Prof Larry Sitsky
Professor Emeritus at the Australian National University
Larry Sitsky, born in China of Russian-Jewish parents, travelled to Australia in 1951 and settled in Sydney. He studied piano from an early age and was granted a scholarship to the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, where he studied piano and composition, graduating in 1955. Post-graduate studies continued with the distinguished Australian pianist and teacher, Winifred Burston. In 1959 he won a scholarship to the San Francisco Conservatory, where he studied with the great Egon Petri for two years. Returning to Australia, he joined the staff of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music. A grant from the Myer Foundation in 1965 enabled him to conduct research into the music of Ferruccio Busoni, on whom he has written extensively. In 1966 he was appointed Head of Keyboard Studies at the School of Music in Canberra (now part of the Australian National University), where he was later Head of Musicology, Head of Composition Studies, Head of Academic Studies and now Distinguished Visiting Fellow, as well as Emeritus Professor.
In the field of composition Sitsky's approach has led to similarly diverse of achievements. He has written in numerous genres including opera, theatre, orchestral music, chamber music, solo and vocal music, and his works have been commissioned by many leading Australian and international bodies. As well as working with every orchestra in Australia, Sitsky has been commissioned by the Sydney International Piano Competition, the ABC, Musica Viva, the International Clarinet Society and the International Flute Convention.
Sitsky has received numerous honours for his composition, as well as his research. Among others, he has won the A H Maggs Award twice, the Alfred Hill Memorial Prize, the first National Critics' Award, and the inaugural Australian Composer's Fellowship presented by the Music Board of the Australia Council. In recognition of Sitsky's various achievements, the Australian National University awarded Sitsky its first Higher Doctorate in Fine Arts in 1997. In 1998 he was elected Fellow of the Academy of Humanities of Australia, and in 2000 he became a Member of the Order of Australia. He has also been awarded a Centenary Medal, Advance Australia award, and cultural ambassadorships to China, Russia, and the USA.
Prof Paul Fleet
Professor of Authentic Music Theory at Newcastle University
Paul Fleet is a Professor of Authentic Music Theory at Newcastle University. He is also (more importantly) husband to Nathalie, and father to Belle and Evan. Paul has been recognised as a National Teaching Fellow (2021), Senior Fellow of the HEA, and is a QAA Subject Expert and Reviewer as well as an Advance HE qualified trainer for External Examiners.
Paul's PhD examined Busoni’s music through a phenomenological lens and led to an early publication Ferruccio Busoni: A Phenomenological Approach to his Music and Aesthetics (2009). Since then his publications include ‘Do we need to teach music notation in UK Popular Music Studies?’ (2017); ‘Rethinking the Guidonian Hand for twenty-first century Musicians’ (2017); is the co-editor and author for The Routledge Companion to Aural Skills Pedagogy: Before, In and Beyond Higher Education (2021) and in ‘“Parental Advisory”: Making Explicit the Value and Authenticity of a Music Degree’ for The Routledge Companion to Applied Musicology (2023). He returned to Busoni as the editor and author for Musics With and After Tonality: Mining the Gap (2021) and has a few publication ideas up his sleeve for during and after this conference.
Paul is currently the Dean of Infrastructure for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and has undertaken roles including Pastoral and Senior Tutor, Degree Programme Director, Academic Head of Lecture-Capture for the University, Director of Excellence in Learning and Teaching, Deputy Head of School of Arts and Cultures (~1.8k students), Acting Deputy Director of the Business School (~12k students); and the Academic Head of Newcastle University London (~900 students & 31 Staff).
Prof Erinn Knyt
Professor of Music History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
Erinn Knyt is a Professor of Music History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She received her B.A. in Music with highest honors (U.C. Davis), an M.M. in Music (Stanford University), and a Ph.D. in Music and Humanities (Stanford University).
Erinn specializes in nineteenth- and twentieth-century music, aesthetics, music history pedagogy, performance practice issues, and Bach reception, and has written extensively about Ferruccio Busoni. Her articles have appeared in numerous journals, including American Music, Eighteenth Century Music, Journal of Musicology, Journal of Music History Pedagogy, Journal of Musicological Research, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Musicology Australia, Music and Letters, 19th-Century Music, Nineteenth-Century Music Review, and Twentieth Century Music.
Errin's first book, Ferruccio Busoni and His Legacy (Indiana University Press, 2017), which explores Busoni’s relationship with early and mid-career composition mentees, was awarded an AMS 75 Pays Endowment Book Subvention. Knyt’s second book, Ferruccio Busoni as Architect of Sound (Oxford University Press, 2023) was also awarded an American Musicological Society subvention, and her third book, Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” Reimagined, is under contract with Oxford University Press. Knyt was honored with the 2018 American Musicological Society Teaching Award.