Penberthy, James (1917 - 1999)

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James Penberthy was born in Melbourne and received his early music training from his father. While studying English and history at the University of Western Australia between 1936 and 1937 he worked as a teacher at Wesley College, Perth. Later, between 1938 and 1942 he worked at Trinity Grammar, Melbourne. After completing his war service he studied composition at the University of Melbourne under a Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scholarship between 1947 and 1950, and at the same time served as music director for the National Theatre Ballet. He wrote his first ballet score, Euroka, for the National in 1947. Also for that company he wrote Brolga with a scenario by Katherine Susannah Pritchard. Between 1951 and 1953 Penberthy was in England, France and Italy on a Victorian State Government Scholarship. In 1953 he settled in Perth, becoming a lecturer in composition for the Adult Education Board, University of Western Australia. In 1953, with Kira Bousloff, Penberthy co-founded West Australian Ballet and became its first musical director. In 1967 Penberthy and Guiseppe Bertinazzo co-founded the West Australian Opera Company.

Although he wrote in many different genres, his interest in ballet and opera resulted in 22 ballets and 11 operas. Many of these works had Australian subjects and some were based on Aboriginal legends. For West Australian Ballet his works included Cinderella (1953), The Beach Inspector and the Mermaid (1959), Kooree and the Mists (1960), Fire at Ross’s Farm (1961) based on the Henry Lawson poem of the same name, The Christmas Dinner (1964), and Death of a Kangaroo Paw (1964). In 1964 his work The Little Man was choreographed by Ray Powell and performed as Roundelay by the Australian Ballet.

In 1975 he moved to live on the north coast of New South Wales where he founded the School of Arts at Southern Cross University. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Music from Melbourne University in 1975 and the Order of Australia in 1986.

See also: Australian Ballet, The ; Bousloff, Kira Abricossova ; Cinderella ; Kooree and the Mists ; National Theatre Ballet ; Powell, Ray ; West Australian Ballet

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