Alastair McKean comes from Wangaratta. He studied composition at the University of Sydney under Peter Sculthorpe, Ross Edwards, and Anne Boyd. He was Orchestra Librarian for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for 17 years before being invited to fill the newly created post of Head of Library at the SSO in 2017. He was the 2023-24 President of the Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association, the first from outside the US or Europe.