Graeme Koehne AO (born 1956, Adelaide) is one of Australia’s leading composers and a central figure in the country’s musical post-modernism. He studied at the Elder Conservatorium with Richard Meale and, on a Harkness Fellowship, at Yale with Louis Andriessen and Jacob Druckman, and privately with Virgil Thomson. His music re-engages traditional craft with popular vernacular, from his orchestral trilogy Unchained Melody, Powerhouse and Elevator Music to the acclaimed oboe concerto InFlight Entertainment (also for soprano saxophone), the trumpet concerto High Art, and the double-cello concerto Sleep of Reason. Widely commissioned for ballet by companies including the Australian Ballet, he is Professor of Composition at the University of Adelaide and was Head of Composition at the Elder Conservatorium from 2005 to 2021. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2014.
