Michael Mather (06/10/1927 - 26/04/2002), an Australian composer; born in Harrow, England. His first tertiary studies were towards a history degree at King's College, University of London, graduating with a B.A. (Hons.) in 1948. Music, however, was his first love, and in 1952 he was awarded a Composition Scholarship to the Royal College of Music, where his teachers included Herbert Howells (composition) and Frank Merrick (piano). Whilst at the College he was awarded the Patrons Fund Award in 1954. Shortly after completing his studies in 1955, Mather took an audition at Wigmore Hall. Offered the choice of becoming repetiteur at Glyndebourne Opera Company, or touring Australia as accompanist with a troup of Spanish dancers, Mather opted for the latter and arrived in Australia in 1956. Deciding to remain in the country, he joined the Elizabethan Opera Company as a repetiteur in 1958, and worked at the Public Library of NSW between 1958 and 1972. In 1974 and 1975 Mather undertook further piano studies with Eunice Gardiner. Mather's compositions include numerous pieces for solo piano and choral orchestral works. The Last Voyage of Matthew Flinders (1964), a cantata for choir and orchestra, was written on the 150th anniversary of Flinders' death and was recorded in 1965 by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Joseph Post. Mather's other large-scale work for choir and orchestra, ANZAC Requiem (1967), was first performed by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra on Rememberance Day 1976 and was broadcast nationally by ABC radio on Anzac Day the following year. This piece was principally inspired by John Manifold's poem The Tomb of Lt. John Learmonth, A.I.F. and the notion that a new image for Anzacs had been long overdue in the arts.