Richard James Gill (4 November 1941 – 28 October 2018) was an Australian conductor of choral,

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

l and

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

tic works. He was known as a music educator and for his advocacy for music education of children.

Life and career

Gill was born and raised in the Sydney suburb of

Eastwood Eastwood may refer to: Places ;in Australia *Eastwood, New South Wales **Eastwood railway station **Electoral district of Eastwood *Eastwood, South Australia ;in Canada * Eastwood, Ontario *Eastwood, Edmonton, Alberta, a neighborhood ;in the Ph ...

where he attended Marist College Eastwood. Prior to becoming a professional conductor, he was a music teacher at

Marsden High School Marsden High School (MHS) is a school located in Meadowbank, New South Wales, Meadowbank, New South Wales, Australia. It is a co-educational high school operated by the New South Wales Department of Education with students from years 7 to 12. The ...

, West Ryde, in Sydney. One of his students was Kim Williams who later became a lifelong friend. In 1969, he was the founding conductor of the Strathfield Symphony Orchestra in Sydney. He continued as conductor in 1973–74 and returned in 1979 to conduct the orchestra's 10th anniversary concert. In 1971 he studied at the Orff Institute of the

Mozarteum Mozarteum University Salzburg (German: ''Universität Mozarteum Salzburg'') is one of three affiliated but separate (it is actually a state university) entities under the “Mozarteum” moniker in Salzburg municipality; the International Mo ...

in Salzburg. He was later invited to teach at the summer schools in Salzburg; on one occasion he was one of the pianists in the version of ''

Carmina Burana ''Carmina Burana'' (, Latin for "Songs from Benediktbeuern" 'Buria'' in Latin is a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent ...

'' for two pianos and percussion, conducted by

Carl Orff Carl Orff (; 10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982) was a German composer and music educator, best known for his cantata '' Carmina Burana'' (1937). The concepts of his Schulwerk were influential for children's music education. Life Early life Carl ...

himself. Gill was on staff at the

Sydney Conservatorium of Music The Sydney Conservatorium of Music (formerly the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music and known by the moniker "The Con") is a heritage-listed music school in Macquarie Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the old ...

from 1975 to 1982. He was conductor with the

Sydney Youth Orchestra Sydney Youth Orchestras (SYO) provides a pathway for hundreds of young musicians from beginner to pre-professional to connect, create and champion orchestral music. Musicians are welcome to audition annually and are placed in orchestras and ens ...

Association from 1977 to 1982, conducting the orchestra's tour of Singapore and Hong Kong in 1981. In 1982, he was invited as a principal presenter to the annual conference of the American Orff Schulwerk Association (AOSA); this led to further workshops and classes throughout the United States. Other posts include dean of the

Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) at Edith Cowan University (ECU) was established in 1980 to provide performing arts tuition. WAAPA (commonly pronounced "whopp-a") operates as a part of ECU, located at the ECU campus in ...

WAAPA (1985–1990) and Director of Chorus at the

Opera Australia Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House accompanied by the Opera Australia Orchestra runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder ...

(1990–1996). In August 2005, Gill founded and was the inaugural artistic director of

Victorian Opera Victorian Opera is an opera company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The company was founded in 2005 by the Victorian Government as a replacement for the Victoria State Opera. It commenced operations in January 2006 with Richard Gill as ...

. In 2013, along with Rachael Beesley and Nicole van Bruggen, he established the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra (formerly "orchestra seventeen88"). Gill was the artistic director and principal conductor of the orchestra. In 2022, the orchestra released its debut album, ''Perspective & Celebration'', featuring Gill conducting Mendelssohn's concert overture ''

The Hebrides The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebri ...

