Composer | Multi-instrumentalist | Author | Cultural Historian
At fifteen, Michael Atherton landed in Sydney carrying one thing only: a cheap guitar he didn't know how to play. By the 1990s he was Foundation Professor of Music at the University of Western Sydney, drawing on his self-taught, working-class background to become the driving force behind an innovative, community-minded approach to music education. Michael is a multi-instrumentalist whose musical interests range from rock-and-roll to early music and folk, exploring new combinations of instruments both ancient and new. He has played in rock bands, early music and folk groups, cross-cultural groups Sirocco and Southern Crossings and the electroacoustic Sync, and composed extensively for TV, film, and performance. His story is one of prodigious energy, of adaptability, and of always being open to new understanding and new opportunities. He has striven especially to challenge snobbery in music and to celebrate diversity, collaboration and community.
A cultural biography of the piano
Before electricity brought us the gramophone, the radio, and eventually the TV, the piano was central to family and community life. With its iron frame, polished surfaces, and ivory keys, an upright piano in the home was a modern industrial machine, a musical instrument, and a treasured member of the household, conveying powerful messages about class, education, leisure, national identity, and intergenerational history.
‘Michael Atherton cleverly weaves visual, sensual and sonic elements into the piano’s sociocultural history, adding a rich layer to our knowledge of the piano in Australia.’ —Professor Julia Horne, historian
Recent book - Never Miss a Beat
Latest Performances - Australian Celtic Festival
Upcoming - Library Concerts and Talks