In 1982 he won the Young Composers Prize at that year's Adelaide Festival, gaining him national attention for his orchestral work Rainforest.
In the early 1990s he collaborated with librettist Louis Nowra on the chamber opera Love Burns, which was premiered at the 1992 Adelaide Festival.
[1] Around this time, he commenced his long and fruitful collaboration with choreographer Graeme Murphy, which included a children's ballet based on Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant and the full-length work Nearly Beloved.
[3] Ballets Chamber music Concertos Orchestral Cappriccio ∙ Unchained Melody (Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, cond.
The Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award is given to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to music in Australia.