Bruce Rowland

For the Fairport Convention drummer, see Bruce Rowland (drummer).

Bruce Rowland (born 9 May 1942 in Melbourne) is an Australian composer.

Biography

Rowland composed the soundtrack for the 1982 movie The Man from Snowy River, as well as the soundtrack for its 1988 sequel The Man from Snowy River II (which has the United States title of Return to Snowy River, and the United Kingdom title of The Untamed). Both films were based on Banjo Paterson's poem The Man from Snowy River.[1]

His other film scores include Now and Forever (1983), Phar Lap (1983), Bushfire Moon (1987), Cheetah (1989), Weekend with Kate (1990), Gross Misconduct (1993), Andre (1994), Lightning Jack (1994), Zeus and Roxanne (1997) and the TV movie Tidal Wave: No Escape (1997). He also composed the score for the popular TV series All the Rivers Run (1983/1990).

He composed a special Olympics version of the main theme of The Man from Snowy River Suite, as well as conducting the orchestra, for the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics which were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.[1]

He also composed special arrangements of some of his music for the 2002 musical theatre production "The Man from Snowy River: Arena Spectacular", which twice toured Australian capital cities. The original cast album of the show won the ARIA Award for Best Cast / Show Album). Rowland also composed new music for "The Australian Outback Arena Show" on Queensland's Gold Coast.[2]

Rowland composed the music to the Oscar nominated animation The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (2005).

NBC Sports also uses some of the music from The Man from Snowy River soundtrack for their coverage of The Players Championship.

Some of his early work was in television, where he was musical director for ATV0's The Go!! Show, Fredd Bear's Breakfast-A-Go-Go and the Magic Circle Club, then Adventure Island for the ABC.

Rowland received his education at Caulfield Grammar School in his hometown. He learned piano and was a keyboard player for Australian music groups, and singers.

He played drums on Shawn Phillips's Second Contribution album, published in 1970.

Discography

Charting albums

List of albums, with Australian chart positions
Title Album details Peak chart
positions
AUS
[3]
Piano by Request
  • Released: March 1985
  • Format: LP
  • Label: Hammard (HAM097)
 51

Awards

Awards won by Bruce Rowland[4]

1982

1983

1984

1985

  • Won the AFI Award for Best Score for Rebel
  • Won the Australasian Performing Right Association Award for Best Score for The Man from Snowy River
  • Won the Australasian Performing Right Association Award for Best Score for Phar Lap

1989

2005

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony held by the Australian Recording Industry Association. They commenced in 1987.

Year Nominee / work Award Result Ref.
1989 The Man from Snowy River II Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album Nominated [5]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Bruce Rowland official website
  2. ^ "And the winners are..." — The Sydney Morning Herald (published 2002-10-16) (accessdate 2007-09-14)
  3. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 260. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  4. ^ Bruce Rowland Awards Archived September 18, 2007, at the Wayback Machine — Bruce Rowland's official website
  5. ^ ARIA Award previous winners. "History Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album". Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Retrieved 12 July 2022.