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John Henry ANTILL  

John Henry Antill, CMG, OBE (8 April 1904-29 December, 1986) was a prolific Australian composer best known for his ballet Corroboree. He also composed works for theatre, orchestra, voice, choir and scores for documentary films.

Antill was born on 8 April, 1904, at Ashfield, NSW, to John Henry Antill and Marianne Elizabeth nee Baker.He was educated and trained in music at St Andrew’s Cathedral Choir School, Sydney, and Trinity Grammar School, Summer Hill, NSW. After leaving school, he was apprenticed to New South Wales Government Railways. In 1925, left the railways to study full time at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, Sydney.

After graduation he played in the NSW State Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and from 1932 to 1934 toured with J C Williamson’s Imperial Opera Company. In 1936 he became Assistant Music Editor with Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC).

On 2 February, 1939, he married Constance Margaret Peaker (d.1957) at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, where they had first met. They had a daughter in 1945; her twin was stillborn.

In 1946, Corroboree was first performed as a concert suite and in 1950 Corroboree the ballet was premiered. In 1954, there was revised version of the ballet choreographed by American Beth Dean who would, in 1987, with her Australian husband, Victor Carell, publish a biography of John Antill titled Gentle Genius.

In 1968, Antill, who was Federal Music Editor, retired from the ABC. In 1971, he was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) and a CMG (Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George) in 1981. In 1985, the University of Wollongong awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Creative Arts.

John Antill lived in Gerrale Street, Cronulla, from 1980. He died in hospital at Caringbah in 1986.

His portrait by Louis Kahan is held at the State Library of New South Wales and a bronze bust by Dawn Swayne is held at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. The John Antill composition scholarship at the Conservatorium was established in his honour.

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