BIOGRAPHY

Born: Timaru, New Zealand, 16 May 1919. Died: Perth, Australia, 22 Feb 2003

Emeritus Professor Sir Frank Callaway was a leading international figure in music education. A founding member of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) in its early years after the Second Word War, he became its President in 1988 and was later made Honorary Life President. He followed Yehudi Menuhin as President of UNESCO’s International Music Council, establishing a close and lasting friendship with him. This international view of music education informed all that he did.

Influence

As well as a visionary he was also a gifted administrator with energy, enthusiasm and powers of persuasion that enabled most of his grand plans to become realities. Through his creation of the Australian Society for Music Education in 1967 he brought together for the first time in this country many hundreds of people involved in music teaching throughout Australia at all levels from kindergarten to university, from studio to adult education. Through its national conferences, state chapter meetings and professional journal he brought a sense of national purpose and professionalism largely missing in Australian music education before that time, and with his international connections he was able to give it a far stronger voice in the world. This was strikingly demonstrated when the International Society for Music Education held its conference, under his chairmanship, in Perth in 1974 attracting 6000 participants from all over the world.

A further demonstration of his broad view of the place of music in society was the part he played in creating, together with others who shared his views, the Indian Ocean Arts Festival in 1979 in Perth.

On the award of the UNESCO Medal in 1995 the Director-General of that organisation described Sir Frank as ‘one of the great pioneers and ambassadors of music education in our time’. It is not surprising that, given his vision and remarkable administrative gifts, he was able to create a Department of Music at the University of Western Australia that became one of its ‘jewels in the crown’.

Early Years

Frank Callaway was born in Timaru, New Zealand on 16 May 1919. Leaving school at 15 because of the Depression, he joined a firm of commercial stationers, and by attending the Christchurch Technical College at night he was able to gain a university entrance. This enabled him to embark on studies for the Bachelor of Commerce in the evenings at Otago University at Dunedin. The pull towards teaching and towards music (he was already a good violinist) was, however, gaining the upperhand and at the beginning of 1939 he abandoned thoughts of a commercial career and entered the Dunedin Teachers’ Training College. At the outbreak of war a few months later he enlisted for overseas service, was rejected on account of poor eyesight, but invited to join the full-time military band – as a bassoonist, an instrument that he eventually played with professional skill.

At Dunedin, no-one interested in music education could have failed to have been inspired by the work being done at that time there by Vernon Griffiths at the King Edward Technical College, its music programme involving the entire school in choirs, orchestras and bands. In 1942 Vernon Griffiths was appointed to the Chair of Music at Canterbury University in Christchurch and Frank Callaway was given leave to fill his place at the college. It also provided him with an opportunity to enrol in the degree of Bachelor of Music as a part-time student. He gathered many prizes and scholarships during his studies.

International Profile

After the war he was granted a postgraduate travelling scholarship, which enabled him to study in London. By this time he was also married to a fine young pianist Kathleen and their first child had been born. He left New Zealand in 1947 to enrol at the Royal Academy of Music. In London he studied conducting, composition and general musicianship. It was during this period that he first met Percy Grainger.

While still in Britain he was awarded a Carnegie Travel Grant to observe the music education scene in the USA, this experience having a decisive influence on his career, for many of those whom he met had the same kind of international vision for music education that was to inspire his own. A few years later some of those same people were responsible for setting up the International Society for Music Education following a significant UNESCO Conference in Brussels in 1953. Frank Callaway returned to New Zealand in 1949 where his overseas experience enabled him further to develop music at the King Edward Technical College and later at the University of Western Australia.

The University of Western Australia

Frank Callaway’s appointment to The University of Western Australia in 1953 was as Reader in Music within the Faculty of Education. Six years later he became the University’s Foundation Professor of Music when it moved into the Faculty of Arts. From a staff of one he built up a thriving Department of Music which at his retirement at the end of 1984 counted 14 full-time staff-members and a large team of part-time teachers.

On his arrival at UWA his facilities had consisted of a desk, an upright piano, the Carnegie History of Music records and a small pile of music – the library. That small pile developed into the highly regarded Wigmore Music Library.

He edited internationally-recognised musicological journal Studies in Music as well as other scholarly publications. In association with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra he organised a series of Composers’ Workshops held over a period of years that attracted many young forward-looking composers whose professional reputations are now firmly established. He was also on the founding committee of the Commonwealth Assistance to Australian Composers scheme before its activities were absorbed into the Australia Council. His own musicianship found outlet as conductor of the University Choral Society in its many and memorable performances with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and visiting soloists. Sir Frank’s standing in the Western Australian community was celebrated at the Perth Concert Hall by two concerts given in his honour, one to mark the occasion of his retirement in 1984 and the other to celebrate his 80th birthday in 1999.

His contribution to music in Australia and internationally has been recognised by many. Amongst the most important were two honorary degrees in Music (from Melbourne and UWA), a Knighthood, Officer of the Order of Australia and the UNESCO Medal for Music. Yet he wore his distinctions lightly and never lost the common touch, as interested in the humblest community enterprises as those of national and international significance. Sir Frank Callaway died in Perth on 22 February 2003, aged 84 years.

Based on writings by Emeritus Professor David Tunley, 2003