Graeme Denniss
Dr Graeme Wright Denniss has a wide range of experience as composer, performer, conductor, presenter, accompanist, music educator, examiner and adjudicator.
After graduating as Student of the Year at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, (double majors in piano and French Horn, second studies in composition and conducting), Graeme completed his Graduate Diploma in Horn performance and composition. His thesis was a collection of original compositions for the Horn in many different instrumental combinations, establishing his lifelong interest in enriching the repertoire of the horn, with the major work from the thesis later being performed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
After three years in the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, he held the position of Principal Third Horn in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for 14 years.
During this time, Graeme formed the Nexus Ensemble to perform his own and other contemporary composers’ music, and received many commissions, including from the Solitaire Tuba Ensemble, for “Tubapotamus Rex”, “Toad in the Hole” and “Processions”. In 1987 he won the Dorian Le Gallienne award commission and wrote “Songs of the Priestess of the Moon” for soprano Merlyn Quaife, a song cycle which has been performed many times in Australia and overseas, and was recorded and broadcast by the ABC.
In 2004 he completed his PhD in composition in 2004 at the University of Queensland studying with Philip Bracanin, and played in the brass quartet BUZZ, which toured for Musica Viva In Schools for 4 years. Later became he became Composer in Residence for the Best of Brass quintet, which also toured for MVIS, and featured one of his most popular works, the “Wa Wa Waltz”.
In 2010 Graeme was awarded an honorary Fellowship of the National Academy of Music, Colorado USA, for his winning work, “Bromeliad: the Epic”, a horn concertino, in the International Music Prizes composition competition.
From 2014 to 2025 he was Artistic Director and Conductor of the Redland Sinfonia, a 40 piece community orchestra based in Cleveland, which performed a wide range of orchestral repertoire, as well as giving many premieres of music by Australian composers and solo opportunities for young performers.
A recent collaboration with the Cleveland Film Company on Five Moons of Pluto, where Graeme’s original soundtrack was recorded by the Redland Sinfonia, has resulted in a film Award, winning “Best Original Score for a Short Movie” at the South Film and Arts Academy Festival (SFAAF #41), in Chile, March 2021.
In his final year with the Redland Sinfonia he conducted and produced a CD of all original Australian music including his own, entitled: “This Red Land”.
Many of Graeme's compositions appear on exam syllabi