''. In 2014, he was appointed to succeed Paul Stanhope as musical director of the Sydney Chamber Choir. In February 2017, Gill conducted the inaugural gathering of the Sydney Flash Mob Choir at the

City Recital Hall City Recital Hall in Sydney, Australia, is a purpose-built concert venue with the capacity for an audience of 1,238 people seated over three tiers of sloped seating. It is situated in the city centre in Angel Place, just off Martin Place. City ...

in Angel Place, Sydney, bringing together singers and would-be singers from all walks of life for a monthly 40-minute singalong. Gill died on 28 October 2018, aged 76, from colorectal and peritoneal cancer. The day before he died, more than 70 musicians (including a police band) gathered outside Gill's home in Stanmore, in Sydney's inner west, and played for Gill and his family (who were inside the house), including " The Dam Busters March" (reportedly "Gill's favourite song from his favourite

movie A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

").

Music educator

Gill was an advocate for the importance of music, arts and physical education for all children, believing that singing should be the basis of all music education. Prior to his death, plans were well-advanced to establish a music-based primary school in New South Wales in 2020, to be known as the

Muswellbrook Muswellbrook ( ) is a town in the Upper Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, about north of Sydney and north-west of Newcastle. Geologically, Muswellbrook is situated in the northern parts of the Sydney basin, bordering the New Engla ...

Richard Gill National Music Academy. The Richard Gill School, with Gill's former student Kim Williams as chairman, opened (on premises formerly used by the Muswellbrook Council at its chambers) in 2021 with 13 students from

Prep PowerPC Reference Platform (PReP) was a standard system architecture for PowerPC-based computer systems (as well as a reference implementation) developed at the same time as the PowerPC processor architecture. Published by IBM in 1994, it allo ...

and Year 1. The school curriculum is based around music, physical activity and the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), making it a STEAM-based school (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics). Students are drawn from the general community and music is seen as a part of the core curriculum for all students (something Gill advocated during much of his life), not just those students exhibiting a gift in the area of music. The school song "O Come Now My Friends" has words by Gill's son Anthony, and music by Australian composer Nigel Westlake.

Repertoire

Gill's operatic repertoire included performances with

Opera Queensland Opera Queensland is an opera company based in Brisbane, Queensland. The company was founded with funding from the Queensland State Government in 1981 under the name ''Lyric Opera of Queensland'' after the Queensland Opera Company was closed in ...

, the Sydney,

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

and

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Festivals, and Windmill Performing Arts. He conducted the world premieres of

Alan John Alan John (born 7 May 1958 in Sydney) is an Australian composer. He studied music at the University of Sydney, graduating in 1980. His compositions include original music for various plays, films (such as ''Holding the Man'', ''Three Dollars'' and ...

'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 Melbourne International Arts Festival, formerly Spoleto Festival Melbourne – Festival of the Three Worlds, then Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, becoming commonly known as Melbourne Festival, was a major international arts festi ...

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 conducted the new Australian works '' The Love of the Nightingale'' by Richard Mills (2007) and

's ''

Through the Looking Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' (also known as ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass'' or simply ''Through the Looking-Glass'') is a novel published on 27 December 1871 (though indicated as 1872) by Lewis Carroll and the ...

'' (2008). His work in the concert hall included concerts with all the major Australian orchestras. In his ''Discovery'' and ''Ears Wide Open'' series of concerts, he took selected works from the traditional and the contemporary classical music repertoire and analysed the works in a humorous and entertaining manner, trying to find what made the works "tick" and to, as he says, listen to the music "with new ears".

Composition

He composed the music for

Brisbane Girls Grammar School Brisbane Girls Grammar School is an independent non-denominational secondary day school for girls, located in Spring Hill, an inner suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1875, the school is one of eight grammar schools in Quee ...

school song, "" othing without work

Awards

Awards included an

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gov ...

Medal in 1994, a Centenary Medal in 2001, the Bernard Heinze Award for services to music in Australia, and an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

from the

Edith Cowan University Edith Cowan University (ECU) is a public university in Western Australia. It is named in honour of the first woman to be elected to an Australian parliament, Edith Cowan, and is the only Australian university named after a woman. Gaining unive ...

of Western Australia for his service to Australian music and musicians. In 2001 he received the

Australian Music Centre The Australian Music Centre (AMC), formerly known briefly as Sounds Australian, is a national organisation promoting and supporting art music in Australia, founded in 1974. It co-hosts the Art Music Awards along with APRA AMCOS, and publishes ...

