Rate My Professor Stuart Greenbaum

Professor Stuart Greenbaum holds the position of Professor in Composition at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, part of the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music at the University of Melbourne. He was Head of Composition there from 2007 until 2023. Greenbaum completed his Bachelor of Music (Honours), Master of Music, and PhD at the University of Melbourne, where his teachers included Brenton Broadstock and Barry Conyngham. His compositional approach integrates elements from jazz, pop, rock, blues, and minimalism with the Western art music tradition, producing works that are accessible yet sophisticated, often with space-themed titles reflecting existential concerns like connectivity, mortality, and human experience.

Greenbaum has an extensive oeuvre exceeding 240 works for the concert stage, encompassing operas, symphonies, concertos, chamber music, and choral pieces. Among his major compositions are the operas Nelson (2005, libretto by Ross Baglin, London presentation and 2007 Castlemaine State Festival premiere) and The Parrot Factory (2010, Victorian Opera production at The Malthouse); Symphony No. 5 – Brought to Light (2022, commissioned by Cantori New York); Symphony No. 6 – Pulse of the Earth (2024); 90 Minutes Circling the Earth (1997, recipient of Orchestral Work of the Year at the 2008 APRA Music Awards); The Foundling (1997); From the Beginning (2003, Royal Melbourne Philharmonic sesquicentenary); The Year Without a Summer (2009, piano trio from Trans-Tasman exchange); City Lights a Mile Up (Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra commission); and Ice Man (epic piano solo, North American premiere 2024 at Carnegie Hall). His music has been championed by orchestras including the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Australian Youth Orchestra, and Australian Chamber Orchestra, as well as chamber groups like Ensemble Liaison and the Grigoryan Brothers. Awards include the Dorian Le Galliene Composition Award, Heinz Harant Prize, and Albert H. Maggs Composition Award. He has undertaken international residencies as Resident Fellow at Akiyoshidai International Art Village in Japan (2019, 2023), Composer in Residence at Visby (Sweden, 2020), and Artist in Residence at L’École d’été de chant choral (Quebec, 2025). In the early 1990s, following his Master's, he served as resident composer for Melbourne’s Playbox Theatre.