Ann Kirsten Wentzel was born in Sydney. Her grandfather Wentzel Albert (later changed to Albert Wentzel) came to Australia in 1888 from
Bohemia, Her formal music studies were at the
University of Sydney, where in 1960, she was one of two students (the other was
Norma Tyer) to graduate with a Bachelor of Music degree. Carr-Boyd then received the university's first Master of Arts in music. She also studied in London with
Peter Racine Fricker and
Alexander Goehr. She married and had children in London. In 1975 she won the
Albert H. Maggs Composition Award.), and she and her three daughters play in the orchestra. Her quasi-namesake and fellow Australian composer
Anne Boyd is no relation. ==Music==