INDEX    NEWLY PUBLISHED WORK          RECENT PERFORMANCE 1    RECENT PERFORMANCE 2     FROM A QUIET PLACE  and   LAMENT FOR KOSOVO            BETTY'S BIOGRAPHY         INFLUENCES BETTY         BEATH-COX ART  ENTERPRISES      DAVID'S BIOG     DAVID'S AWARDS      FAVOURITE LINKS

Betty Beath is a composer and pianist, formerly she was head of music at St. Margaret's Anglican Girls' School, Brisbane and taught composition and musicianship at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music Griffith University. She has produced much work in orchestral, chamber and instrumental music, art song and music drama. Her work is broadcast and performed widely in Australia, USA, the United Kingdom, Europe, Mexico, Japan and Indonesia.

From left: Betty aged 25 years,  Betty with Dr. Franz Hol;ford  Miss Nora Baird 
Frank Hutchens and Cokorde Agung Mas of Bali, Betty with soprano Janet Delpratt

She was born in Bundaberg and began her musical training at the age of three. By the time she was seventeen she had won many eisteddfod competitions and had twice been a finalist in the ABC Concerto and Vocal Competitions and had been awarded a Queensland University Music Scholarship which took her to the Sydney Conservatorium. There she studied with Frank Hutchens. Later she graduated from the Queensland Conservatorium specialising in piano and voice.

In 1974 she was awarded jointly with David Cox, a South East Asian Fellowship by the Australia Council which allowed them to carry out research and gather materials for writing in Indonesia. Since then they have developed a strong interest in the music and arts of Bali and Java and have co-produced many projects that are unique in bridging the cultures they have experienced.

Sponsored by the Fellowship of Australian Composers, Betty represented women composers of Australia at the 3rd International Congress on Women in Music in Mexico City and the concert tour and retreat in the State of Zacatecas in 1984. In that year she was elected to the Executive Board of the International League of Women Composers a position she held till 1994. In 1987 she was invited to take up a Residency at the North Adams State College Massachusetts, USA.

Highlights of her career have been the performance of her Songs from the Beasts' Choir (Rumer Godden's translations of poems by Carmen Bernos de Gasztold) at the Carnegie Recital Hall and the Symphony Space, New York, and the performance by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Richard Mills, of the love poem Asmaradana for the Music of Australia program during the Trade and Cultural Mission in Jakarta, AUSTRALIA TODAY INDONESIA 94. Her Lament for Kosovo has been widely performed most recently on the 27th November, 2006 this work opened the program of a Peace Concert held under the patronage of UNESCO in the Konzerthaus, Vienna.

Her orchestral works have been performed by The Ruse Philharmonic Orchestra, Bulgaria; the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech Republic; the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, the Portland Symphony Orchestra, USA; The All State String Orchestra, Texas: the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, USA; Trinity String Ensemble, Toronto and the Frauen-Kammerorchester von Osterreich, Vienna.

Her work has been recorded by Vienna Modern Masters, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Grevillea and Jade and has been published by Vienna Masterworks, Publications by Wirripang, Wolfhead Music, USA, J. Albert & Son Pty. Ltd., ASMUSE, Allans Publishing, The Keys Press, Five Line Publishing, London, Addison-Wesley, Boolarong Publications, Playlab Press and Beath-Cox Art Enterprises.

At the present time Betty is serving as State Adviser in Music to the National Council of Women of Queensland.