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Bruce Rowland
Australian composer (born 1942) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Kenneth Bruce Rowland AM (born 9 May 1942 in Melbourne) is an Australian composer.
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Biography
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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. He played drums on Shawn Phillips's Second Contribution album, published in 1970.
Rowland is best known for having composed the soundtrack to the 1982 film The Man from Snowy River and 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 also composed the score for the TV miniseries All the Rivers Run (1983) and its sequel (1990). Rowland composed the music to the Oscar-nominated animated short film The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (2005).
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.
He composed a special Olympics version of the main theme of The Man from Snowy River for the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics, as well as conducting the orchestra for the performance.[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]
The Man From Snowy River soundtrack has featured four times in ABC Classic FM's annual Classic 100 Countdown, peaking at 18 in the 2025 'Piano' countdown. This made it the highest-ranking entry by an Australian composer.
NBC Sports uses music from The Man from Snowy River soundtrack for their coverage of The Players Championship.
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Discography
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Honours and awards
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In the 2025 King's Birthday Honours, Rowland was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia, for significant service to music as a composer, arranger and conductor.[4]
Awards won by Bruce Rowland:[5]
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 Right 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 Right Association Award for Best Score for The Man from Snowy River
- Won the Australasian Performing Right Association Award for Best Score for Phar Lap
1989
- Won the Australasian Performing Right Association Award for Best Score for The Man from Snowy River (Return to Snowy River)
2005
- Won the Australasian Performing Right Association Award for Best Score for The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello
- Awarded the APRA/AGSC 'International Achievement Award'
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony held by the Australian Recording Industry Association. They commenced in 1987.
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