Albert James Penberthy was born in Melbourne in 1917 and received his early music training from his father. After attending the universities of Western Australia and Melbourne he became a schoolmaster where he taught music and formed orchestras. Following active war time service with the RAN, he obtained first class honours in composition at the University of Melbourne. He later studied composition with Nadia Boulanger in France and conducting with Sir John Barbirolli in England.
For many years he worked in Western Australia where he founded the West Australian Opera Company and was co-founder of the West Australian Ballet Company.
He was a prolific composer and his major works number over 100. Although he wrote in many different genres, his intense interest in the theatre resulted in 22 ballets and 11 operas, and it is in this body of work, which displays his strong dramatic and lyrical gifts, that his importance in Australian music lies.
In 1975 Penberthy moved to live on the North Coast of NSW, 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.
James Penberthy died on 29 March 1999
https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/penberthy-james
| 21.2.1956 | James Penberthy Wind Sextet (1954) AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE? Dulcie Holland clarinet & piano pieces | Jack Harrison (clarinet) Owen Fisenden (flute), Neil Pierson (horn), Ron Richmond (oboe), George Dreyfus and Claude Welling (bassoons) Phyllis Allen (accompanist) | Art Gallery Program Art Gallery of Western Australia (inside the Jubilee Building on Beaufort Street,) |
The review written by “Fidelio” describes the premiere of a groundbreaking wind quintet by West Australian composer James Penberthy.
Venue: The Art Gallery of Western Australia (then commonly called the National Art Gallery of Western Australia). The text directly mentions this was the most adventurous Australian piece “so far heard in the Art Gallery programmes.”
Date: February 21, 1956
This performance was part of a chamber music series integrated into the 4th Annual Festival of Perth. The concert specifically showcased modern Australian wind and vocal music, breaking away from conventional light classical styles. The ensemble listed at the bottom features notable musicians of the era, including a young George Dreyfus on bassoon before he became one of Australia’s premier composers.
In 1956, the Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA) was located inside the Jubilee Building on Beaufort Street, within the same complex where WA Museum Boola Bardip stands today.
COMPOSER IS PROVOCATIVE
February 21, 1956
By “Fidelio”
A West Australian composer, James Penberthy, offered us last night what in some ways the most adventurous Australian composition so far heard in the Art Gallery programmes. This includes, notably, his medium of expression; a wind quintet consisting of flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and two bassoons. For this unusual combination Mr Penbethy had produce a work in short, linked movements, based on the music and life of Australian aborigines. He obtained interesting effects in the way of atmosphere and drastic colourings, but his score sounded very fragmentary. It seemed often to be hovering uncertainly between outright imitative realism and the freer imaginative flight which, we felt, should not convincingly emerge. Another unusual inclusion was a set of three nicely fanciful songs for soprano and flute (no piano) by John Gordon, the words being taken from Chinese. The rest was chiefly light music, generally pretty in a conventional style. There were two pieces for flute and piano by A.C. Black (a West Australian), clarinet and piano pieces by Dulcie Holland and Moneta Eagles, songs by Horace Keats and Elizabeth Mills. The performers were Sylvia Biddle (soprano), Owen Fisenden (flute), Jack Harrison (clarinet), Neil Pierson (horn), Ron Richmond (oboe), George Dreyfus and Claude Welling (bassoons) and Phyllis Allen (accompanist).