Betty Beath is an Australian composer, pianist and educator: formerly the head of music at St Margaret's Girls' School, Brisbane and a lecturer at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Griffith University. Beath is a prolific composer. The lyrics to many of her songs have been written by her husband, David Cox (q.v.), and she has also set to music the work of Australian and overseas writers and poets, including Jena Woodhouse and Patricia Wrightson, (qq.v.). Beath lived for some time on the tiny island of Abau in Papua and later in New Guinea. This experience ignited a deep interest in new sounds and rhythms of non-western music. In 1974 Beath (along with her husband) was awarded a Southeast Asian Fellowship by the Australia Council to carry out research in Bali and Java. Since then she has developed a strong and enduring interest in the music and arts of Indonesia. In 1994 her orchestral tone poem Asmaradana was programmed in a Music of Australia concert given during the Trade and Cultural Mission in Jakarta by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
