He may be 75 today, but Larry Sitsky sees his birthday as another excuse to celebrate Australian classical music. The internationally respected pianist, composer, researcher and educator, who is one of the founding members of the ANU School of Music, will be the subject of a concert at the National Library tomorrow night.
As well as marking his birthday and presenting his musical journey, the evening will also celebrate the library’s acquisition of Emeritus Professor Sitsky’s personal papers, the launch of a new website focusing on his work, and the publication of a new series of Australian Heritage musical editions.
These have been the result of Professor Sitsky’s research project on the role of piano in Australian music, funded by a grant from the Australian Research Council. ‘‘It’s always perturbed me that we’re very bad at looking after our own culture, you know?’’ he says. ‘‘You go to concerts and quite often there’s specialists presenting aspects of American or European or Asian music or whatever. We’re not that crash-hot about our own stuff. ‘‘Further back there’s quite a lot of material that even musicians don’t know about, it’s sitting in libraries in manuscript form, awaiting revival. And so my research has been focused really on trying to get these scores out and published.’’
At 75, Professor Sitsky shows no signs whatsoever of slowing down. ‘‘I have absolutely no intention, because one day . . . we all take a very long vacation!’’ he says.
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