John Hopkins (conductor)

John Hopkins OBE (b. 19 July 1927) is a Yorkshire-born, British conductor and administrator. Hopkins moved to New Zealand in 1957 and to Australia in 1963. He conducted the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in 1987 in one of New Zealand's first Orchestral Composers' Reading Workshops. His current position is as head of conducting at the University of Melbourne.

As the Federal Director of Music for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Hopkins began a number of innovations within the Commission's Concert Music Division, such as starting an Australian Promenade (Proms) series in Sydney in 1965 [Sametz, Phillip: Play On - 60 Years of Music Making with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, ABC Books, Sydney, 1992 p.230] and broadcasting international avant-garde classical music [ibid] . As a part of the Proms concerts, Hopkins programmed a variety of music, from the Renaissance, performed by the Sydney group The Renaissance Players [O'Sullivan, Mark: The Biggest Mind Bending Event So Far - Music Performance in Sydney 1932 - 1994, Sydney University Honours Thesis, 1994, p. 27] , the then rarely performed music of Hector Berlioz, Gustav Mahler and Sir Edward Elgar [ibid, p. 30] , avant-garde music from overseas [Sametz, op. cit, p. 258] and Australia [Sculthorpe, Peter: Sun Music, ABC Books, Sydney, 1999; p. 81] . The Australian composers who wrote music for the concerts included Peter Sculthorpe, Nigel Butterley and Richard Meale [O'Sullivan, op. cit. p. 32] . Hopkins resigned from the Director's post in 1973 [Sametz, op. cit, p.262] due to a number of factors, including tensions with staff within the ABC Concert Music Division [O'Sullivan, Mark, op. cit. p. 40, Sametz op. cit., p.283] .

He was Director of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music from 1986 to 1991.

Career

*Assistant conductor, BBC Scottish Orchestra, 1949–52
*Conductor, BBC Northern Orchestra, 1952–57
*Conductor, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, 1957–63
*Director of Music, Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1963–73
*Dean of School of Music, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, 1973–86
*Director, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, 1986–91

References

External links

* [http://www.music.usyd.edu.au/about/history.shtml History of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music]