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Alfred Francis Hill CMG OBE (16 December 1869 – 30 October 1960) was an Australian/New Zealand composer, conductor and teacher.
Alfred Hill was born in Melbourne in 1869. His year of birth is shown in many sources as 1870, but this has now been disproven. He spent most of his early life in New Zealand. He studied at the Leipzig Conservatory between 1887 and 1891 under Gustav Schreck, Hans Sitt and Oscar Paul. Later he played second violin with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, under the conductorship of names such as Brahms, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Bruch, and Reinecke. While there, some of his compositions were played with fellow students, and several were published in Germany. These included the Scotch Sonata for violin and piano.
Hill returned to New Zealand, where was appointed director of the Wellington Orchestral Society. He also worked as a violin teacher, recitalist, chamber musician, and choral conductor. He was active in the push for a New Zealand Conservatorium of Music, and for the foundation of an institute of MÄori studies at Rotorua.
Hill returned to Australia in 1897 where he remained, and taught for a number of years. After several years regularly travelling between Australia and New Zealand, Hill settled in Sydney in 1911, becoming the principal of the Austral Orchestral College, and viola player of the Austral String Quartet. In 1913 Hill founded the Australian Opera League with Fritz Hart, as part of an attempt to create an Australian operatic tradition. Hill was also a founder of the Sydney Repertory Theatre Society, and a foundation council member (later president) of the Musical Association of New South Wales.
In 1915–16 Hill co-founded the NSW State Conservatorium of Music and became its first Professor of Theory and Composition, and later deputy conductor to Henri Verbrugghen.
From 1937, Hill devoted himself full-time to composition. He wrote more than five hundred compositions, including 12 symphonies (of which 11 are arrangements of previously written string quartets), eight operas (including The Weird Flute), numerous concerti, a mass, 17 string quartets and other chamber works, two cantatas on Maori subjects (Hinemoa and Tawhaki) and 11 other choral works, and 72 piano pieces.
In 1947 he became president of the Composers' Society of Australia.
While much neglected nowadays, he is still very well known on both sides of the Tasman for a short song Waiata Poi, which was recorded by many singers including Peter Dawson.
He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1953, and a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1960.
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