Rex Hobcroft AM (12 May 1925 – 23 September 2013)[1][2] was an Australian pianist, conductor, composer, teacher, competition juror and music administrator.
During World War II he flew in the RAAF, and when over joined then small emerging Ansett Airways to pilot for them for several months.
[5] In 1957 Rex Hobcroft was appointed foundation head of the keyboard department of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Brisbane.
[4] During these years he was also active as a solo, concerto and chamber music pianist and vocal accompanist, and travelled widely in Australia.
[1][4][6] In 1962 he presented the complete cycle of piano sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven in a series of weekly recitals in Hobart, a first for an Australian pianist.
[6] Among the audience was the poet Gwen Harwood, and she was inspired to dedicate a number of poems to Rex Hobcroft (including Four Impromptus[7] and Estuary[8]).
The following year, Hobcroft introduced Harwood to the composer Larry Sitsky, which proved to be the start of an artistic collaboration that eventually produced six operas: The Fall of the House of Usher (1965), Lenz (1970), Fiery Tales (1975), Voices in Limbo (1977), The Golem (1980, performed 1993), and De Profundis (1982)[7] He organised a National Composers' Seminar in Hobart in 1963.
[4] During that time (1967), he travelled to the United States, Canada, England and Asia as a Tasmanian Churchill Fellow, studying music education methods.
[4] Other courses and activities expanded on an unprecedented scale, and Hobcroft's influence over ten years is considered as significant as that of Sir Eugene Goossens in the 1950s.
[1] In 1976 Rex Hobcroft initiated and co-founded the Sydney International Piano Competition, along with Claire Dan and Robert Tobias.
He introduced it to the Tasmanian and Sydney conservatoria, and was the Patron of the New South Wales and later the Western Australian arms of the Suzuki Talent Education Association of Australia.