Rex Hobcroft

Rex Hobcroft AM (12 May 192523 September 2013) full-time from 1946 and graduated in 1948 with First Class Honours.

Queensland Conservatorium of Music In 1957 Rex Hobcroft was appointed foundation head of the keyboard department of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Brisbane. He was only the second pianist appointed to a full-time teaching position at a conservatorium in Australia.

Tasmania In 1961 Hobcroft became Foundation Head of the Music Department of the University of Tasmania in Hobart. Among the audience was the poet Gwen Harwood, and she was inspired to dedicate a number of poems to Rex Hobcroft (including Four Impromptus and Estuary ). The following year, Hobcroft introduced Harwood to the composer Larry Sitsky, which proved to be the start of an artistic collaboration that eventually produced six operas: The Fall of the House of Usher (1965), Lenz (1970), Fiery Tales (1975), Voices in Limbo (1977), The Golem (1980, performed 1993), and De Profundis (1982) He was later a co-founder and conductor of the Tasmanian Opera Company.

In 1968 he studied at the Tokyo University of the Arts. He also oversaw the first courses in church music and electronic music, a rich visiting artists program, and the establishment of regional music centres. He was Chairman of the Jury for the inaugural competition in 1977, and again for the 1981, 1985 and 1988 competitions. James Penberthy's Bedlam Hills for chorus and piano is dedicated "to horny Hobcroft".

After retiring from the New South Wales Conservatorium, he returned to Perth, Western Australia. But formal retirement did not mean an end to his musical activities. He chaired the Western Australian State Government's Conservatorium Committee. This recommended the establishment of a Conservatorium of Music in that state, which was implemented in 1985 as the UWA School of Music. X Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition, Santander, 1990; and Adviser to the XVII competition in 2012 1st China International Piano Competition, 1994 XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition, Moscow, 1998 9th UNISA International Piano Competition, Pretoria, South Africa, 2000 International Ettore Pozzoli Piano Competition, Seregno, Italy Liszt-Bartok Competition, Budapest Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, USA

Honours In 1977 Rex Hobcroft was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal.

In December 2004, the University of Tasmania awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Letters.

In 2007 Griffith University honoured him as a Doctor of the University.

Personal Rex Hobcroft was married and divorced three times,

He died in Perth on 23 September 2013, aged 88.