Colin Piper
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Colin Piper began his musical studies with piano lessons at the age of six. He attended the Sydney Conservatorium High School and subsequently studied piano and percussion at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music. He joined the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1968, having graduated from the ABC’s National Training Orchestra scheme, and retired in 2014.
He was a founding member of the Sydney-based percussion ensemble Synergy, which has toured extensively throughout Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, including performances at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (1990), International Percussion Convention (Taipei, 1996) and Expo 2000 (Hannover). Synergy has performed at several Adelaide Festivals, and with the Sydney Dance Company in Sydney, Brisbane, Taipei and Tokyo. He stepped aside from Synergy in 2006 and retired as Chair of its board, a position he held for 10 years.
At the 1976 Adelaide Festival he participated in performances of Hans Werner Henze’s El Cimarron, in the presence of the composer, and also took part in performances with Luciano Berio in 1975, and with Olivier Messiaen during the composer’s 1988 tour to Australia.
Colin Piper also maintains a career as a conductor, working extensively with community and youth orchestras and regularly conducting SSO education concerts. He has conducted most of the major state orchestras, the Sydney University Symphony Orchestra, Barrier Reef Orchestra and the Sydney Opera House Orchestra, as well as conducting a studio orchestra in recording sessions with Australian group INXS in 1991.
He was the coordinator of the Australian National Academy of Music’s first percussion program in 1998 and was a member of the first National Score Reading Panel, the New South Wales Ministry for the Arts Music Committee (1999 and 1994), and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Board (1996 to 2002).