Adelaide's Graeme Koehne scores attention with orchestra and ballet music in Latin and Hollywood modes

Graeme Koehne, another Adelaide University Elder Conservatorium graduate, with his Powerhouse album of compositions.
Main image by Oranje Creative

Graeme Koehne has carried on the Adelaide tradition set by Miriam Hyde of building on an Elder Conservatorium and international grounding as a composer and musical educator.

Graeme Koehne, also composer and music educator, in 2014 was appointed director of Adelaide University's Elder Conservatorium where he had completed his undergraduate and post-graduate studies, learning composition with Richard Meale, a pupil of Winifred Burston who had been a pupil of Ferruccio Busoni.

In 1984, Koehne was awarded a Harkness Fellowship to the School of Music, Yale University, where he studied with Louis Andriessen and Jacob Druckman and took private lessons with Virgil Thomson. 

In 1986 and was appointed lecturer in composition at Elder Conservatorium. He gained national attention at the 1992 Adelaide Festival with the Young Composers Prize for his orchestral work Rainforest. He started a long and fruitful collaboration with choreographer Graeme Murphy, including a children’s ballet based on Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant and the full-length Nearly Beloved.

Koehne is best known for his orchestral and ballet scores that embrace triadic tonality. His orchestral trilogy Unchained Melody, Powerhouse and Elevator Music makes allusions to Hollywood film scores, cartoon music, popular Latin music and other dance forms.

Koehne has chaired the music board of the Australia Council.