Richard Gill (conductor)
Encyclopedia
Richard James Gill OAM
(born 4 November 1942, Sydney
) is an Australian conductor
who has earned awards for his work. He conducts choral, orchestral and operatic works, and has been involved in music training and education. This is evident in his Discovery series of concerts, where he takes selected works from the traditional
and the contemporary classical music
repertoire and analyses the works in a humorous and entertaining manner, trying to find what makes the works "tick" and to, as he says, listen to the music "with new ears". In August 2005 Gill was appointed Music Director
of the new, Melbourne-based Victorian Opera
.
, Opera Australia
, the Sydney
, Adelaide
and Melbourne
Festivals, and Windmill Performing Arts
. He has conducted the world premieres of Alan John
's The Eighth Wonder
(1995) and Moya Henderson
's Lindy
(2002) with Opera Australia, and Jonathan Mills' The Ghost Wife at the Melbourne International Arts Festival
in 1999 (and again at London's Barbican Centre
in 2002), and The Eternity Man
at the Sydney Festival in 2004. For the Victorian Opera he has conducted the new Australian works The Love of the Nightingale
by Richard Mills
(2007) and Alan John
's Through the Looking Glass
(2008). His work in the concert hall includes concerts with all the major Australian orchestras.
In 2006 he appeared in the 4-part ABC
documentary/reality series Operatunity Oz
, which sought Australian singers with opera potential, and in the 2007 follow-up episode Operatunity Oz – Twelve Months On.
He has composed the music for Brisbane Girls Grammar School
school song, "Nil Sine Labore".
for two pianos and percussion, conducted by Carl Orff
himself. Other posts include dean of the Western Australian Conservatorium of Music (1985–1990) and Director of Chorus at the Australian Opera
(1990–1996).
Medal in 1994 and a Centenary Medal
in 2001, the Bernard Heinze Award for Services to Music in Australia, and an Honorary Doctorate from the Edith Cowan University
of Western Australia for his service to Australian music and musicians. In 2001 he received the Australian Music Centre's award for 'Most Distinguished Contribution to the Presentation of Australian Composition by an Individual'. In December 2005, he was awarded the Don Banks Music Award
2006 by the Australia Council for the Arts.
's popular-music panel show Spicks and Specks.
In January 2009, Richard Gill worked with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
's National Youth Orchestra (NYO) in their National Music Camp in Napier, New Zealand, on the occasion of NYO's 50th anniversary celebrations.
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
(born 4 November 1942, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
) is an Australian conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
who has earned awards for his work. He conducts choral, orchestral and operatic works, and has been involved in music training and education. This is evident in his Discovery series of concerts, where he takes selected works from the traditional
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
and the contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
repertoire and analyses the works in a humorous and entertaining manner, trying to find what makes the works "tick" and to, as he says, listen to the music "with new ears". In August 2005 Gill was appointed Music Director
Music director
A music director may be the director of an orchestra, the director of music for a film, the director of music at a radio station, the head of the music department in a school, the co-ordinator of the musical ensembles in a university or college , the head bandmaster of a military band, the head...
of the new, Melbourne-based Victorian Opera
Victorian Opera (Melbourne)
Victorian Opera is an opera company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The company was founded in 2005 and commenced operations in January 2006 with funding from the Victorian government, and Richard Gill as Artistic Director...
.
Repertoire
Gill's operatic repertoire has included performances with Opera QueenslandOpera Queensland
Opera Queensland is an opera company based in Brisbane, Queensland. The company was founded with funding from the Queensland State Government in 1981, then under the name Lyric Opera of Queensland, after the Queensland Opera Company was closed in December 1980.It is after Opera Australia the second...
, Opera Australia
Opera Australia
Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the The Arts Centre in Melbourne...
, the Sydney
Sydney Festival
Sydney Festival is Australia's largest and most attended annual cultural event running every January since it was first held in 1977. Its program features around 80 events including contemporary and classical music, dance, circus, drama, visual arts and artist talks...
, Adelaide
Adelaide Festival of Arts
The Adelaide Festival of Arts is an arts festival held biennially in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Although locally considered to be one of the world's greatest celebrations of the arts, that is internationally renowned and the pre-eminent cultural event in Australia, it is actually...
and Melbourne
Melbourne International Arts Festival
Melbourne Festival is a celebration of dance, theatre, music, visual arts, multimedia, outdoor and free events held for 17 days each October in a number of venues across Melbourne, Australia.-History:...
Festivals, and Windmill Performing Arts
Windmill Performing Arts
Windmill Performing Arts established in 2002 as a South Australian Government initiative is Australia's flagship professional theatre company for child and young adult audiences. The current artistic director is Rosemary Myers.Since 2002, it has grown into a leading national company...
. He has conducted the world premieres of Alan John
Alan John
Alan John is an Australian composer. He studied music at the University of Sydney, graduating in 1980. His compositions include original music for various plays, films and TV series , and the musical theatre works Jonah Jones, Orlando Rourke, and the musical Snugglepot and...
's The Eighth Wonder
The Eighth Wonder
The Eighth Wonder is an opera by Alan John and with a libretto by Dennis Watkins. It was premiered at the Sydney Opera House on October 14, 1995 in the presence of the composer and librettist.-Plot:...
(1995) and Moya Henderson
Moya Henderson
Moya Henderson is an Australian composer.A graduate of the University of Queensland, Henderson also studied in Germany with Karlheinz Stockhausen after which she became a lecturer at the University of Sydney...
's Lindy
Lindy (opera)
Lindy is an opera in two acts by Australian composer Moya Henderson to an English libretto by Judith Rodriguez.It premiered on 25 October 2002 at the Sydney Opera House.-Roles:-Synopsis:The plot is based on the disappearance of Lindy...
