Stuart Greenbaum

Stuart Greenbaum (born 1966) is an Australian composer and Professor of music composition at the University of Melbourne. He served as Head of Composition from 2007 to 2023 at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.

Greenbaum has had his work performed all the major Australian orchestras, including both the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

He collaborated with the Melbourne poet Ross Baglin to create over 20 works, including 2 operas performed in Melbourne and London, an hour-long choral symphony, Brought to Light, premiered by Cantori New York in 2022, and several major choral works.

The early 1990s saw Greenbaum producing a number of pieces for stage, including a time as the resident composer at the Playbox Theatre in Melbourne. In 1993, as a young composer, he was commissioned to write Aaron Copland: In Memoriam, the first of a series of ten works commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation by young Australian composers. One of his first major works to be commissioned was The Foundling, commissioned by Cantori New York in 1997, and From the Beginning commissioned for the sesquicentenary of the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic in 2003.

Greenbaum's work Nelson, a 3–act opera with libretto by Ross Baglin, was presented in London in 2005 and premiered in full at the 2007 Castlemaine State Festival. He was a featured composer at the 2006 Aurora Festival. In 2007 he was commissioned by the artistic director of the Southern Cross Soloists to compose a work, Mondrian Interiors, featuring Marshall McGuire. In May 2024, Iranian-born Melbourne pianist, Amir Farid, gave the US premiere of Greenbaum’s half hour piano sonata Ice Man (1993) to a sell-out audience at Carnegie Hall.

In 2024 Stuart Greenbaum signed a global publishing contract with Wise Music G. Schirmer Australia.

Greenbaum lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife, Marianne Rothschild, a violinist. Dorian Le Galliene Composition Award The Heinz Harant Prize Albert H. Maggs Composition Award ABC Classic Australia, 2008 Work of the Year (Chamber Concerto)

Discography Music for Theatre (Playbox, 1992) Mercurial (Reed Music, 2005) 800 Million Heartbeats (ABC Classics, 2013) Mondrian Interiors (ABC Classics, 2015) Satellite Mapping (Move Records, 2016) Return Journey (ABC Classics, 2018) The Thin Blue Line (ABC Classics, 2018) The Final Hour (Lyrebird Productions, 2019) Electric Confession (Salisbury Records, 2021) A Trillion Miles of Darkness (ABC Classics, 2022) Abandoned Places (Artaria, 2025) Life in Light Years (Salisbury Records, 2025)

Selected major works

Symphony No.6 – Pulse of the Earth, 2024 Piano Sonata No.3 – Life in Light Years, 2023 String Quartet No.8 – Once More around the Sun, 2023 Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp – The Way Through, 2022 Symphony No.5 – Brought to Light, 2022 Piano Sonata No.2 – Journey into Darkness, 2021 Sonata for Harp – The Bamboo Forest, 2020 Sonata for Tuba and Piano – Underland, 2019 Sonata for Horn and Piano – Hiroshima, 2019 Sonata for Bassoon and Piano – Deep Time, 2019 Sonata for Organ – Transport Abandoned, 2019 Sonata for Percussion and Piano – Parallel Universe, 2019 Sonata for Violin and Viola – From Far Above, 2018 Far Beyond the Evening Sky – Symphony for Strings, 2018 Sonata for Cor Anglais and Piano – Abandoned Places, 2018 Tide Moon Earth Sun – concerto for Harp and Strings, 2018 Sonata for Cello and Piano – Another Earth, 2018 Translations, for recorder, erhu and string quartet, 2017 Symphony No.3 – Supernova, 2017 Sonata for Viola and Piano – Leaving Earth, 2017 String Quartet No.7 – Recognition, 2016 Sonata for Double Bass and Piano – Continental Drift, 2016 Sonata for Clarinet and Piano – A Trillion Miles of Darkness, 2016 String Quartet No.6 – Lonely Planet, 2015 Sonata for Trumpet and Piano, 2015 Sonata for Trombone and Piano, 2015 Sonata for Oboe and Piano, 2015 Sonata for Flute and Piano, 2015 The Gradual Slowing of the Earth – concerto for organ and symphonic winds, 2014 The Final Hour, for studio orchestra, narrator and electronics, 2013 Sonata for Guitar, 2013 Natural Satellite, for guitar duo, 2013 Sonata for Piano, 4-hands, 2013 Four Finalities, for soprano cor anglais and harp, 2012 Dance Music for Concert Halls, for clarinet, violin, cello and piano, 2012 Chamber Concerto No.2, 2011 Symphony No.2 – Double Planet, 2010 The Parrot Factory, an opera in 1 act, 2010 All Those Ways of Leaving, for sextet, 2009 The Year Without a Summer, for piano trio, 2009 Falling By Degrees, for violin and piano, 2009 Chamber Concerto, 2008 Easter Island, for septet, 2008 Mondrian Interiors, for solo harp and mixed quintet, 2007 Nelson, an opera in 3 acts, 2005 The Last Signal, for solo piano and chamber orchestra, 2005 From the Beginning, for large choir, organ and orchestra, 2003 Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano, 2002 Sonata for Violin and Piano, 2000 Symphony No.1 – Four Essay on the Passing of Time, 1998 The Foundling, for choir, vibraphone and string quartet, 1997 Ice Man, for solo piano, 1993 Letters to the Front, for soprano and orchestra, 1989