Alfred Hill (composer)

Alfred Francis Hill ( born December 16, 1869 in Melbourne, † October 30th 1960 in Sydney) was an Australian composer, conductor and music educator.

Though born in Melbourne, Hill spent his early years living primarily in New Zealand. In 1887 he traveled to Germany to study at the Leipzig Conservatory. Until 1891, Gustav Schreck, Hans Sitt and Oscar Paul were his teachers. Later, Hill played for a while among the second violins of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, also by famous composers such as Carl Reinecke, Johannes Brahms, Max Bruch, Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Edvard Grieg, conducted concerts.

After Hill returned to New Zealand, he worked as a violin teacher and chamber musician, as well as conductor of various choirs and orchestras. Since 1897 he again lived in Australia, where he was employed as a music teacher for several years.

After a few years of regular commuting between Australia and New Zealand, Hill left in 1911 finally settled in Sydney. There he was now chairman of the Australasian College Orchestral and played the viola in the Austral String Quartet. In 1913 he founded, together with Fritz Hart the Australian Opera League, contributing not insignificantly to the creation of an independent Australian opera Resources at. Hill was also a co-founder of the Sydney Repertory Theatre Society and the Musical Association of New South Wales, which he later led as president. During another stay in New Zealand, he was involved in the creation of the New Zealand Conservatorium of Music, as well as the establishment of a foundation for the study of Māori in Rotorua.

1916 Hill was appointed the first professor of music theory and composition at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music. From 1937 he finally devoted himself only to composing.

Alfred Hill died in 1960 at the age of 90 years. He has left more than 500 works, including 17 string quartets, 12 symphonies, numerous concertos, a Mass and 8 operas. Stylistically, his music is heavily European- influenced and affected primarily by the German music, as well as that of Grieg or Antonín Dvořák. There you will find occasional echoes of the music of the Māori in whose melodies Hill all his life collected and researched.

His wife Mirrie Hill (1892-1986) was also a respected composer.