Alastair McKean
Pre-Concert Speaker
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 Library Manager at the SSO in 2017. He is the current President of the Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association, the first from outside the US or Europe.
Alastair has written and spoken about music for the MSO, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, ABC Classics, and ABC Classic FM. He taught the music journalism course, Words About Music, at the Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camp from 2014 to 2016.
Since 1997 Alastair has been Director of Border Music Camp, Albury. A proud viola owner, he has lowered the standard of the bass section in numerous choirs, and enjoyed scaring small children while narrating Peter and the Wolf for the MSO.
