BY SYLVIE WOODS, LEAD WRITER (NSW)
Disclaimer: This feature was written under the guidance of the University of Sydney as part of Sylvie‘s studies in publishing. It has been edited by CutCommon.
UPDATE 19 NOVEMBER 2018: Watch Richard Gill: Celebration of a Life on the Sydney Symphony Orchestra website. It was livestreamed on November 17.
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra has announced plans to livestream Saturday’s free Richard Gill AO tribute concert.
Managing a long waitlist for the Sydney Opera House performance, an SSO spokesperson has announced the stream will be held “due to demand”, involving all who sought tickets but missed out due to overwhelming interest.
Richard Gill: Celebration of a Life will include speeches by Richard’s children Claire and Anthony Gill, and leaders from across the Australian arts industry, and is much anticipated in the music community.
It follows on from a string of tribute concerts hosted by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra with the Australian National Academy of Music, Sydney Youth Orchestra, and the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra (of which Gill was a founder) with the Sydney Chamber Choir, Young Mannheim Symphonists, and Sydney Brass among others.
Above: Richard Gill with Rachael Beesley and Nicole van Bruggen of the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra artistic team. (Captured by Nick Gilbert).
Gill last month passed away in his Stanmore home due to bowel and peritoneal cancer, and his loss has been felt profoundly by the national arts community. The iconic personality, conductor, and music educator was prolific within and beyond the classical music world; so widely admired was he that the very Sydney Opera House Concert Hall cannot house all on whom he made an impact.
The upcoming event is one of many salutes to Gill since news of his passing. Tributes of various sorts have flown across Australia in recent weeks.
Last Friday, Edith Cowan University announced on Twitter that its arts division, the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, would re-name its music auditorium to the Richard Gill Auditorium:
🎼🎶 The #WAAPA Music Auditorium will now be known as the Richard Gill Auditorium, in honour of the founding Dean of Classical Music. Dr Gill encouraged each and every student, and his work contributed to the ongoing success of WAAPA ❤️ pic.twitter.com/2yVRXOOiDj
— Edith Cowan Uni (@ECU) November 2, 2018
Andrew Ford hosted a lengthy tribute to Gill on the ABC program The Music Show, which included a discussion that aired in 2002 and featured a younger Gill insisting on the value of different types of music:
“Music has such a power over people: an ability to enrich the way you think, enrich the way you feel, expand your emotional, intellectual and spiritual state on all sorts of levels. To my mind, there’s no reason you can’t enjoy all sorts of music…people shouldn’t cut themselves off.”
The day before Gill passed away, friends and supporters gathered outside his Stanmore home to perform his favourite piece of music The Dam Busters March. The performance was organised by his friend, colleague and trumpet player Paul Goodchild, and followed by lively applause.
Many of Australia’s prominent arts institutions and bodies have officially and emotionally acknowledged Gill’s passing.
On its website, the Australia Council for the Arts recognised the conductor’s many achievements and contributions:
“The Australia Council for the Arts acknowledges the passing of significant Australian music educator and conductor Richard Gill AO, recognising his lifetime of achievement, his contribution to music and his significant contribution to the lives of so many Australians who benefited from his talent, his passion and his advocacy for music education for all children.”
Equally, Communications and the Arts Minister Mitch Fifield expressed the depth of Gill’s impact on our arts landscape in a 300-word public statement which included the following sentiment:
“[Gill’s] enormous passion and enthusiasm for music saw him cross classical boundaries to popular culture through his many appearances on the popular ABC television music show, Spicks and Specks,” Fifield stated.
“He will be remembered as a talented pioneer, a maverick, and a steadfast advocate for promoting music to young people. His contribution to the arts in Australia has been enormous and his legacies will be long-lasting.”
Gill’s television, radio, school and education concert appearances meant that his voice was ever-present, and could reach all the corners of the music community. The conductor travelled regularly, and worked alongside educators across the country.
Among his many roles in Australia, Gill taught at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, conducted the Sydney Youth Orchestra, succeeded Paul Stanhope as musical director of Sydney Chamber Choir, was chorus director of Opera Australia and founding conductor of the Strathfield Symphony Orchestra.
He was dean of the West Australian Conservatorium of Music, founder and artistic director of the Victorian Opera; and the co-founder, artistic director and principal conductor of the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra.
