Richard Meale

Full biography Richard Meale

Richard Graham Meale, AM, MBE (24 August 1932 – 23 November 2009) was an Australian composer of instrumental works and operas. Born in Sydney, he studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music before travelling to Europe to further his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Warsaw Conservatory in Poland.

Meale's music was influenced by a wide range of styles, including jazz, serialism, and the traditional music of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. He was particularly interested in exploring the intersections between different cultural traditions and music genres, and his works often incorporate elements from multiple styles and musical languages. Throughout his career, he collaborated with a number of leading writers, poets and librettists, including David Malouf and Patrick White.

Meale's most famous work is perhaps the opera "Voss", which he composed in collaboration with Malouf and which was based on a novel by White. "Voss" premiered in 1986 at the Adelaide Festival and went on to receive critical acclaim both in Australia and overseas.

Meale was an influential figure in Australian music in the second half of the twentieth century. Along with other leading composers such as Peter Sculthorpe and Ross Edwards, he helped to shape a distinctive Australian musical identity that drew on both European and Indigenous musical traditions. He was awarded numerous honours and awards throughout his career, including an MBE in 1977 and an Order of Australia in 1993.

Meale died in Sydney in 2009, leaving behind a legacy of innovative and boundary-pushing music that continues to influence and inspire generations of young Australian composers.