News

Barry Jones announces appeal for Aussie music icon

Media Release, Thursday 24 April 2003

Australia’s most celebrated composer, Percy Grainger, is to be remembered with a special series of events, and the announcement of a development appeal at the Grainger Museum in Parkville next week.

Former ALP President, Hawke Government Minister and Friend of the Grainger Museum, Barry Jones, will announce the Grainger appeal as part of the University of Melbourne’s 150th Anniversary celebrations and Community Open Weekend.

A media conference with Barry Jones will be held at 10am, Tuesday, April 29, at the Grainger Museum, Gate 13, University of Melbourne, Royal Parade, Parkville (next to the Faculty of Music).

Grainger is best known for composing the twentieth century classic, “Country Gardens”.

He also composed “The Warriors – music for an imaginary ballet”, which was played at the opening of the Sydney Olympic Games as Cathy Freeman lit the Olympic cauldron.

The Grainger Museum holds an eccentric collection of musical instruments, manuscripts, clothing and artifacts tracing the life of Percy Grainger and his mother, Rose. The museum also catalogues Grainger’s first experiments with proto-electronic music, including a collection of Grainger’s own music machines, an early electronic synthesizer from England.

The Grainger museum will be open to the public as part of the University of Melbourne Community Open Weekend, from 11am to 4pm, on Saturday May 10.

For further information visit : www.unimelb.edu.au/150 or phone (03) 8344 3874.