Richard Gill (conductor)

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Richard Gill OAM (born 4 November 1942, Sydney) is a notable Australian conductor who has earned 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". In August 2005 Gill was appointed Music Director of the new, Melbourne-based Victorian Opera.

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 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 also the 2007 follow-up episode Operatunity Oz — Twelve Months On.

Previous posts include Dean of the Western Australian Conservatorium of Music (1985–1990) and Director of Chorus at the Australian Opera (1990–1996). Prior to becoming a professional conductor, Richard Gill was a Music Teacher at Marsden High School, West Ryde, in Sydney. During the course of his career, he has received numerous accolades, including an Order of Australia Medal, 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 prestigious Don Banks Music Award 2006 by the Australia Council for the Arts.