Legacy today – Raymond Hanson

Legacy

Since Ray’s death, there has been a slow but steady increase in interest in his music culminating in the various performances scheduled for 2013 his Centenary year. We hope this website will become a hub for all things associated with Ray and his music, an accurate source of information for both interest and research.

Being such a private person, his personal story and the story of Moira has never been told and may have attributed to some of the previous wrongful speculations regarding his life and particularly his personal life. As long as people continue to study and play his large body of works, Ray remains a vital and essential part of Australian Musical Heritage. A place we believe he has thoroughly earned.

Roger Woodward with Ray's daughter Annabel Gleeson after Sydney spring festival 1997

Thank you...

It is here we must thank the large body of Rays supporters:

Starting with Graham Hardie who first dusted off Ray by completing his catalogue “The Music of Raymond Hanson” A Catalogue Raisonne (first published by CurrencyPress in 1998 but unfortunately out of print).
A huge thank you to Tonya Lemoh a gifted and award winning pianist who found Ray in a dark corner and dusted off all his piano music and recorded it. This was a huge undertaking and I am very grateful to her for bringing this huge undertaking to a close. It is so good to finally be able to hear all these lost pieces interspersed among his other more famous works.
To Michael Kieran Harvey the concert pianist who studied Ray’s Piano Sonata probably longer than he liked but brought it to life again though his inspired performance at Carriageworks on July 19th, 2013. He also performed it in Melbourne at ANAM.
To Roger Woodward who has been a champion of Rays since studying under him at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He featured a number of Rays works in The Sydney Spring Festival in 1997 the year he was the artistic Director. Her is a picture of Roger and I at the Spring Festival in 1997
To Sandra Ridgewell, who included Ray in her thesis awarded at UTS in 2008 “Music in the Service of the State and the Politics of Style: Making A Music Culture in Australia” Thanks for all your efforts Sandra you helped me understand Ray in a way I never had.
To Jonathan Whitting for his Honors thesis from University of Sydney “Raymond Hanson and the Immortal Touch” and who I met years ago in a music shop searching for some of Rays works and reminding me that Ray was not forgotten .
To Susan Collins for her Thesis from University of Wollongong for Dr of Creative Arts titled “The Violin & Piano Music of Raymond Hanson” and for the recording of the same music with David Miller and to David Miller.
To Geoffrey Allen of The Keys Press in WA for persevering with the Australian Heritage Series and collaborating with Larry Sitsky to publish 11 Volumes of Ray’s works.
To Larry Sitsky for being one of Rays greatest champions over the years.
To Reed Music for publishing the Violin and Piano music by Susan Collins edited by Susan Collins.
To Richard Gill for his part in conducting the first part of the Immortal Touch in 1975.
To the late Max Keogh, friend and best man at Ray’s wedding to Moira, who worked at 2MBSFM later in his life and was a true champion of all things Ray and helped me personalise my father long after he was dead.
To Claire McCoy, Carolyne Symes, Bligh Glass, Ludwig Sugieri, Jonathan Woods and any other staff at the SCM Library who have been so supportive over the years and for taking such good care of the rare music.
To Joanna Drimatis from the SCM for your ongoing work on the Symphony Opus 28 in your thesis and to yourself and Kathleen Nelson for all their efforts in getting the Centenary Symposium at the Conservatorium in November 23rd 2013.
To Vincent Plush for including some of Ray’s works in the Encounters with India festival in Brisbane in May 2013.
To John Davis and Janet Piper at the Australian Music Centre for ongoing support.
To Robin Holmes at the National Library of Australia, for helping me to donate Ray’s paperwork to your musical heritage held there and ongoing support.
To the ANAM for their recent recital by Michael Kieran Harvey of the Piano Sonata of Rays in Melbourne in April 2013.
To all the students past and present who chose to study any of Rays music, he wrote it to be played.
And to anyone else I may have overlooked, we are so grateful with your help and support in continuing Ray’s musical legacy...