Bruce Rowland

• Name — Bruce Rowland • Birth Name — Kenneth Bruce Rowland • Born — 9 May 1942 • Birthplace — Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Occupation — Composer Kenneth Bruce Rowland (born 9 May 1942) is an Australian composer.

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 released in 1970. Rowland is best known for having composed the soundtrack to the 1982 film The Man from Snowy River and its 1988 sequel The Man from Snowy River II (which also has the United States title Return to Snowy River and the United Kingdom title The Untamed). Both films are 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 TV miniseries All the Rivers Run (1983) and its sequel (1990). Rowland composed the music to the Oscar-nominated animated short film The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (2005). 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 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He composed a special Olympics version of the main theme of The Man from Snowy River for the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics, as well as conducting the orchestra for the performance. He also composed special arrangements of some of his music for the 2002 musical theatre production "The Man from Snowy River: Arena Spectacular", which twice toured Australian capital cities. The original cast album of the show won the ARIA Award for Best Cast / Show Album. Rowland also composed new music for "The Australian Outback Arena Show" on Queensland's Gold Coast. The Man From Snowy River soundtrack has featured four times in ABC Classic's annual Classic 100 Countdown, peaking at 18 in the 2025 piano countdown. This made it the highest-ranking entry by an Australian composer. NBC Sports uses music from The Man from Snowy River soundtrack for their coverage of The Players Championship.

List of albums, with Australian chart positions • Title — Album details — Peak chart positions • AUS • Piano by Request — * Released: March 1985 * Format: LP * Label: Hammard (HAM097) — 51