Mary Finsterer

Mary Finsterer (born 1962) is an Australian composer.

Life

Mary Finsterer was born in Canberra, Australia, and graduated in 1987 with a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Melbourne. A recipient of the Royal Netherlands Government Award in 1993, she continued her studies in Amsterdam with Louis Andriessen, then returned to Australia and studied with Brenton Broadstock, completing a Master of Music degree in 1995 at the University of Melbourne. She completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 2003.^[1] Finsterer is married to the photographer Dean Golja.^[2]

Finsterer has taught music and composition at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, the University of Montreal in Canada, the University of Wollongong, the Victorian College of the Arts, the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, the University of Sydney and the Australian Film Television and Radio School where she became an Honorary Research Fellow in 2009. Her works have been performed internationally.^[3]

Finsterer has composed for films and electro–acoustic events for the Music Biennale Zagreb, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Ensemble InterContemporain, and Ictus Ensemble for performance in Lille and Brussels.^[1] She worked as an orchestrator on the 2007 film Die Hard 4.0. In 2011, she finished her first opera, Biographica, to a libretto by Timothy Daly.^[2]

Honors and awards

• "Let's Celebrate Oz Music" ABC Award 1989
• Albert H. Maggs Composition Award 1990 for Catch
• Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne's Forum 91
• Paris Rostrum Prize, 1992
• 'Music Lives!', Pittsburgh, 1992
• Composer-in-residence with Sydney Symphony Orchestra, 1992
• Royal Netherlands Government Award 1993
• Australia Council Composer Fellowship, 1998
• Churchill Fellowship 2006 for work in the film industry
• Paul Lowin Orchestral Prize 2009 for In Praise of Darkness

Works

Selected works include:

• Nextwave Fanfare (1992)
• Nyx (1996)
• Constans (1995)
• Omaggio Alla Pieta (1992)
• Catch (1992) (released on CD)
• Tract, for cello (1993)
• Ruisselant (1991)
• Sequi (2001)
• Achos (1999)
• Ether (1998)
• Kurz (2000)
• Pascal's Sphere (2000)
• Sleep (2002)
• Afmaeli (2009)
• In Praise of Darkness (2009)
• South Solitary (2010), film score

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Mary Finsterer". http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/finsterer-mary. Retrieved 9 December 2010. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "What Happens Next: Meeting Mary Finsterer" by Andrew Ford, The Monthly (October 2011)
3. ^ Dees, Pamela Youngdahl (2004). A Guide to Piano Music by Women Composers: Women born after 1900. 

External links

• Official homepage
• Mary Finsterer at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Finsterer, Mary
Alternative names
Short description	Australian composer
Date of birth	1962
Place of birth	Canberra, Australia
Date of death
Place of death