 | This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(September 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) |
Bennett William Macpherson is an Australian conductor who received a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2002 for his services to music as a conductor and choirmaster.
Macpherson was originally a student member of the Perth University Choral Society (PUCS) from 1972 to 1978. During this time, he performed a number of roles including president and assistant conductor of PUCS and also Australian Intervarsity Choral Societies Association treasurer. He was later a member of SUMS before becoming a musical director and conductor in 1983.
Macpherson was the conductor of the Sydney University Musical Society (SUMS) for 23 years until his retirement in May 2006. He was SUMS' second longest serving musical director by two and a half years. His final concert with SUMS was a production of Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah performed in collaboration with the Sydney University Symphony Orchestra. Macpherson conducted the choir in ventures such as Carl Orff's Carmina Burana , Rachmaninoff's Vespers, Giacomo Puccini's Messa de Gloria, Mozart's Große Messe , Hector Berlioz's Te Deum, Anton Bruckner's Te Deum, and nearly half of SUMS' 49 Annual Festival of Carols (Carolfest). Macpherson also led the choir in collaboration with works with other arts organisations including the SBS Radio and Television Youth Orchestra, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir (SGLC), Sydney Youth Orchestra, Harvard Glee Club, and numerous school choirs.
Macpherson was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in the General Division during the 2002 Australia Day honours. [1] This award was in recognition of his dedication to choral music within Australia, primarily through his involvement in the Australian Intervarsity Choral Societies Association (AICSA) and in SUMS. In 2002, Macpherson was chorus master of the Sydney Intervarsity Choral Festival. His award was announced on 23 January to the festival choir ahead of the actual award ceremony on Australia Day (26 January). Macpherson has chorus mastered and/or conducted numerous Intervarsity Choral Festivals (Canberra '89, Melbourne '91, Sydney '95, Perth '97, Melbourne '98 and Sydney '02) and has been a constant figure in the recent history of the AICSA movement. [2]
Aside from his contributions to both SUMS and AICSA, Macpherson has been involved in many other arts organisations. He has been a member of the Sydney Chamber Choir, the Opera Australia Chorus and Cantillation. He has acted as chorus master for Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Macpherson, as an accomplished orchestral conductor, has conducted the Taverner Consort of Voices, the Sydney Chamber Choir, the Sydney University Symphony Orchestra, the SBS Radio and Television Youth Orchestra, the Sydney Youth Orchestra, and the Orange Regional Conservatorium . [3]
The Three Choirs Festival is a music festival held annually at the end of July, rotating among the cathedrals of the Three Counties and originally featuring their three choirs, which remain central to the week-long programme. The large-scale choral repertoire is now performed by the Festival Chorus, but the festival also features other major ensembles and international soloists. The 2011 festival took place in Worcester from 6 to 13 August. The 2012 festival in Hereford took place earlier than usual, from 21 to 28 July, to avoid clashing with the 2012 Summer Olympics. The event is now established in the last week of July. The 300th anniversary of the original Three Choirs Festival was celebrated during the 2015 festival, which took place from 25 July to 1 August in Hereford.
Jerry Blackstone is a Grammy Award winning American choral conductor. He was the Director of Choirs and Chair of the Conducting Department at the University of Michigan and the Music Director of the University Musical Society Choral Union.
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs is Australia’s largest choral organisation. It presents its own annual concert series in the Sydney Opera House the City Recital Hall, and other venues in New South Wales, as well as serving as chorus for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Brady Allred is an American conductor of choral and orchestral music who currently serves as the artistic director and conductor of the Salt Lake Choral Artists, a regional choir organization with five choirs with a total of approximately 350 singers. He is the father of Loren Allred of The Greatest Showman fame.
Simon Halsey, CBE is an English choral conductor. He is the Chorus Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus, a position he has held since 1983, and has been Chorus Director of the London Symphony Chorus since 2012. He is also artistic director of the Berlin Philharmonic Youth Choral Programme and the director of the BBC Proms Youth Choir, and Conductor Laureate of the Berlin Radio Choir. He is Professor and Director of Choral Activities at the University of Birmingham.
Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Chorus (MGLC) was founded in Australia in 1990 by gay performer and activist, Lawrence McGuire. The chorus was first named ALSOUNDS, due in part to its affiliation with the ALSO Foundation. In April 1994, the name was changed to Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Chorus, reflecting the chorus's organisational independence and a desire to further challenge stereotypes.
Maria Guinand is an internationally renowned choral conductor.
Donald Nally is an American conductor, chorus master, and professor of conducting, specializing in chamber choirs, opera, and new music. He is conductor of the professional new-music choir, The Crossing, based in Philadelphia. He teaches graduate students at Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music.
The Australian Intervarsity Choral Festival is an annual event in which members of university choirs from all state capitals of Australia and the national capital Canberra meet for two weeks to rehearse, socialise and perform combined concerts. The Festival also serves as the annual conference of the member choirs of AICSA, the Australian Intervarsity Choral Societies Association
David Hamilton is a New Zealand composer. He studied composition with Douglas Mews and John Rimmer at the University of Auckland. After graduating in 1979, he trained as a teacher and joined the staff of Epsom Girls Grammar School, and was then Head of Music from 1986 until 2001.
The Sydney University Musical Society (SUMS) is an undergraduate choral society at the University of Sydney. Founded in 1878, it is one of the oldest secular choirs in Australia, and the oldest Australian University Choir.
Clare Maclean is a New Zealand composer. She received her formative musical training under Gillian Bibby at the Wellington Polytechnic. She then moved to Australia, where she studied composition in Sydney with Peter Sculthorpe. Singing with the Sydney University Chamber Choir under the direction of Nicholas Routley introduced her to the intricate Renaissance polyphony that affected her early compositions.
Andrew Keith Wailes is an Australian conductor and music director. Winner of the Australasian International Choral Conducting Competition in Brisbane in 1999, he is the current Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Melbourne University Choral Society, and Music Director and Conductor of the Box Hill Chorale. From 1999 to 2020 he served as Artistic Director of The Australian Children's Choir, and for a decade was Director of the Australian Catholic University Melbourne Campus Choir. He is a former President of the Australian Intervarsity Choral Societies Association, and is a former Artistic Administrator and Artistic Director of The Chamber Strings of Melbourne.
Gavin Carr is a British conductor and baritone working with major choruses in the UK and appearing in opera and concert in the UK and around the globe.
Adrian Frederick Partington is an English conductor, chorus master, organist and pianist. He is director of music at Gloucester Cathedral, joint conductor of the Three Choirs Festival and artistic director for the Gloucester festival years, director of the BBC National Chorus of Wales, conductor of Gloucester Choral Society, and former conductor of Bristol Choral Society and leader of the postgraduate choral conducting course at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.
Carl Crossin OAM is an Australian choral conductor, educator and composer. He is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the University of Adelaide. He was a director of the Elder Conservatorium of Music in the University of Adelaide in 2010-14.
Raymond Hughes is an American conductor and choral director.
Carolyn Watson is an Australian conductor.
Graham Ross is a British conductor and composer.
Melbourne University Choral Society (MUCS) is a 120-voice choir in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.The choir is affiliated with the University of Melbourne, but is also open to non-students who are willing and able to perform to the choirs standards.
Citation: For service to music as a conductor, chorus master and administrator, particularly through the Sydney University Musical Society and Intervarsity Choral Festivals