Richard Gill - Australian Music Director

Richard Gill - Australian Music Director (4 November 1941 - 28 October 2018 )

Richard Gill
(Source: ABC)

Introduction:

Richard James Gill OAM (born 4 November 1941 in Sydney) was an Australian conductor who earned awards for his work. He conducted choral, orchestral and operatic works, and has been involved in music training and education. (Source: Wikipedia)

Richard Gill was born in the Eastern Suburbs, but his family moved and he grew up in the northern districts of Sydney at Epping in post war Australia. (Source: Culture Concept)

Richard died of cancer on 28 October 2018.

Listen to Richard Gill's ideas on Music Education

Did You Know?

Richard Gill [20 October 2014] said the program would identify strong teachers from state primary schools, provide them with more professional development from music experts, and use those high performing music teachers to train others.

Richard Gill was an internationally respected music educator and conductor. He was Founding Dean of the West Australian Conservatorium of Music, has been director of chorus and conductor for Opera Australia, has been artistic director of OzOpera, artistic director and chief conductor of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and the Adviser for the Musica Viva in Schools program. He has conducted all the Symphony Australia Network Orchestras and was the founding music director of Victorian Opera. He was the conductor Emeritus of Victorian Opera, artistic director of the Sydney Symphony Education Program, a position he held for over twenty years, and artistic director of the Sydney Symphony Sinfonia, a special mentoring orchestra he co-founded in 1996. He has been awared two Honorary Doctorates and an OAM for services to music. (Source: Sydney Writers Festival)

Richard Gill on Spicks and Specks
Richard Gill on the TV show "Spicks and Specks"

Education & Training:

Richard Gill went to Marist Brothers Eastwood for his school education.

Gill began music lessons quite late – at the age of 13 – while everyone else he would later study with at the Sydney Conservatorium probably started at four or five. (Source: The Weekly Review)

The Sydney Conservatorium of Music

When he started at the Conservatorium of Music in 1959 his general knowledge was far from prodigious, something those around him made him acutely aware of. One teacher told him ‘his hands frightened her’ and she could not see him learning to play a piano. However he pushed on regardless and kept only looking forward at what he might achieve ahead and he made his own luck and fortune. (Source: Culture Concept)

Employment:

Prior to becoming a professional conductor, Richard Gill was a music teacher at Marsden High School, West Ryde, in Sydney.

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. (Source: Wikipedia)

Gill was a teacher in Sydney, then London, rose through the Sydney Conservatorium’s ranks to senior lecturer, taught in the US and was the University of Western Australia’s founding dean of music. (Source: The Weekly Review)

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. (Source: Wikipedia)

Richard Gill was Founding Music Director and Conductor Emeritus of Victorian Opera [2005 - 2012] and was also Artistic Director of the Education Program for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He has been Artistic Director of OzOpera, Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, and the Adviser for the Musica Viva In Schools program. He has held several important posts including Dean of the West Australian Conservatorium of Music (1985-1990) and Director of Chorus at The Australian Opera (1990-1996)

2014: Richard was appointed musical director of the Sydney Chamber Choir (Source: Arts Management)

YouTube: videos

The Power of Music with Richard Gill OAM, at Happiness and Its Causes 2016
https://youtu.be/uC_4gVzGvoc

Q&A 2011: YouTube
https://youtu.be/pXbKIShvY_E

Q&A Highlight – Bang On [National Curriculum] 20 October 2014
https://youtu.be/EjwlLlYdSpo

Opportunities & Awards:

Richard Gill has received numerous accolades, including an Order of Australia Medal, the Bernard Heinze Award, honorary doctorates from the Edith Cowan University of Western Australia and the Australian Catholic University, the Australian Music Centre's award for Most Distinguished Contribution to the Presentation of Australian Composition by an individual, and the Australia Council's prestigious Don Banks Award. (Source: Sydney Symphony)

Richard Gill was named the Senior Australian of the Year [in 2005]. (Source: ABC)

His Death

Musical send-off for beloved conductor

An impromptu orchestra plays outside the house of conductor Richard Gill in the last hours of his terminal illness.

Paul Goodchild said The Dam Busters March was Mr Gill's favourite song from his favourite movie.

Dozens gathered outside his home in Stanmore in Sydney's inner west on Saturday to play his favourite song, The Dam Busters March [as Richard was dying]

The tribute was organised by Gill's longtime colleague and friend Paul Goodchild, the associate principal trumpet of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

"This was the perfect way of saying thank you, goodbye and a great tribute to somebody who has made so much of a difference, to not only the lives of musicians, but to everybody who really listens to music," Goodchild said.

"I expected maybe 15, 20 people to turn up and we had over 70 there, and even the police band turned up as well." (Source: SMH)

YouTube: Rendition of Dambusters for Richard Gill
https://youtu.be/hd8sZDqrCFk

Links:

Give Me Excess of It Give Me Excess of It is Richard's memoir, tracing his life from school days to the highs (and lows) of conducting and directing an opera company.	Sydney Symphony Orchestra: Richard Gill biography DEC - Richard Gill
Limelight: Every child needs music	ABC - Saturday Extra: Richard Gill: If I were PM.... Audio of interview with Geraldine Doogue
SMH	SSO - Message
Richard Gill - Conducting Unbecoming & Igniting Imagination	Richard Gill - Conductor [Mashpedia - a video site]
Richard Gill - Life Matters	Sydney Morning Herald 28 October 2018
Arts Hub: Vale Richard Gill	Business Insider 29 October 2018
ABC Drive: Audio file Legendary conductor, teacher and music educator Richard Gill, who died over the weekend, gave several Self Improvement lessons on Drive. Take a listen to this one from 2013 on The Marriage of Figaro. Richard will be greatly missed. Duration: 16min 50sec Broadcast: Wed 31 Oct 2018, 4:00pm

Your ideas for a Youth Chamber Choir.....

Middle Secondary

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Critical & Creative Thinking

1. Read the following article (March 2014) Read

"He says he wants to start an additional youth chamber choir and not all of its music will be classical. "There's a whole world of music out there - contemporary popular music, for example," Gill says."

2. What music would you recommend?

Make a list of contemporary popular music and send to "On the Job".

3. Read the following article.... Read