Scotch College

Keith Humble A.M. to be honoured in Forbes Academy

The late Keith Humble has been described by composer and critic, Felix Werder, as "without question the finest all-round musician this country has produced since Percy Grainger".

It is difficult to outline Keith's incredible career in a few sentences but following successes as a child prodigy pianist he studied at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium, the Royal Academy of Music, London and the Ecole Normale de Musique, Paris.

In 1950 he became musical assistant to Rene Leibowitz and also toured Europe as accompanist to Ethel Semser, Robert Gartside and others. In 1960 he founded the Centre de Musique and directed its considerable creative and experimental output.

Keith Humble returned to Melbourne in 1966 to lecture at the Conservatorium and worked tirelessly to raise the profile of contemporary music in Australia. Then early in the 1970's he was appointed a Professor of Music at the University of California, San Diego, where he was active in developmental work and performance of New music in the celebrated Centre for Music Experiment. In 1974 he was appointed founding Professor of the Department of Music, Latrobe University, a major centre for the research and creation of contemporary music until its controversial closure in late 1999.

A major teaching and performance space in the School of Music, the James Forbes Academy, will be named the Keith Humble Auditorium and dedicated to the memory of a man who loved Australia and whose creative spirit and passion for music and music-making was shared with the many whose paths he crossed.