(2002) with Opera Australia, and Jonathan Mills' The Ghost Wife at the Melbourne International Arts Festival
Melbourne International Arts Festival
Melbourne Festival is a celebration of dance, theatre, music, visual arts, multimedia, outdoor and free events held for 17 days each October in a number of venues across Melbourne, Australia.-History:...
in 1999 (and again at London's Barbican Centre
Barbican Centre
The Barbican Centre is the largest performing arts centre in Europe. Located in the City of London, England, the Centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibitions. It also houses a library, three restaurants, and a conservatory...
in 2002), and The Eternity Man
The Eternity Man
The Eternity Man is a chamber opera in one act and seven scenes by the Australian composer Jonathan Mills to a libretto by Dorothy Porter. It deals with the life of Arthur Stace who was known as "The Eternity Man" because he chalked the word "Eternity" about 500,000 times in over 35 years on...
at the Sydney Festival in 2004. For the Victorian Opera he has conducted the new Australian works The Love of the Nightingale
The Love of the Nightingale (opera)
The Love of the Nightingale is an opera in two acts by Richard Mills. The libretto by Timberlake Wertenbaker is based on her play of the same name...
by Richard Mills
Richard Mills
Richard John Mills AM, DMus BA Qld, is an Australian conductor and composer. He currently works as Artistic Director of the West Australian Opera and Artistic Consultant with Orchestra Victoria...
(2007) and Alan John
Alan John
Alan John is an Australian composer. He studied music at the University of Sydney, graduating in 1980. His compositions include original music for various plays, films and TV series , and the musical theatre works Jonah Jones, Orlando Rourke, and the musical Snugglepot and...
's Through the Looking Glass
Through the Looking Glass (opera)
Through the Looking Glass is a chamber opera by the Australian composer Alan John to a libretto by Andrew Upton, based on Lewis Carroll's book and on the life of Alice Liddell, the girl for whom Carroll wrote the story's prequel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.The work was commissioned by the...
(2008). His work in the concert hall includes concerts with all the major Australian orchestras.
In 2006 he appeared in the 4-part ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
documentary/reality series Operatunity Oz
Operatunity Oz
Operatunity Oz was a 2006 talent search, and accompanying four-part television documentary by Simon Target, in which Opera Australia conducted a nationwide search to find someone in Australia without professional opera experience, who could be coached to sing in a staged opera — Verdi's...
, which sought Australian singers with opera potential, and in the 2007 follow-up episode Operatunity Oz – Twelve Months On.
He has composed the music for Brisbane Girls Grammar School
Brisbane Girls Grammar School
Brisbane Girls' Grammar School, is an independent, secular, day school for girls, located in Spring Hill, an inner suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia....
school song, "Nil Sine Labore".
Posts
Prior to becoming a professional conductor, Richard Gill was a music teacher at Marsden High School, West Ryde, in Sydney. In 1971 he studied at the Orff Institute of the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He was later invited to teach at the summer schools; on one occasion he was one of the pianists in the version of Carmina BuranaCarmina Burana (Orff)
Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1935 and 1936. It is based on 24 of the poems found in the medieval collection Carmina Burana...
for two pianos and percussion, conducted by Carl Orff
Carl Orff
Carl Orff was a 20th-century German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana . In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential method of music education for children.-Early life:...
himself. Other posts include dean of the Western Australian Conservatorium of Music (1985–1990) and Director of Chorus at the Australian Opera
Opera Australia
Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the The Arts Centre in Melbourne...
(1990–1996).
Awards
Awards include an Order of AustraliaOrder of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
Medal in 1994 and a Centenary Medal
Centenary Medal
The Centenary Medal is an award created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the Centenary of Federation of Australia and to honour people who have made a contribution to Australian society or government...
in 2001, the Bernard Heinze Award for Services to Music in Australia, and an Honorary Doctorate from the Edith Cowan University
Edith Cowan University
Edith Cowan University is located in Perth, Western Australia. It was named after the first woman to be elected to an Australian Parliament, Edith Cowan, and is the only Australian university named after a woman....
of Western Australia for his service to Australian music and musicians. In 2001 he received the Australian Music Centre's award for 'Most Distinguished Contribution to the Presentation of Australian Composition by an Individual'. In December 2005, he was awarded the Don Banks Music Award
Don Banks Music Award
The Don Banks Music Award was established in order to publicly honour a senior artist of high distinction who has made an outstanding and sustained contribution to music in Australia. The award was founded in honour of Don Banks, Australian composer, performer and the first chair of the music board...
2006 by the Australia Council for the Arts.
Guest appearances
He has been an occasional guest on ABC-TVAustralian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
's popular-music panel show Spicks and Specks.
In January 2009, Richard Gill worked with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is the national orchestra of New Zealand. It is a crown entity owned by the Government of New Zealand, with 90 full-time players....
's National Youth Orchestra (NYO) in their National Music Camp in Napier, New Zealand, on the occasion of NYO's 50th anniversary celebrations.
External links
- Victorian Opera
- Gill at the Sydney Symphony
- Interview with Gill on ABCAustralian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
local radio QueenslandQueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean... - Celebrating Victorian Opera's first year with Richard Gill
- Richard Gill discussing the history of music on ABCAustralian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
Radio NationalRadio NationalABC Radio National is an Australia-wide non-commercial radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Radio National broadcasts national programming in areas that include news and current affairs, the arts, social issues, science, drama and comedy...
's The Music Show - Richard Gill on popular Australian music quiz show Spicks and Specks