Brass Band Concert Band/ Wind Band Chamber (String/ Brass / Woodwinds, etc) Choral/ Vocal Jazz (Big Band/ Jazz Band) Orchestral
Qualifications:
MMus (Melb), LTCL, ARCM, A.Mus.A
Clients:
QLD Pops Orchestra, Melb Pops Orchestra Army, Navy and RAAF Bands, various School ensembles
Score resolutions:
A4
Profile:
Graham Lloyd’s early music interests saw him learning violin and cello at Secondary School after which he enlisted into the Australian Regular Army in 1972 as an Apprentice Musician studying the clarinet. Upon graduation from the Army Apprentices School in 1973, he received the Boosey and Hawkes prize for instrumental proficiency, and was posted to the 4th Military District Band in Adelaide, South Australia.
In 1976, he was detached to the Army School of Music (at Balcombe in Victoria) as a clarinet and theory instructor. The same year, he was posted to the Band of the First Recruit Training Battalion at Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, followed in 1977 by a further posting to the Army School of Music as an instructor where he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and later Staff Sergeant. In 1982, he began his Student Bandmaster Course at the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall, Twickenham, London.
Among the prizes he received on completion of the course were: the Besson Cup and Medal for gaining the highest marks on the course; the Somerville Prize for best concert band arrangement; and the coveted Worshipful Company of Musicians Trophy and Silver Medal for the best overall student of the course. He returned to Australia late in 1985 and was promoted to Lieutenant and appointed as the Second in Command/Deputy Music Director of the Band of the 5th Military District, Perth, Western Australia.
In September 1987, he was posted to the Defence Force School of Music and was subsequently promoted to Captain. In this position he was responsible for the training and instruction of all Army and Navy musicians. Additional duties included the teaching of advanced Arranging, Harmony and Conducting to the various promotion courses. In 1989, Graham was posted as the Second in Command/Deputy Music Director of the 3rd Military District Band in Melbourne, Victoria. Later that same year he accepted the position of Director of Music, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and Commanding Officer of the RAAF Central Band and, soon after, was promoted to Squadron Leader.
In 2000, he was posted to RAAF Training Command, Laverton, and was placed in charge of Air Force music policy and the future direction of Air Force bands. In Feb 2004, Graham accepted the position of Officer Commanding/Chief Instructor at the Defence Force School of Music and subsequently transferred back to the Army with the rank of Major. In this position he was again responsible for teaching all Army and Navy musicians on advanced music subjects including Arranging, Harmony and Conducting. Graham’s main music interests are composing, arranging, teaching and conducting. His Concert Band work, Prelude for a Festival, won the 1988 Yamaha Composer of the Year award. Additionally, he has arranged and composed over 600 works for Concert Bands, Brass Bands and orchestras for every possible occasion from major concerts in the Opera House to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Sydney in 2005. He completed his Masters in music composition at Melbourne University in 1999 studying with his friend and mentor, Dr Brenton Broadstock. Graham has been published by Barnhouse Publications in the US and De Haske in Europe. As a conductor, major highlights include: Guest Conductor of the 70 piece United States Air Force Band in Washington D.C. in 1993; conducting the RAAF Band at the 1995 Royal Tournament in London; and conductor of the Federation Bells and Brass Concert at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne in Nov, 2001. The Bells and Brass concert featured over 500 performers including the four top A-Grade Brass Bands in Victoria and was the final concert for the Melbourne International Music Festival celebrating 100 years since Federation. As a composer, major highlights include the honour of composing a major work, ‘Circumnavigation’ for the Royal Australian Navy’s 110 Anniversary Concert. The 15-minute composition was written for large Concert Band and choir. His Fanfare for Freedom opened the 2001 Bells and Brass concert and he was also the first Australian Composer to have written the test pieces for every Concert Band section (A Grade through D Grade in both Open and Junior sections-eight works in all) in the 2012 Australian National Band Contest held in Melbourne that year. Additionally, he’s composed numerous works for various concert and brass bands across Australia.
Graham is regularly called upon to adjudicate State and National community band festivals, eisteddfods, solo and small group contests and to lecture on various music subjects including arranging, composition and conducting. He lectures at various music institutions including the Defence Force School of Music and Melbourne University’s Music Faculty. Graham discharged from the Army in Feb 2010 and has set up, with his wife, Angie, a music business aimed at offering Online training packages in The Mastery of Music Theory, Harmony and Arranging.
Two years ago Graham was asked to teach advanced musicians of the Royal Guard of Oman. That wonderful ‘duty’ saw him jetting off to Oman a couple of times to work with some of Oman’s finest young Military musicians. Graham’s composition for Symphonic Wind Band, ‘Through a Soldier’s Eyes’, won 2nd place in the inaugural Singapore Wind Band Composition competition in 2018. In his spare time Graham arranges for bands and orchestras (he has been arranging regularly for the Queensland Pops Orchestra for the past four years and, more recently, RAAF Central Band and various Army bands, too), as well as posting free music information on various music topics from conducting through to music theory and arranging on his Facebook page.
