Anthony Young began his full time music studies in 1998 at the University of Auckland. Anthony completed a Bachelor of Music degree in 2000, a Honours degree in 2001, early this year completed a Master Degree in Music (Composition). During his time at university, he took an keen interest in not only composition, but electronic music, analysis and conducting.

Anthony has won prizes in a number of different university-based competitions, and was a finalist in the 2003 Douglas Lilburn Prize, a competition run by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, which resulted in two performances of his work Mamaku in August of last year.

He has been a regular participant at the annual Nelson Young Composers Workshop, and had works played in both the Auckland Philharmonia and NZSO reading workshops.

Last year, Anthony was named the joint Composer-in-Residence with the Auckland Philharmonia, which has resulted in three commission pieces: The Farewell (premiering on the 24 June), a Concertino for Orchestra, and a yet to be completed wind quintet. In August, there is a concert performance of his one-act opera Through A Window, based on a short
story by H.G. Wells.

Over the last one or two years, his conducting studies have taken a back seat to his composition work, but Anthony hopes to get back into that at a later date. Along with his composition work, Anthony is an itinerant teacher at a local high school, teaching composition, aural skills and theory. He has an interest in his local amateur theatre, and is a keen reader.