Australia’s next generation of music conductors are ready to take to the stage after graduating from a two-year program. It is described as the Rolls Royce of conductor training, ensuring the continuation of classical music for the future.
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00:00The way I conduct is how I want to exist and be perceived in the world when I go about
00:13my day.
00:15Conducting may seem like an unusual path, but Sam Weller can't imagine doing anything
00:21else.
00:22At 26 years old, he is the youngest participant in the Australian Conducting Academy's first
00:28training program.
00:30I got to conduct my school orchestra on stage at the Sydney Opera House when I was 16 and
00:35so that was a sort of like gateway drug for conducting.
00:39During this program the candidates are able to work with some of the world's top conductors
00:47and all the musicians of the state orchestras.
00:56Just 100 people applied to the program, led by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, with
01:02only five making it through.
01:04This is the the sort of Rolls-Royce program I guess in Australia.
01:10It was an idea born out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
01:14Our borders shut down and it became completely stark to all of the orchestras and professional
01:19ensembles in Australia that we just didn't have enough Australian conductors performing
01:25at the calibre that we need and we had relied for way too long on international conductors.
01:31After two years in training, this is the final rehearsal for the five conductors.
01:37They are now hoping to take the next steps in keeping classical music alive.
01:41Well I think orchestral music is an evolving, or it needs to be an evolving genre to stay
01:47relevant to contemporary taste and there's all sorts of cross-disciplinary and cross-genre
01:54collaborations going on at the moment and it'd be great to do Coachella with Charlie XCX or something.
02:03Organisers are hoping the program has a long life ahead.
02:07We need the continual investment, financial investment, but also just the moral support
02:13and the belief and the understanding that it's important to develop these Australian
02:16cultural leaders.
02:17Orchestrating careers for Australia's next top conductors.