My teaching philosophy is closely connected with my life experience as a musician. it predicates the notion of a ‘complete’ musician rather than a specialist. To that end, I have constantly cultivated excellence in a number of spheres of activity.
As a composer, I am possibly the most commissioned Australian composer and have consciously tried to work in as many genres as possible, including opera, theatre, orchestral music, chamber music, solo music, vocal music, transcriptions.
As a pianist I have constantly explored the repertoire through various byways, some quite a long way off the beaten mainstream track and certainly have deliberately concentrated on performing our own Australian music.
As a researcher, my books have honed in on primary research and my various books have become standard texts in areas such as Ferruccio Busoni, Anton Rubinstein, Alkan, Classical Reproducing Piano Rolls, Music of the twentieth century avant-garde, Music of the repressed Russian avant-garde, 20th century Australian piano music.
As a teacher, I have endeavoured to act as a role model and engender in my pupils a similar outlook towards the profession; I feel that a good teacher should aim to make himself redundant; our role should also be that of a facilitator and problem solver, whether it is the fingering of a difficult piano passage, or the structure of a new composition.
Further reading at https://music.cass.anu.edu.au/people/emprof-larry-sitsky