Richard Gill (conductor)

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Richard Gill OAM is a notable Australian conductor who has earnt several awards for his work. He specialises in conducting choral, orchestral and operatic works, and has been extensively involved in music training and education. This is evident in his Discovery series of concerts, where he takes selected works from the European classical music 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". Richard has recently been appointed Music Director of the highly anticipated and long-awaited Victorian Opera Company.

Gill's operatic repertoire is extensive and varied, and has included performances across a variety of styles with Opera Queensland, Opera Australia, the Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne Festivals, and Windmill Performing Arts. He has conducted the world premieres of Moya Henderson's Lindy, and Jonathan Mills' The Ghost Wife at the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts in 1999 (and again at London's Barbican Arts Centre in 2002), and The Eternity Man at the Sydney Festival in 2004. His work in the concert hall includes concerts with all the major Australian orchestras.

Previous posts include Dean of the Western Australian Conservatorium of Music (1985-1990) and Director of Chorus at the Australian Opera (1990-1996). During the course of his career, Richard has received numerous accolades, including an Order of Australia Medal, the Bernard Heinze Award for Services to Music in Australia, an Honorary Doctorate from the Edith Cowan University of Western Australia for his service to Australian music and musicians, and 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 prestigious Don Banks Award 2006 by the Australia Council.