Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson (1931–2003), a major Australian composer, spent most of his life in England, having moved there at the age of eighteen. In the 1960s, he was described as Britain's most commissioned composer. His career reached its zenith in 1975 when he was appointed the nineteenth Master of the Queen's Music—the first non-British person to hold the position. Despite having lived in Britain since the 1950s, Williamson considered his music fundamentally Australian: "Most of my music is Australian," he once said, "Not the bushland or the deserts, but the bluntness of the cities. The kind of bluntness that makes Australians walk through doors marked 'Pull.'" Born in Sydney, Williamson began his piano studies with Alexander Sverjensky at the Sydney Conservatorium in 1943. He continued his musical training in England, where he studied with Elisabeth Lutyens from 1953 and later with Erwin Stein. His first compositions were brought to prominence in the mid-1950s by Adrian Boult and Benjamin Britten. He achieved his breakthrough with his first two operas, "Our Man in Havana" (1963) and "English Ecentries" (1964), as well as his Violin Concerto (1964). From the early 1960s onward, Williamson was able to devote himself entirely to composition. His musical output comprised more than 250 works in a wide variety of genres: symphonies, stage works, chamber music, choral works, sacred music, and film scores. Particularly noteworthy was his commitment to children's music—he composed several children's operas, including one based on Oscar Wilde's "The Happy Prince," as well as "Cassations," miniature operas designed for audience participation. In 1977, he composed the score for the animated film "Watership Down." His last cycle, "A Year of Birds," premiered successfully at the Proms in 1995. Williamson received numerous honors for his contributions. In 1976, he was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire), and in 1987, the AO (Officer of the Order of Australia) for his services to music and to people with intellectual and physical disabilities. The University of Melbourne awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1982. Despite his success and accolades, he remained true to his Australian identity. Malcolm Williamson died in Cambridge in March 2003 at the age of 71.
