Biography

Elaine Rowena Dobson was born in Loughborough, England 7-7-45. Primary schooling at Somerville House, Brisbane and Glennie Preparatory School, Toowoomba. Secondary schooling at Newcastle Church of England Girls’ Grammar School, NSW. First piano lessons and compositions 1951. Piano and theory tuition at Newcastle Conservatorium of Music, 1960-2. Full-time student Newcastle Conservatorium of Music and Teachers’ College 1963-6, on a New South Wales State Government Scholarship, graduating 1966. Gained AMusA piano 1965. 1967 Music Specialist Graduate Teacher at Moree High School, NSW. 1968-75 enrolled at University of Queensland, graduating BMus (hons in composition) 1972 and MMus (composition) 1976. 1974-78 full-time tutor in Dept Of Music, University of Queensland. 1979-84 Lecturer in Composition and Writing Techniques, Queensland Conservatorium of Music (Chairman of Academic Studies 1982-4). 1984 to date Lecturer in Composition at the School of Music, University of Canterbury. Awards include Newcastle Teachers’ College Music Prize 1966, Commonwealth Assistance to Australian Composers Inaugural Young Composers Fellowship 1970, Australian Commonwealth Open University Scholarship 1968-71, Australian Commonwealth Post Graduate Award 1972-3. Publications include contributions on twentieth-century composition to various periodicals and “George Dreyfus” in “Australian Composition in the Twentieth Century” (Eds Frank Callaway and David Tunley). A specialised interest is in Asian music; in 1991 visited Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal to conduct ethnomusicological research.

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• Works (34)