Eric Gross

Eric Gross AM (16 September 1926 – 17 April 2011) was an Austrian-Australian pianist, composer and teacher.

Gross was born in Vienna and emigrated to England in 1938.

From the age of fourteen, he worked as a pianist in bands and orchestras.

He studied at Trinity College of Music, with Wilfrid Dunwell (piano), and the University of Aberdeen, with (amongst others) Reginald Barrett-Ayres, and where he received an MA in 1957.

Following professional engagements in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and New Caledonia, he settled in Sydney in 1958.

Initially teaching at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music, he joined the staff of the department of music at the University of Sydney in 1960 and remained there until retiring in 1991 as associate professor of music.

In 1976 he received the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award from Melbourne University.

While working as a conductor of the Pro Musica Society of Sydney University and the St. Andrew's Cathedral Choral Society, Gross wrote numerous works for the orchestras and choirs associated with these societies.

Political statements were made in the orchestral work Na Shledanou v Praze (premiered in Olomouc, Czechoslovakia during a period of Russian occupation) which used the Czech national anthem as its main theme.

In other works, such as the cantata Pacem in Terris (based on the encyclical by Pope John XXIII), Gross used pertinent philosophical or political texts.

He is also well known for Dussekiana I-III, three suites for violin and orchestra, based on piano works by František Xaver Dušek.

In addition to a predilection for jazz idioms, Gross's worldwide travels and cultural experiences tended to give his music a cosmopolitan flavour, with traces of Austrian, Scottish, Asian and South American influences emerging from time to time.

He also enjoyed experimentation, especially when a sympathetic virtuoso or ensemble such as bass-baritone Alan Light, trombonist Greg van der Struik or Adrian Hooper's Sydney Mandolins, was available.

He was president of the Fellowship of Australian Composers, and from 1981 to 1984 he was also treasurer and executive board member of the Asian Composers' League.

Apart from teaching, Gross was active as composer, arranger and conductor.

He received numerous commissions for film scores for Film Australia and TV scores for Screen Gems Columbia, as well as numerous commissions from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

In 1989 he was visiting professor at the University of Guyana.

Gross was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the Queen's Birthday Honours of June 1998.

On Australia Day 2006 he was declared to be the City of Canada Bay Cultural and Artistic Citizen of the Year.

He remained active as a composer and examiner until shortly before his death, which occurred on 17 April 2011.

His wife Pamela died less than a week before he did.