{{Short description|Australian pianist, composer and educator}}{{Infobox musical artist | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|size=100%|AM}} | image = Keith Humble c 9149.png | birth_date = 6 September 1927 | death_date = {{Death date and age|1995|05|23|1927|09|06}} | occupation = Composer | instrument = Piano }}
'''Leslie Keith Humble''' {{Post-nominals|country=AUS|AM}} (1927–1995) was an Australian pianist, composer, and professor of music.
== Career == Keith Humble was born 6 September 1927 in Geelong, Victoria. He began learning piano at age five, and later formed his own swing jazz band while at school.<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last=Marcheff |first=Sophie |title=Humble, Leslie Keith (1927–1995) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/humble-leslie-keith-30063 |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |access-date=2023-07-11 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}}</ref>
He studied at Westgarth Central School and University High School after his family had moved to Northcote, and in 1947 he studied piano with Roy Shepherd at the University of Melbourne's Conservatorium of Music.<ref name=":0" />
During the 1950s, Humble travelled to Paris, where he founded and served as director of the Centre de Musique at the American Center in Paris.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Francois |first=Jean-Charles |date=1995-01-01 |title=In memoriam Keith Humble |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=00316016&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA18498866&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs |journal=Perspectives of New Music |language=English |volume=33 |issue=1–2 |pages=208–216}}</ref> He returned to Australia in 1966 and founded the Society for the Private Performance of New Music and the Electronic Music Studio at the University of Melbourne's Grainger Centre.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Whiteoak |first=John |date=1989 |title=Interview with Keith Humble |url=https://www.rainerlinz.net/NMA/repr/Humble_interview.html |access-date=2023-07-11 |website=Rainer Linz}}</ref> This included creating electronic instruments such as the Optronic Workstation,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Keith Humble's Optronic Workstation Featuring the EMS VCS-1 |url=https://artsandculture.google.com/story/keith-humble’s-optronic-workstation-featuring-the-ems-vcs-1/xQXxULLneGcUxg |access-date=2023-07-11 |website=Google Arts & Culture |language=en}}</ref> and furthering the work of Percy Grainger.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Whiteoak |first=John |date=1995 |title=Keith Humble, the Music-Maker with a Message |url=https://bpb-ap-se2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.unimelb.edu.au/dist/6/184/files/2017/03/10_Whiteoak-1n1c296.pdf |journal=Context |issue=10 |pages=5–9}}</ref>
In 1974 Humble was appointed foundation professor of music at La Trobe University,<ref name=":1" /> where he further experimented with electronic music and the avant-garde.<ref name=":0" /> He resigned from this position in 1984 to focus on composition.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hannan |first=Michael |date=2015-11-01 |title=Keith Humble, Music and Me - Memories of a Shared Life {{!}} Loud Mouth |url=https://musictrust.com.au/loudmouth/keith-humble-music-and-me-memories-of-a-shared-life/ |access-date=2023-07-11 |website=Music Trust |language=en-AU}}</ref>
Following the death of Keith Humble in 1995, his widow Jill Humble assisted in the opening of The Keith Humble Centre for Music and the Performing Arts at Geelong College.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Howell |first=Mike |date=June 2022 |title=Memories of a shared life |url=https://issuu.com/geelongcollege/docs/ad_astra_june_2/s/16387831 |access-date=2023-07-12 |website=Ad Astra |language=en}}</ref> In 2000, Latrobe University named one of their performance spaces the Keith Humble Auditorium in his honour.<ref>{{Cite web |title=HUMBLE, Keith AM (1927-1995) |url=https://gnet.tgc.vic.edu.au/wiki/HUMBLE-Keith-AM-1927-1995.ashx |access-date=12 July 2023 |website=Heritage Guide to The Geelong College |archive-date=12 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230712001554/https://gnet.tgc.vic.edu.au/wiki/HUMBLE-Keith-AM-1927-1995.ashx |url-status=dead }}</ref>
== Honours== As part of the 1982 Queen's Birthday Honours, Humble was made a Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1982-06-12 |title=The list |work=Canberra Times |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article126901999 |access-date=2023-07-11}}</ref>
== Further reading == Humble, Jill (2015) ''Keith Humble, Music and Me - Memories of a Shared Life'', Fernmill Book. {{ISBN|978-0-646-93884-4}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Humble, Keith}} Category:1927 births Category:1995 deaths Category:20th-century Australian composers Category:Australian music educators Category:20th-century Australian pianists Category:Australian electronic musicians Category:Australian avant-garde musicians Category:Musicians from Geelong Category:Members of the Order of Australia