Above: Richard Gill led a fulfilling and varied musical career. (Captured by Nick Gilbert.)
Gill did not begin his music career as early as many musicians who decide to train professionally. He took his first piano lesson at the age of 13.
Despite this, Gill became known for was his ability to instil a particular enduring musical interest in people of all ages, and make an impact on musical collectives and individuals wherever he went.
Cellist and composer Joseph Eisinger is a former mentee of Gill, and tells us “the most important thing that Richard taught me was that anyone could do music, and anyone could make it to the top”.
“I don’t think he ever really had this belief – that many musicians seem to – that some people are ordained with a natural gift such that if you don’t have it, there’s no point in trying,” Joseph says.
“He saw everyone as a potentially great musician. He had this amazing belief and confidence in all his students.
“The way I met him was through my father, who mentioned to Richard that I did music, to which Richard immediately said: ‘Oh, you must give him my number’. I eventually worked up the courage to call him, and went and played for him.”
Joseph says his meetings with Gill were focused on career guidance, and they shared this relationship together for years.
“He’d always say, ‘Joseph, I’m really busy’, and he was – he had ten million things to do. But he’d always call back and make a time to meet. It would always happen.”
Joseph’s final experience with Gill was when they came together to play a Beethoven sonata for fun.
“He was interested in everything, musically,” Joseph reflects.
“He could explain any sort of music. He loved it all. What he conducted was incredibly diverse.
“He was recovering from a hip operation when he went to [2014 Australian Youth Orchestra] National Music Camp in Canberra on his mobility scooter to conduct. He was unstoppable.”
Gill also gave much guidance to singers in choral, operatic and other vocal frameworks.
Adelaide-born mezzo soprano Marie Campbell is a former tutee of Gill. She regards him as one of the most important influencers in her decision to become a musician.
“I met Richard back at State Music Camp in 2013. He was the reason I started doing vocal exercises,” she shares with us.
“He inspired me to audition for the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.”
Before Gill worked as a conductor, he taught music at Marsden High School in West Ryde. One of Gill’s students there was clarinettist, composer, and media executive Kim Williams, who became a lifelong friend and is due to speak at Gill’s SSO tribute concert on Saturday.
Aside from being a composer, Kim has held a range of executive positions in organisations including Musica Viva, the Australian Film Commission, the ABC, Sydney Opera House Trust, News Limited, and Foxtel, and says his success in music and beyond is a testament to the Gill’s lifelong dedication to his students.
The tribute concert itself is a collaboration between SSO and Kim. The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Sydney Chamber Choir, and Sydney Conservatorium High School Chamber Choir will all take part in the event, and attendees will be those who snapped up seats.
In an official statement SSO CEO Emma Dunch explained why it is so important the orchestra pays homage to Gill.
“Richard Gill has changed the way we listened to music,” Emma said.
“Anyone who encountered his spirit can attest to his passion for music and music education. He was a pioneer and the mentor of generations of Australian musicians – many of our Sydney Symphony Orchestra musicians can trace their love of music back to Richard Gill.”
Gill was the recipient of a plethora of awards throughout his life, including an Order of Australia medal in 1994, and an honorary doctorate from the Edith Cowan University of Western Australia for his service to Australian music and musicians.
One of the many legacies Gill leaves behind is developments for the Muswellbrook Richard Gill National Music Academy in the Upper Hunter Valley. The school intends to emphasise physical activity and music as central to education, and is due to accept students from 2020.
Gill will also be remembered in the Brisbane Girls’ Grammar School song Nil Sine Labore, which he composed; and in artist Jasper Knight’s portrait of him, which was a finalist in the Archibald Prize in 2015.
Gill’s media appearances, namely on ABC’s Spicks and Specks as well as the four-part reality show Operatunity Oz (an ‘Australian Idol’ for opera singers, if you will) will eternalise Gill’s commitment to music, passion for every project, and sense of humour. His 2012 autobiography Give Me Excess Of It was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards’ Non-fiction Book Award 2013.
Richard Gill: Celebration of a Life will be livestreamed via the SSO and ABC Classic FM websites at 11.30am this Saturday, 17 November.
Above: Richard Gill in his role with the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra, alongside Nicole van Bruggen. (Captured by Nick Gilbert.)
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