Vale Michael Sollis, born Canberra, May 26, 1985 – died Canberra May 1, 2026.

Canberra musician, music advocate and composer Michael Sollis died at Clare Holland House early on Friday after a five-year battle with bowel cancer. He was 40.

In 2021, when diagnosed, Sollis was given between three months and a year to live. But while fighting the disease, he spent his remaining time composing, co-programming the National Folk Festival and leading creative bush walks along the Murrumbidgee, all without a touch of self-pity.

In March, he put together a farewell concert with The Griffyn Ensemble, which he had founded in the early 2000s, as what he called a celebration of community and place. Musicians flew in from across the country, including harpist Meriel Owen from Hobart, soprano Susan Ellis from Brisbane, fellow Folk Festival directors Chris Stone and Holly Downes, along with Wyana and Matt O’Keeffe.

“I was born here, on Ngunnawal country,” he said at the time. “I’ve been so blessed to have that connection – to this place, to music, to people. Canberra has been an amazing place.”

Central to his life were his flautist wife Kiri, their two sons, Bryn, seven, and Lyle, four, who was born the day after Sollis began chemotherapy, and his extended family. The boys have grown up with their father’s illness as part of daily life, but also with music as an equal presence.

Sollis’ career was extraordinary.

Following an early interest in the music and culture of Papua New Guinea, he studied with, and later taught alongside, Jim Cotter and  Larry Sitsky at the ANU School of Music, while also mastering the mandolin.

Saying, “We always have our heads in the stars and the dirt beneath our feet,” he collaborated with astronomer Fred Watson on musical works inspired by celestial bodies, including 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, commissioned by the Canberra Centenary in 2013.

His 2013 work The Dirty Red Digger, performed by the Griffyn Ensemble, was influenced by his participation in the semi-professional Canberra Raiders Cup, playing First Grade for rugby league club the Gungahlin Bulls from the age of 16.

In 2016, he was appointed by the late Richard Gill as the inaugural artistic director of Education at Musica Viva Australia, and in 2023 Sollis was appointed as one of the co-artistic directors of the National Folk Festival.

His involvement as a convenor of the Canberra Arts Action Group reflected his commitment to advocacy.

Sollis is survived by his wife Kiri, their two sons, Bryn and Lyle and his parents Kerrie and Peter.

Details of a memorial to Michael Sollis will be added when available.

–HELEN MUSA