Roy Agnew

Roy Ewing “Robert” Agnew (23 August 1891 – 12 November 1944) was an Australian composer, pianist, teacher, and radio announcer. He was described as “the most outstanding of the early twentieth-century Australian composers” by Morris Hinson. Early life and education Agnew was born in Sydney on August 23, 1891, the son of Samuel Agnew, a cordial manufacturer, and his wife Maria Jane (née Miller). His first music work to be published was Australian Forest Pieces for Piano in 1913. However, Agnew’s music did not receive much public attention until international pianist Benno Moiseiwitsch gave a recital of his works, Deirdre’s Lament and Dance of the Wild Men, at a Sydney Town Hall matinee in August 1920. Partly through funding by friends and supporters, Agnew was able to travel to London in 1923 to study composition and orchestration with Gerard Williams, Agnew also composed a second program, “Music Through the Ages: The Piano and its Composers,” featuring mostly classical composers such as Giles Farnaby, Domenico Scarlatti, Mozart, and Chopin, which Agnew played himself. In 1939, he won first prize for his sonata ballade from the Musical Association of New South Wales, which he later