Nigel Henry Cockburn Butterley was an Australian composer and pianist.
11 Facts About Nigel Butterley
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Nigel Butterley then travelled abroad and spent a year in Europe, where he studied with Priaulx Rainier in London.
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Nigel Butterley won the Prix Italia award for his work In the Head the Fire in 1966.
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Nigel Butterley continued to compose throughout the following decades, composing works for the Sydney Proms concerts such as Interaction for Artist and Orchestra, music performed while artist John Peart painted and First Day Covers, a collaboration with Barry Humphries' character Dame Edna Everage.
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Nigel Butterley went on to win the Paul Lowin Orchestral Prize in 2001.
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Nigel Butterley lectured at the Newcastle Conservatorium from 1973 to 1991, and later at the Sydney Conservatorium.
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On 10 June 1991, Nigel Butterley was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia "in recognition of services to music".
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Nigel Butterley died at a nursing home on 19 February 2022, aged 86.
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Nigel Butterley's compositions were strongly influenced by poetry and are sometimes accompanied by recitation when performed.
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Nigel Butterley composed a series of pieces inspired by the poetry of William Blake, and in later life was inspired by the work of Kathleen Raine.
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In 2007 the Sydney Chamber Choir commissioned a new work, Beni Avshalom, which was completed almost 50 years after Nigel Butterley's frequently performed landmark choral work The True Samaritan.