William Arundel Orchard

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William Arundel Orchard (born April 13, 1867 in London , † April 7, 1961 at sea off Cape Town ) was an Australian organist, conductor, composer and music teacher of English origin.

Live and act

Orchard received a private education in his youth and went on a world tour at the age of 19. He then studied piano, organ, viola and singing at the University of Durham until 1893 and then became a music teacher at St Paul's School in London.

In 1896 he went to Perth and was choirmaster at St. George's Cathedral for six months , after which he became organist and choir director at St. David's Cathedral in Hobart and conductor of the Hobarth Philharmonic Society . After his marriage in 1897 he returned to England, where he taught at the Forest School in Essex and conducted alongside George Henschel the Colet Orchestral Society . In 1901 he moved to Palmerston North, New Zealand, as a teacher at the Craven School and conductor of the Opera Society .

In 1903, the Royal Sydney Liedertafel brought him to the city as their conductor. He also conducted the Sydney Madrigal and Chamber Music Society from 1908 to 1915 and the Choir of the Great Synagogue from 1913 to 1925 . In 1905 his comic opera The Coquette: Or, A Suicidal Policy premiered, and in 1906 another with the title The Emperor . In 1908 he conducted the five opening concerts of the newly formed Sydney Symphony Orchestra . In 1912 he founded the Musical Association of New South Wales with George de Cairos-Rego and George Faunce Allman , of which he was president from 1912-14 and 1917-18.

When the founding of the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music was decided under William Arthur Holman , he stood up for Henri Verbrugghen as founding director with Hugh Ward and Alfred Hill . From the opening in 1916 he taught choir singing and music history here, in 1923 he succeeded Verbrugghen as director.

He campaigned for the establishment of an orchestra at the conservatory, which he conducted and with which he a. a. played the First Classical Broadcast Concert of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and performed Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations on the radio in 1932 . Later there were tensions, in particular about the employment of Isador Goodman as a teacher at the conservatory, and Orchard's teaching methods were attacked by the music critic James Joseph Griffen Foley .

In 1934 he handed over the management of the Conservatory to Edgar Bainton and went to Hobart, where he taught at the University of Tasmania from 1935 to 1938 . In 1938 he founded the Musical Association of Tasmania , whose first president he became. After returning to Sydney, he worked for 20 years as an examiner at Trinity College of Music for Australasia.

Orchard composed songs, chamber and choral music, as well as two operettas and an opera based on Oscar Wilde's novel Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray . He died in 1961 on a ship voyage with the Dominion Monarch to Australia and was buried at sea off Cape Town.

Fonts

  • William Arundel Orchard: The Distant View . Currawong, Sydney 1943.
  • William Arundel Orchard: Music in Australia: More than 150 Years of Development . Georgian House, Melbourne 1952.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b John Carmody: Orchard, William Arundel (1867–1961) . In: Douglas Pike (Ed.): Australian Dictionary of Biography . Volume 11. Melbourne University Press, Carlton (Victoria) 1988, ISBN 0-522-84380-8 (English).
  2. ↑ W. Arundel Orchard on austlit.edu.au
personal data
SURNAME Orchard, William Arundel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian organist, conductor, composer and music teacher of English origin
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 1961
Place of death near Cape Town