George Alfred Palmer AM, KC is an Australian classical music composer and a former Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
Exaltate Dominum (2007), with Cantillation and Sinfonia Australis, conducted by Paul Stanhope, includes his Christmas Mass A Child Is Born, Three Psalms, The Canticles of Advent and other works for choir and soloists.
His works include: a string quintet, Not Going Quietly, premiered by the Sydney Omega Ensemble in 2007; Concerto for Two Clarinets and Chamber Orchestra, performed by Dimitri Ashkenazy, David Rowden and the Sydney Omega Ensemble; Concertino for Two Guitars for Slava and Leonard Grigoryan and The Queensland Orchestra; a symphonic suite, The Beancounter, for the West Australian Youth Orchestra; a symphonic fantasia, Incandescence, for the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tom Woods; a song cycle for baritone and piano, Letters from a Black Snake, commissioned for the opening of the Sidney Nolan Retrospective at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Victoria; a piano quartet, The Way It Is, for the Seraphim Trio, a clarinet sonata, Black, White and a Little Blue, premiered in the Utzon Room at the Sydney Opera House by David Rowden in 2010.
His works have been performed by orchestras and chamber groups in Australia, the United States, and Europe, and receive frequent airplay on classical music stations.
From 2003 to 2011, Palmer was chairman of Pacific Opera, a not-for-profit company established to give Australia's best young singers professional development and the experience necessary to launch their careers.
a director of Ars Musica Australis, which assists young performers in all media to study further in Australia and overseas, and also commissions new works from Australian composers.
[5] In an essay "Learning to be a composer",[6] Palmer wrote: I very much agree with the proposition that music owes its origin to the instinctive urge in humans to dance and sing.
[citation needed] On 29 July 2012, William Chen premiered Palmer's new Piano Concerto, accompanied by the Sydney Youth Orchestra.
[This quote needs a citation] In June 2010 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to law and to music as a composer and in leadership roles.