Martin Wesley-Smith

Martin Wesley-Smith (10 June 1945 – 26 September 2019) was an Australian composer with an eclectic output ranging from children's songs to environmental events. He worked in a range of musical styles, including choral music, operas, computer music, music theatre, chamber and orchestral music, and audiovisual pieces which bring words, music and images together. He often worked with his librettist brother, Peter Wesley-Smith.

He was one of the pioneers of computer, or electronic, music.

Two main themes dominated Wesley-Smith's music: the life, work and ideas of Lewis Carroll, and the plight of the people of East Timor.

Life Wesley-Smith was born, one of twin boys, in Adelaide. He had two other brothers. His parents were part of the Adelaide establishment. His father was the academic registrar of the University of Adelaide, and his mother was a teacher and a presenter of the ABC's radio program Kindergarten of the Air.

He studied composition at the University of Adelaide. From his student days, Wesley-Smith was a rebel, moonlighting on the banjo with a folkie band, the Wesley Three, when his teachers would have preferred he focus on his classical studies.

His work is being jointly archived by the National Library of Australia and the National Film and Sound Archive.

Musical career Wesley-Smith returned to Australia from the UK in 1974 to teach composition and electronic music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Here he founded and directed its Electronic Music Studio. He established the first computer music studio in China at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing in 1986, and he taught at the University of Hong Kong in 1994–95.

Wesley-Smith often worked with his wordsmith twin-brother, Peter ("Ira to his George"

Performances Wesley-Smith led an electronic music and audio-visual performing group, watt, from 1976 to 1998. It was founded by the Australia Council in honour of Don Banks, Australian composer, performer and the first chair of its music board. 1987 Martin Wesley-Smith Don Banks Music Award

1997: Paul Lowin Composition Award for the music drama Quito 1998: AM for services to "music, as a composer, scriptwriter, children's songwriter, lecturer, presenter of multi-media concerts and a member of various Australia Council boards and committees" Quito (1994, documentary music drama; with Peter Wesley-Smith) X (1999, multimedia piece for clarinet and CD ROM) Welcome to the Hotel Turismo (2000, multimedia piece for cello, or bass clarinet, and CD ROM) Weapons of Mass Distortion (2003, an audio-visual piece for clarinet in B-flat and Macintosh computer) A Luta Continua (2005, oratorio for baritone, girls' choir and orchestra; with Peter Wesley-Smith) Papua Merdeka (2007 – audio-visual piece for bass clarinet and Macintosh computer)