Beloved Australian musician and composer Michael Sollis has died after a five-year battle with bowel cancer.
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Sollis died at Clare Holland House hospice early on May 1, reports Canberra City News. He was 40.
According to the outlet, Sollis was given between three months and a year to live when he was diagnosed in 2021. While fighting the disease, he spent his remaining time composing and co-programming the National Folk Festival. He also led creative bush walks along the Murrumbidgee.
In March, Sollis held a farewell concert with The Griffyn Ensemble, which he founded in the early 2000s. He described the event as a celebration of community and place. Musicians travelled from across the country to perform, including harpist Meriel Owen from Hobart, soprano Susan Ellis from Brisbane, and fellow Folk Festival directors Chris Stone and Holly Downes, alongside Wyana and Matt O’Keeffe.
“I was born here, on Ngunnawal country,” he explained then. “I’ve been so blessed to have that connection – to this place, to music, to people. Canberra has been an amazing place.”
Sollis is survived by his wife, flautist Kiri, and their two sons, Bryn, seven, and Lyle, four. Lyle was born the day after Sollis began chemotherapy. The boys grew up with their father’s illness as a part of daily life. However, music was an equal presence.
The Prolific Music Career of Michael Sollis
His early interest in the music and culture of Papua New Guinea led him to study with Jim Cotter and Larry Sitsky at the ANU School of Music. He would later teach there alongside them while also mastering the mandolin.
He collaborated with astronomer Fred Watson on musical works inspired by celestial bodies. These included Northern Lights at Mt Stromlo and the project One Sky, Many Stories, which combined Indigenous Australian and Western astronomical stories.
In addition to founding The Griffyn Ensemble, Sollis collaborated with Jyll Bradley on the City of Trees project, which was commissioned for the Canberra Centenary in 2013.
His 2013 work, The Dirty Red Digger, performed by the Griffyn Ensemble, was influenced by his time playing first-grade rugby league. Starting at age 16, he played for the Gungahlin Bulls in the semi-professional Canberra Raiders Cup.
In 2016, the late Richard Gill appointed him the inaugural artistic director of Education at Musica Viva Australia. In 2023, Sollis was named co-artistic director of the National Folk Festival. He also demonstrated a commitment to advocacy as a convenor of the Canberra Arts Action Group.
Sollis is survived by his wife, Kiri; their two sons, Bryn and Lyle; and his parents, Kerrie and Peter.