Glennis Carter-Varney is an Australian composer, pianist, and educator. She formerly served as Head of Contemporary Keyboard Studies and Lecturer in Piano at the Melba Memorial Conservatorium in Melbourne, and as Music Director at The Scots School in Albury, New South Wales. She also taught class music at Methodist Ladies’ College in Melbourne and directed private music schools in both Melbourne and Brisbane. Carter-Varney’s career has encompassed musical direction, training choirs and madrigal groups, producing musicals, and performing as both solo pianist and recording artist.
She studied piano with Waldemar Seidel and composition with John Ingram and Bernard de Oliveira at the Melbourne University Conservatorium before pursuing further piano studies with Norah Newby at the Royal Academy in London. Carter-Varney has appeared in concert and led workshops in both Australia and the United States. She has recorded extensively for ABC and commercial radio, performed as a studio musician in Melbourne’s recording industry, and given numerous ABC radio recitals from studios in Melbourne and Sydney. As part of a duo-piano partnership with her husband, she was featured on several top-rating Australian television programs.
Carter-Varney serves as an examiner for both the Australian Music Examinations Board and the Australian Guild of Music Education, and has presented AMEB Contemporary Popular Music workshops throughout Queensland. She has written, published, and recorded a wide catalogue of piano works. Her suite Summer Dreaming, inspired by the painting The Spirits Within by Australian artist Roger Saunders, reflects her ongoing interest in visual art as a source of musical inspiration. The Artamidae, Sonic Fantasy, and Shades of Blue—commissioned for the Keys National Festival for Australian Music and performed by award-winning pianist Andrew Visser—were later included in The Recital Collection and have become popular recital and examination repertoire. Works from her collections Kool Piano, Kool Shades of Blue, and Kool Jazzy Tunes are featured in multiple Australian examination syllabi. Artwork for her publications has been created by Australian artists with designs coordinated by Kathleen Tulley, former Gallery Director in Buderim, Queensland.
