About Roy Agnew
Roy Ewing "Robert" Agnew was an Australian composer, pianist, teacher, and radio announcer. He was described as "the most outstanding of the early twentieth-century Australian composers" by Morris Hinson. By this time, Agnew was already writing "strikingly original works," which abandoned "the limitations of key and tonal relationship." His first music work to be published was Australian Forest Pieces for Piano in 1913. In 1944, Agnew's last major work, the Sonata Legend (Capricornia), was publicly performed for the first time by Alexander Sverjensky at the Sydney Conservatorium. In 1939, he won first prize for his sonata ballade from the Musical Association of New South Wales, which he later recorded for Columbia.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.