Martin Wesley-Smith

Martin Wesley-Smith (born 10 June 1945) is an Australian composer with an eclectic output ranging from children's songs to environmental events. He works in a range of musical styles, including choral music, operas, computer music, music theatre, chamber and orchestral music, and audiovisual pieces which bring words, music and images together. He often works with his librettist brother, Peter Wesley-Smith.

He is one of the pioneers of computer, or electronic, music.

Two main themes dominate Wesley-Smith's music: the life, work and ideas of Lewis Carroll, and the plight of the people of East Timor.

Wesley-Smith was born, one of twin boys, in Adelaide. He has two other brothers. His parents were well established in the Adelaide establishment. His father was Academic Registrar of the University of Adelaide, and his mother was a teacher and a presenter of the ABC's radio program Kindergarten of the Air.

He studied composition at the University of Adelaide. From his student days, Wesley-Smith was a rebel, moonlighting on the banjo with a folkie band, The Wesley Three, when his teachers would have preferred he focus on his classical studies. His teachers included Peter Maxwell Davies, Jindrich Feld, Sandor Veress and Richard Meale.

Martin and his twin brother, Peter, were conscripted to go to Vietnam, but avoided the military by undertaking studies until conscription ended.

He earned his D.Phil from the University of York in England.

Wesley-Smith now lives in the Kangaroo Valley south of Sydney, where he is a member of the Kangaroo Valley-Remexio Partnership which supports projects in East Timor.

His work is now being jointly archived by the National Library of Australia and the National Film and Sound Archive.

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