Bruce Rowland

the Fairport Convention drummer

Bruce Rowland (born 9 May 1942 in Melbourne) is an Australian composer.

Rowland composed the soundtrack for the 1982 movie The Man from Snowy River, as well as the soundtrack for its 1988 sequel The Man from Snowy River II (which has the United States title of Return to Snowy River, and the United Kingdom title of The Untamed). Both films were based on Banjo Paterson's poem The Man from Snowy River. His other film scores include Now and Forever (1983), Phar Lap (1983), Bushfire Moon (1987), Cheetah (1989), Weekend with Kate (1990), Gross Misconduct (1993), Andre (1994), Lightning Jack (1994), Zeus and Roxanne (1997) and the TV movie Tidal Wave: No Escape (1997). He also composed the score for the popular TV series All the Rivers Run (1983/1990). He composed a special Olympics version of the main theme of The Man from Snowy River Suite, as well as conducting the orchestra, for the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics which were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Rowland composed the music to the Oscar nominated animation The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (2005). NBC Sports also uses some of the music from The Man from Snowy River soundtrack for their coverage of The Players Championship. Some of his early work was in television, where he was musical director for ATV0's The Go!! Show, Fredd Bear's Breakfast A Go Go and the Magic Circle Club, then Adventure Island for the ABC. Rowland received his education at Caulfield Grammar School in his hometown. He learned piano and was a keyboard player for Australian music groups, and singers. He played drums on Shawn Phillips's Second Contribution album, published in 1970.