Matthew Krel

Matthew Krel (1945 – 20 May 2009) was a Russian-Jewish conductor who migrated to Australia and in 1988 founded the SBS Radio and Television Youth Orchestra, of which he was the chief conductor until his death. Like his Soviet friend, the composer Dmitry Kabalevsky, he was passionate about creating quality musical performance ensembles for young people. He was also profoundly influenced by Zoltán Kodály's philosophy.

Matthew Krel was born in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, to Zalman and Doba Krel, who were not musically trained. He studied in Moscow at the Gnessin State Musical College, graduating with a Master in Music in piano accordion and other keyboard instruments, and conducting. He conducted student and youth orchestras, worked at the Pushkin Drama Theatre, and toured internationally with Russian orchestras. He had a very close association with Dmitry Kabalevsky. He left the Soviet Union for Israel in the mid-1970s, and moved to Australia in 1978, settling in Sydney. His wife Faina, who had studied with him at the Gnessin College, played violin with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He taught music privately, worked as a pianist in the evenings, started the Strathfield Music Centre School, and was assistant conductor with the Sydney Youth Orchestra. He was also conductor of the Strathfield Symphony Orchestra from 1987-1994 where he instigated a short lived young performers concerto competition (1987-1988).

In 1987 he approached the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) about creating an SBS orchestra of young people. In 1988 the management agreed, but it was up to Krel to make it work. Virtually no funds would be available to the non-profit orchestra, and neither state nor federal governments would support them financially. However SBS did provide the new organisation with free rehearsal space, storage space for instruments and use of a photocopier. The orchestra gave its first public performance at the Sydney Town Hall in 1989.

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