1. Larry Sitsky has been awarded the inaugural prize from the Fellowship of Composers, the first National Critics' Award, and the inaugural Australian Composers' Fellowship presented by the Music Board of the Australia Council, which gave him the opportunity to write a large number of compositions, to revise his book Busoni and the Piano, and to commence work as a pianist on the Anthology of Australian Piano Music.
Larry Sitsky was born in Tianjin, China, of Russian-Jewish emigre parents.
Larry Sitsky demonstrated perfect pitch at an early age, by identifying notes or chords played in a different room.
Larry Sitsky studied piano from an early age, gave his first public concert at the age of nine, and started writing music soon thereafter.
Larry Sitsky's family was forced to leave China during Mao's rule.
Larry Sitsky had sat for Cambridge University Overseas Matriculation before leaving China.
Larry Sitsky obtained a scholarship to the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, where he studied piano, briefly with Alexander Sverjensky but mainly with Winifred Burston, and composition, graduating in 1955.
Larry Sitsky is currently Emeritus Professor of the Australian National University in Canberra.
Larry Sitsky has always performed as well as composed, and as a student won performance awards.
Larry Sitsky believes that composers should perform, saying that "without this communion with a live audience, music-making all too easily becomes over-intellectualised, sterile and arid".
In terms of composition, Larry Sitsky has regularly changed his musical language to "express himself in ways that are not familiar and 'easy'".
Larry Sitsky attracted attention when he, among others, criticised the Keating government for giving successive artistic fellowships to the pianist Geoffrey Tozer.
Larry Sitsky explained that his criticism was not personal against Tozer, who was a friend of his, but that it was a matter of principle.
Larry Sitsky has had works commissioned by many leading Australian and international bodies, such as the ABC, Musica Viva Australia, the International Clarinet Society, the Sydney International Piano Competition, Flederman and the International Flute Convention.
Larry Sitsky is currently a Distinguished Visiting Fellow, as well as Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University.
In 2017 Larry Sitsky was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the arts as a composer and concert pianist, to music education as a researcher and mentor, and through musical contributions to Australia's contemporary culture.