Tributes are flowing in the wake of news that Australian keyboardist, singer and lecturer Dean Sky-Lucas has died in hospital after a recent operation.

“Dean Sky-Lucas is such a loss to our Australian music community,” wrote conductor Benjamin Northey in a Facebook post. “He was a supremely gifted musician and collaborator who always brought depth and integrity to everything he did. He’ll be deeply missed by us all. Deepest sympathies to his family and friends.”

A graduate of the University of Newcastle Conservatorium of Music, Sky-Lucas was well-known in music circles as an accompanist to the wind and opera departments of the VCA at the University of Melbourne, a teacher and lecturer at the Melbourne Conservatorium, and for four years an associate artist with the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM).

He also served as a repetiteur and vocal coach at the Victorian Opera and, after studying speech pathology at Latrobe University, was at the forefront of vocal performance from a biomedical perspective.

Dean Sky-Lucas

A fine and multi-faceted keyboardist, Sky-Lucas performed on harpsichord, celeste, piano and organ with the Melbourne Symphony...