'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 The Don Banks Music Award was established in 1984 to publicly honour a senior artist of high distinction who has made an outstanding and sustained contribution to music in Australia. It was founded by the Australia Council in honour of Don Banks, ...

2006 by the Australia Council for the Arts. In 2016 he was promoted within the Order of Australia to Officer level. Gill was awarded a MOST (Music & Opera Singers Trust) Achievement Award in July 2018 "in recognition of his exceptional contribution to the Arts in Australia as both a conductor and as a music educator". Two weeks later he was awarded the Arts Leadership Award at the 2018 Creative Partnerships Awards, held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The Australian Music Centre and

APRA AMCOS APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwri ...

renamed their Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music in 2019 to Richard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music. Gill had won that award in 2014.

APRA Awards

The APRA Awards are held in Australia and New Zealand by the Australasian Performing Right Association to recognise songwriting skills, sales and airplay performance by its members annually. ! , - ,

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, , Richard Gill , , Distinguished Services to Australian Music , , , , , -

Bernard Heinze Memorial Award

The Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award is given to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to music in Australia. ! , - , 1998 , , Richard Gill , , Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award , , , , , -

Don Banks Music Award

The

was established in 1984 to publicly honour a senior artist of high distinction who has made an outstanding and sustained contribution to music in Australia. It was founded by the

Australia Council The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austr ...

in honour of

Don Banks Donald Oscar Banks (25 October 19235 September 1980) was an Australian composer of concert, jazz, and commercial music. Early life and education Jazz was Banks' earliest and strongest musical influence. He learned the saxophone as a boy in Aust ...

, Australian composer, performer and the first chair of its music board. , - , 2006 , Richard Gill , Don Banks Music Award , , -

Appearances

The artist

Jasper Knight Jasper Knight (born 25 December 1978, Sydney) is an Australian artist. He is the brother of writer and presenter Dominic Knight, and grandson of Sir Harold Knight (economist). Knight has been a finalist eight times in the Archibald Prize from ...

, whom Gill taught music at school and whose grandmother worked with Gill in early childhood education, was a finalist at the

Archibald Prize The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor ...

of 2005 with a portrait of Gill. In 2006 he appeared in the four-part

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

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 was a frequent guest on ABC-TV's popular-music panel show '' Spicks and Specks''. The 2018 reunion special of the show was dedicated in his memory. In January 2009, Gill worked with the

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) is a symphony orchestra based in Wellington, New Zealand. The national orchestra of New Zealand, the NZSO is an autonomous Crown entity owned by the Government of New Zealand, per the New Zealand Symph ...

's National Youth Orchestra (NYO) in their National Music Camp in Napier, New Zealand, on the occasion of NYO's 50th anniversary celebrations.

References

Sources *

External links

Compositions, commissions, recordings

"In Memoriam Tributes to Richard Gill AO"
Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra
Gill's blog
*
Interview
Natasha Mitchell, ''

Life Matters ''Life Matters'' is a radio program that has been broadcast on Radio National by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation since 1992. The first presenter was Geraldine Doogue, and Hilary Harper and Michael MacKenzie present the program. Histor ...

'',

Radio National Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors a ...

(1 November 2012)
"Conductor Richard Gill dies"
by Vincent Plush, ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

'', 28 October 2018 {{DEFAULTSORT:Gill, Richard 1941 births 2018 deaths APRA Award winners Australian conductors (music) Australian choral conductors Music directors (opera) Australian music educators Musicians from Sydney Officers of the Order of Australia Recipients of the Centenary Medal Sydney Conservatorium of Music faculty Deaths from cancer in New South Wales Deaths from colorectal cancer Deaths from peritoneal cancer Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts faculty