About Judith Clingan
Judith Clingan AM has been a professional composer, performer, conductor and music/music theatre educator for 45 years. Born in Sydney in 1945, she trained in voice, bassoon and composition at the Canberra School of Music, and in Early European Music at the University of Sydney. In her youth Judith founded and directed the Canberra Children’s Choir and the Young Music Society. In 1981-82 she studied conducting and music education at the Kodaly Institute, Kecskemet, Hungary. On her return she founded a large and complex tuition and performance organisation named Gaudeamus (now Music for Everyone), and was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM). Since 1990 Judy has been heavily involved with music in Steiner schools around Australia, running workshops and providing children with experience and a love of music.
Judith has composed many works, notably Nganbra, music theatre about the coming and devastating consequences of white people to the Canberra area, Terra Beata - Terra Infirma, which looks at the destruction of the environment, and Kakadu, based on the words of Big Bill Neidji, telling of their ways of life before white settlement. She has also written several operas and cantatas and and has published music education books including Songs of the Tree of Life. She regularly holds Imagine Music Theatre workshops in Canberra, and has written music for and in conjunction with several choirs including The Chorus of Women in Canberra.
Selected works
- The Lorax (words: Dr Seuss), 1979
- Lux Mundi, 1985
- Peter Pandemonium (based on J. M. Barrie’s story), 1985
- Modal Magic: seven songs for a cappella children’s choir, 1986
- Nganbra: a Canberra canticle (libretto: Anthony Hill), 1988
- Terra Beata – Terra Infirma, 1989
- Seven Deadly Sins, 1990
- Kakadu (words: Marian Clingan), 1990
- Marco: an opera for young people based on the travels of Marco Polo, 1990
- Songs of Solitude, 1991
- Mass of Hope, 1992
- Mythical Beasts, 1992
- Stony Tunes, 1994
- Birth Pangs: for women’s choir (words: David Adam), 1996
- The Grandfather Clock (based on the book by Tony Hill), 2001
- Spiritus Sanctus Australis, 2001-2002
Find out more
www.australianoftheyear.org.au/recipients/?m=judith-clingan-2009
