Graeme Koehne
Graeme John Koehne AO (born 3 August 1956) is an Australian composer and music educator known for his accessible orchestral and ballet music. His trilogy Unchained Melody, Powerhouse, and Elevator Music nod to Hollywood film scores, cartoon music, and various dance styles.
Born in Adelaide, Koehne studied at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, learning from Richard Meale. In 1982 he won the Young Composers Prize at the Adelaide Festival for Rainforest, which brought him national attention. In 1984 he won a Harkness Fellowship to study at Yale University, where he worked with Louis Andriessen and Jacob Druckman and took private lessons with Virgil Thomson. He returned to Australia in 1986 and became a Lecturer in Composition at the Elder Conservatorium.
In the early 1990s he collaborated with librettist Louis Nowra on the chamber opera Love Burns, which premiered at the 1992 Adelaide Festival. He also began a long collaboration with choreographer Graeme Murphy, creating works for ballet including a children’s ballet based on The Selfish Giant and the full-length Nearly Beloved. From 2005 to 2021 he was Head of Composition at the Elder Conservatorium. He also served as chair of the Music Board of the Australia Council and was a board member.
Koehne is married to Melinda Parent, a former model and advertising creative director at Oranje Creative. They have a son, Willem Lukas Christiaan (born 2007).
His output spans ballets, chamber music, concertos and orchestral works, including Capriccio and Unchained Melody. He has received honors such as the Centenary Medal (2001) and was named an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2014 for his distinguished service to the performing arts as a composer and educator. He has also received the Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award for his contributions to Australian music.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 04:42 (CET).