Mary Finsterer

A recipient of the Royal Netherlands Government Award in 1993, she continued her studies in Amsterdam with Louis Andriessen, then returned to Australia and studied with Brenton Broadstock, completing a Master of Music degree in 1995 at the University of Melbourne.

Her orchestral fanfare Afmaeli was the opening piece for the 70th birthday celebrations of composer Louis Andriessen at the Holland Festival in 2009.

In the same year Finsterer was the winner of the Paul Lowin Orchestral Prize for her new work In Praise of Darkness.

Finsterer is a Vice-Chancellor's Professorial Fellow at Monash University and in July 2014 she was announced as the inaugural Chamber Music Australia Chair of Composition at Monash University to teach there until 2017.

[6] Her second opera, Antarctica, also to a libretto by Wright, was first performed at Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam for the Holland Festival 2022 and Sydney Festival 2023 in a co-production with Sydney Chamber Opera.