 Eric
Gross
Trustee
Eric Gross was born in Vienna in 1926, where he studied piano with Hans Erich Apostl. In 1938 he emigrated to England and eventually studied at both Trinity College of Music and at the University of Aberdeen with Reginald Barrett-Ayres, where he obtained his Doctorate of Music.
From the age of fourteen, Gross worked as a pianist in bands and orchestras, and as a studio accompanist for the BBC. Following professional engagements in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and New Caledonia, he settled in Sydney in 1958. Initially teaching at the Sydney Conservatorium between 1959-60, Gross 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. Gross also held the position of visiting Professor of Music at the University of Guyana, in Georgetown, in 1989.
In addition to his teaching career, Gross was also very active as composer, arranger and conductor. He has received numerous commissions, including film scores for Film Australia, and in 1976 received the Albert H Maggs Composition Award from Melbourne University.
Gross has also used his compositions to make political statements. The orchestral work Na Shledanou v Praze, for example, was premiered in Olomouc, Czechoslovakia, and used the Czech National Anthem as its main theme at a time of Russian domination. In other works, Gross has made use of pertinent philosophical or political texts, such as in the cantata Pacem in Terris, which uses textual extracts from an encyclical of the same name by Pope John XXIII.
In addition to a predilection for jazz idioms, Gross's world-wide travels and cultural experiences tend to give his music a cosmopolitan flavour, with traces of Austrian, Scottish, Asian and South American influences emerging from time to time. He also enjoys experimentation, especially when a sympathetic virtuoso or ensemble is available, such as Australian bass baritone Alan Light or the Sydney Mandolins.
In 1998 Gross was made a Member of the Order of Australia, and he remains active as a composer and examiner.
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