Martin Wesley-Smith

Martin Wesley-Smith (10 June 1945 – 26 September 2019) was an Australian composer with an eclectic output ranging from children’s songs to environmental events. He worked in a range of musical styles, including choral music, operas, computer music, music theatre, chamber and orchestral music, and audiovisual pieces which bring words, music and images together. He often worked with his librettist brother, Peter Wesley-Smith. He was one of the pioneers of computer, or electronic, music. Two main themes dominated Wesley-Smith’s music: the life, work and ideas of Lewis Carroll, and the plight of the people of East Timor. Life Wesley-Smith was born, one of twin boys, in Adelaide. He had two other brothers. His parents were part of the Adelaide establishment. His father was the academic registrar of the University of Adelaide, and his mother was a teacher and a presenter of the ABC’s radio program Kindergarten of the Air. He studied composition at the University of Adelaide. From his student days, Wesley-Smith was a rebel, moonlighting on the banjo with a folkie band, the Wesley Three, when his teachers would have preferred he focus on his classical studies. His work is being jointly arc