Barry Conyngham

Barry Ernest Conyngham (born 27 August 1944) is an Australian composer and academic. He has over 70 published works and over 30 recordings featuring his compositions, and his works have been premiered or performed in Australia, Japan, North and South America, the United Kingdom and Europe. He is former Dean of the Faculty of the Fine Arts and Music at the University of Melbourne.

Biography Conyngham was born in Sydney. He was initially interested in jazz and studied with Raymond Hanson but turned his attention to orchestral writing in the mid-1960s with encouragement from Peter Sculthorpe. He completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Sydney in 1967, and a Master of Arts (Hons.) This was unusual at the time, as Australian composers typically chose Europe and Britain as their location for further study.

In 1972, he went to the United States on a Harkness Fellowship and gained a Certificate of Post-Doctoral Studies from the University of California, San Diego in 1973. He was a Fellow of Princeton University 1973–74, and Composer-in-Residence at the University of Aix-Marseille in 1974–75. He was a lecturer at the University of Melbourne from 1975 to 1979, then Senior Lecturer 1975–79. He was a visiting scholar at the University of Minnesota, was a Senior Fulbright Fellow in 1982,

He was the first musician to hold the chair of Australian studies at Harvard University (2000–2001).

In 1978, he won the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award (he won it again in 2008). In 1997, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), "for service to music as a composer and to music education and administration".

In 2000, Barry Conyngham was invited to give the second annual Peggy Glanville-Hicks address for the Sydney Spring Festival.

Conyngham has been involved with a number of arts organisations, including the World Music Council, Opera Australia, the Australian Music Centre and the Swiss Global Artistic Foundation.