Biography

Ronald Tremain was born in Feilding, New Zealand in 1923. He died at Niagra on the Lake, Canada in 1998. He had a distinguished career as a composer and teacher. Initially studying piano, he gained Trinity College Diplomas before gaining his first degree in music at Canterbury University.

After war service he taught at Feilding High School and attended Cambridge Summer Music Schools (studying composition with Douglas Lilburn) in 1947 and 1948. He continued his studies at the Royal College of Music in London gaining diplomas in piano performance and a doctorate in 1953.

Awards during this time included the Royal College of Music Cobbett Prize for string quartet, the Farrar Prize for composition and 2nd Prize in the Lionel Tertis Awards. In 1952 he was awarded an Italian Government Bursary and studied composition with Goffredo Petrassi at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome.

After some years working free-lance in London as a teacher, composer and examiner he returned to New Zealand where he spent ten years as a lecturer at the University of Auckland. In 1963 he was awarded the Carnegie Travelling Fellowship and toured universities in the United States. From 1967-68 he was Visiting Professor at the School of Music, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and from 1968-69 Visiting Professor of Theory and Composition at the State University of New York, Buffalo. He then returned to Britain to lecture at Goldsmiths College at the University of London.

In 1970 he moved to Canada where, until his retirement in 1989, he was Professor of Music at Brock University. He was made a Professor Emeritus in 1991.

Selected Works

• Publications (1)
• Works (81)
• Related Resources (2)