Richard Gill (conductor)

Richard James Gill AO (born 4 November 1941 in Sydney) is an Australian conductor of choral, orchestral and operatic works who has been involved in music training and education.

Prior to becoming a professional conductor, Richard Gill was a music teacher at Marsden High School, West Ryde, in Sydney. Among his students there 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 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 for two pianos and percussion, conducted by Carl Orff himself. 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 Conservatorium of Music (1985–1990) and Director of Chorus at the Australian Opera (1990–1996).

In August 2005, Gill was appointed Music director of the new, Melbourne-based Victorian Opera.

In 2014, he was appointed to succeed Paul Stanhope as Musical Director of the Sydney Chamber Choir.

Gill's operatic repertoire has included performances with Opera Queensland, 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.

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