Bruce Rowland
Bruce Rowland (born May 9, 1942 in Melbourne) is a well-known Australian composer. He composed the soundtrack for the 1982 movie The Man from Snowy River, as well as the soundtrack for its 1988 sequel The Man from Snowy River II (which has the United States title of Return to Snowy River, and the United Kingdom title of The Untamed). Both films were based on Banjo Paterson's poem The Man from Snowy River.[1] His other film scores include Now and Forever (1983), Phar Lap (1983), Bushfire Moon (1987), Cheetah (1989), Weekend with Kate (1990), Gross Misconduct (1993), Andre (1994), Lightning Jack (1994), Zeus and Roxanne (1997) and the TV movie Tidal Wave: No Escape (1997).
He composed a special Olympics version of the main theme of The Man from Snowy River Suite, as well as conducting the orchestra, for the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics which were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.[1]
He also composed special arrangements of some of his music for the 2002 musical theatre production "The Man from Snowy River: Arena Spectacular", which twice toured Australian capital cities. The original cast album of the show won the ARIA Award for Best Cast / Show Album). Rowland also composed new music for "The Australian Outback Arena Show" on Queensland's Gold Coast.[2]
Rowland composed the music to the Oscar nominated animation The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (2005).
NBC Sports also uses some of the music from The Man from Snowy River soundtrack for their coverage of The Players Championship.
Some of his early work was in television, where he was musical director for ATV0's The Go!! Show, Fredd Bear's Breakfast-A-Go-Go and the Magic Circle Club, then Adventure Island for the ABC.
Rowland received his education at Caulfield Grammar School in his hometown. He learned piano and was a keyboard player for Australian music groups, and singers.
Awards
Awards won by Bruce Rowland[3]
1982
- Won the AFI Award for Best Score for The Man from Snowy River
1983
- Won the AFI Award for Best Score for Phar Lap
- Won the Penguin Award for Best Score for All the Rivers Run
1984
- Won the Australasian Performing Rights Association Award for Best Score for The Man from Snowy River
1985
- Won the AFI Award for Best Score for Rebel
- Won the Australasian Performing Rights Association Award for Best Score for The Man from Snowy River
- Won the Australasian Performing Rights Association Award for Best Score for Phar Lap
1989
- Won the Australasian Performing Rights Association Award for Best Score for The Man from Snowy River (Return to Snowy River)
2003
- Won the ARIA Award for his score for The Man from Snowy River: Arena Spectacular
2005
- Won the Australasian Performing Rights Association Award for Best Score for The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello
- Awarded the APRA/AGSC 'International Achievement Award'
References
- Bruce Rowland official website
- "And the winners are..." — The Sydney Morning Herald (published 2002-10-16) (accessdate 2007-09-14)
- Bruce Rowland Awards Archived September 18, 2007, at the Wayback Machine — Bruce Rowland's official website
External links
- Bruce Rowland Official Website
- Bruce Rowland on IMDb
- Bruce Rowland Interview NAMM Oral History Library (2017)