New honours for Emeritus Professor Larry Sitsky

Emeritus Professor Larry Sitsky AM from the ANU School of Music has won a new honour.
 
Professor Sitsky has been named the winner of the 2015 Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music for his significant and enduring contribution to Australian music.
 
"I am excited and honoured to be selected for this award but I want to highlight there is a lot to be done in the arts in Australia," Professor Sitsky said.
 
"Any recognition of an individual partly helps in the battle to make funding agencies more aware of the importance of the arts in our own culture."
 
Professor Sitsky, who turned 80 last year, said Australia has never suffered a shortage of talent. He said it was important to cultivate talented musicians or Australia risks losing them to other countries.
 
As a composer, Professor Sitsky has collaborated with every major orchestra in Australia, with pieces commissioned by many leading Australian and international bodies.
 
Among his best-known compositions are the massive solo piano piece The Way of the Seeker; concertos for various solo instruments, including four for violin; the operas Lenz, The Golem and The Fall of the House of Usher; and an ever-expanding series of works spanning a number of different media, all entitled Fantasia.
 
Professor Sitsky will receive this honour at the 2015 Art Music Awards ceremony at Sydney's City Recital Hall on 11 August.