
He became abarrister in 1974, again specialising in commercial law, and built up a successful practice. He was appointed aQueen's Counsel in 1986 and appeared throughout Australia as leading counsel in many of the large commercial cases in the 1990s. In 2001, he was appointed a judge of theSupreme Court of New South Wales.[1]
In June 2011, Palmer retired from the court to devote himself full-time to composition.
In 2002, when it became clear that his father did not have long to live, Palmer recorded privately some of his works so that his father could hear his music. By coincidence the recordings came to the attention of theAustralian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
In 2004,ABC Classic FM broadcast live a concert of his music at the Eugene Goossens Hall in Sydney and ABC TV later that year featured him inAustralian Story.[2]
Since then,ABC Classics has released CDs of his music.Attraction of Opposites (2005) features music for strings.Exaltate Dominum (2007), withCantillation andSinfonia Australis, conducted by Paul Stanhope, includes his Christmas MassA Child Is Born,Three Psalms,The Canticles of Advent and other works for choir and soloists.
Palmer has received many commissions. His works include: astring quintet,Not Going Quietly, premiered by the Sydney Omega Ensemble in 2007;Concerto for Two Clarinets and Chamber Orchestra, performed byDimitri Ashkenazy, David Rowden and the Sydney Omega Ensemble;Concertino for Two Guitars forSlava andLeonard Grigoryan andThe Queensland Orchestra; a symphonic suite,The Beancounter, for the West Australian Youth Orchestra; a symphonic fantasia,Incandescence, for theChristchurch Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tom Woods; a song cycle for baritone and piano,Letters from a Black Snake, commissioned for the opening of theSidney Nolan Retrospective at theArt Gallery of New South Wales and theNational Gallery of Victoria; apiano quartet,The Way It Is, for theSeraphim Trio, aclarinet sonata,Black, White and a Little Blue, premiered in the Utzon Room at theSydney Opera House by David Rowden in 2010. His works have been performed by orchestras and chamber groups in Australia, the United States, and Europe, and receive frequent airplay on classical music stations.
In July 2007, Palmer was commissioned to write the Papal Mass forWorld Youth Day 2008 in Sydney. The Mass,Benedictus Qui Venit, for large choir, soloists and orchestra, was performed in the presence ofPope Benedict XVI and an audience of 350,000 with soloistsAmelia Farrugia, soprano, andAndrew Goodwin, tenor, directed byBenjamin Bayl.
In May 2016 his operatic adaptation ofTim Winton's novelCloudstreet was premiered in Adelaide by theState Opera of South Australia. Hailed as "a resounding triumph" (The Australian) and "an extra-ordinary achievement" (Stagenoise),[3][4] it played to critical acclaim and full houses. Palmer collaborated withLeah Purcell on the adaptation of her play based onHenry Lawson's short story "The Drover's Wife" into an opera, part of the 2026 opening program of theQueensland Performing Arts Centre's Glasshouse Theatre.[5]
From 2003 to 2011, Palmer was chairman ofPacific Opera, a not-for-profit company established to give Australia's best young singers professional development and the experience necessary to launch their careers. From 2007 to 2011, he was president of the Arts Law Centre of Australia, a government-funded body which provides free or low-cost legal and business advice to artists in all media throughout Australia.
He is[when?] a director of Ars Musica Australis, which assists young performers in all media to study further in Australia and overseas, and also commissions new works from Australian composers. Palmer's music is published by and available from theAustralian Music Centre.[6]
In an essay "Learning to be a composer",[7] Palmer wrote:
I very much agree with the proposition that music owes its origin to the instinctive urge in humans to dance and sing. Dance and song inform all of my music. Dancing and singing require recognisable and repeatable rhythmic and melodic patterns. I have always followedShostakovich's advice to his friend,Benjamin Britten: "Ben, never be afraid of a good tune." Shostakovich practised what he preached.
Palmer's style is essentially lyrical, ranging through the full spectrum of emotions. He endeavours to engage the audience, not alienate it, even when the subject matter is tragic or anguished. A work such as thestring quintetNot Going Quietly, written in memory ofAaron McMillan, a brilliant Australian pianist who died of cancer at the age of 30,[8] contains passages which are harsh and cry out in pain, as well as passages of gentle lyricism.[citation needed]
On 29 July 2012, William Chen premiered Palmer's new Piano Concerto, accompanied by theSydney Youth Orchestra. The piece was played at a cultural exchange concert, where pieces of Australian music were mixed with Chinese compositions. The work was inspired by an eighth-century Chinese poem,The Withered Tree, byHan Yu. and was described by one reviewer as having a "dramatic blend of emotions and pianistic styles".[9]
Underlying all Palmer's music, however, whether vocal or instrumental, is his fascination with "the singing line".[This quote needs a citation]
In June 2010 he was appointed a Member of theOrder of Australia (AM) for services to law and to music as a composer and in leadership roles.[10] In 2020 he was created aPapal knight in theOrder of St. Gregory the Great for services to music, particularly to liturgical music, and the law.[11]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
