Composer

Biography

Anthony Young graduated from the University of Auckland with a Masters degree in composition in 2004, and has had pieces performed by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, the Auckland Chamber Orchestra, the Karlheinz Company, Tapestry New Opera Works (Toronto) and other performances in the USA and Italy. In 2003, he was a finalist in the NZSO Douglas Lilburn Prize with his piece Mamaku, and in 2004 was the joint Composer-in-Residence with the APO. In 2008, his one-scene opera, The Perfect Match, was made into a short film and screened in Canada and the USA, and in 2009, the APO premiered The Angle of Reflection, a work for soprano and orchestra co-written with Toronto playwright, Leanna Brodie.

In 2010, Anthony was a recipient of the SOUNZ Community Commission for a work for Whangarei Youth Music at the Field of Rememberance Ceremony in March 2011. Other current projects include another collaboration with Leanna Brodie, this time an opera for young audiences, Ulla’s Odyssey.

He regularly composes and conducts for new music concerts with The Committee, a group of University of Auckland alumni composers dedicated to presenting concerts of their own music. Over the last few years, he has written music for Peach Theatre Co. in productions of The Glass Menagerie and Equus.

Anthony’s other musical activities include conducting, teaching composition at several high schools around Auckland, arranging for various ensembles, and he has sung with the Chapman Tripp NZ Opera Chorus in Auckland.