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4 unusual facts about Anne Boyd


Anne Boyd

Her father died when she was age 3, and her mother sent her to live with relatives on a sheep station (Maneroo) near Longreach, in central Queensland.

Boyd studied music at the University of Sydney, where she was one of Peter Sculthorpe's first students.

Many of Boyd's compositions have an East Asian influence, especially the music of Japan (such as the wood flute and the Japanese mode) and Indonesia (such as the gamelan orchestra and the Balinese modes).

Japanese mode

In addition to being used almost exclusively in traditional Japanese compositions, it is found frequently in video game music and the pieces of contemporary composers such as Anne Boyd.


Sydney University Musical Society

SUMS has performed many great works over its lifetime, including the Australian premiere performances Bach's Mass in B minor and St Matthew Passion in 1880; premiére performances of Martin and Peter Wesley Smith’s Songs of Australia for the Australian Bicentenary in 1988, the world premiére of Nicholas Routley’s Mycenae Lookout in 1998, & world premiére of Anne Boyd’s carol, A Lullaby of the Nativity, written for SUMS in 2003.


see also