Martin Wesley-Smith

As a child in Adelaide I learnt piano and cello. My family used to sing (mainly songs from the Oxford Book of Folksongs) around the piano, with my three older brothers and I singing harmony parts (which provided excellent training in listening, improvising, and harmony etc). While at school, twin bro Pete and I formed a vocal and instrumental folk trio called The Wesley Three that went on to sing in clubs and record four LPs for CBS Television Broadcasting Company. I also started playing guitar and banjo in a Dixieland jazz band. Later I played banjo with the York University Symphony Orchestra and synthesizer with the ABC Training Orchestra. I studied composition at the University of Adelaide with Peter Tahourdin, Peter Maxwell Davies and Sandor Veress, then at the University of York. From 1974 to 2000 I taught at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, establishing its Electronic Music Studio. This eclectic background has contributed to my eclectic tastes.