For 17 years she has been a key figure in the life of the National Library and, by extension, the musical life of this country.

The National Library of Australia’s Robyn Holmes has announced her retirement. For 17 years, Holmes has been a key figure in the life of the National Library of Australia and, by extension, the musical life of this country.

Robyn graduated from the University in Adelaide in 1975 with an Honours degree in Musicology. She taught in Adelaide for several years before moving to Canberra in 1990 to take up a position at the ANU School of Music. For the next decade she led academic and research programmes there before moving across Lake Burley Griffin to the National Library.

In June 2000, she became the NLA’s first Curator of Music, an innovative move by the NLA which created new Curator positions in both Music and Dance. Almost immediately, Robyn embarked on a tireless campaign to collect, preserve, interpret and expand the national heritage through the acquisitions of the archives of many notable Australian figures, organizations and performing groups. Among the archives acquired by the NLA under her watch were the collections of Sutherland/Bonynge, Moffatt Oxenbould, Symphony...