George Palmer AM

George Palmer (b.1947) studied piano with several eminent teachers and has been composing since he was a teenager. Although he graduated in law, practised as a barrister, and was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 2001, he retired from the Bench in 2011 to devote himself entirely to composition.

In 2003, the ABC broadcast a concert of his orchestral music and a television program on his emergence as a composer. ABC Classics has released three recordings of his music, including Attraction of Opposites, Exultate Dominum, and It Takes Two. His opera of Tim Winton’s best-selling novel Cloudstreet premiered with State Opera South Australia and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in 2016, receiving standing ovations and being hailed by The Australian as “a resounding triumph”. His Benedictus Qui Venit, commissioned for Pope Benedict XVI’s 2008 visit to Australia, was performed to an outdoor audience of 350,000.

His works span orchestral, choral, chamber and vocal music, and have been performed throughout Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Europe. He was President of the Arts Law Centre of Australia (2004–11), Chair of Pacific Opera (2003–15), and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2010.