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About the Conservatorium

The Elder Conservatorium of Music is the oldest (dating from 1883) and one of the most distinguished of Australia's specialist music institutions. The Director and Dean is the Elder Professor of Music (Australia's senior professorship of music, established in 1884 - see list below). The recent fusion of South Australian music institutions (in 2002) has created a unique dual-sector institution which provides a comprehensive range of specialist music programs from pre-degree Certificates and Diplomas, through several Bachelor's degrees (including Honours), Master's degrees, to Doctorates (including the higher Doctorate of Music).

The Conservatorium's mission is both to train and to educate musicians to the highest professional levels in order to prepare for entry into the various branches of the music profession. It also aims to achieve a synthesis between the theory and practice of music, and this has been a feature of the institution since its inception. Consequently, the Conservatorium trains Performers, Composers, Musicologists, Music Educators, and Music Technologists, and provokes creative interactions between these complementary fields.

The Conservatorium is a vibrant community of musicians and maintains a large number of ensembles which provide performance training for our students, including: the Elder Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra; the Elder Conservatorium Chamber Orchestra; the award winning Elder Conservatorium Wind Ensemble; the new Elder Conservatorium Chorale; and the jazz choir 'Adelaide Connection'. There are also several jazz orchestras, big bands, numerous small jazz ensembles, and chamber music groups. The Elder New Music Ensemble has been the resident ensemble at the Barossa Music Festival and in 2002 performed at the St Magnus Festival in Orkney (Scotland) at the invitation of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (a former Composer-in-Residence at the Elder Conservatorium). The Conservatorium also presents at least one major opera production each year: for example, Monteverdi's Orfeo (2002); Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro (2003) and The Magic Flute (2005).

The Elder Conservatorium maintains an extensive range of contacts with all branches of the music profession, both within Australia and internationally.  At the international level the Conservatorium is one of only two Australian music institutions that are members of the Association of European Conservatoires (AEC).  Through the AEC the Conservatorium is a member of the 'Mundus Musicalis' project funded by the European Union to establish a consortium of leading music institutions from around the world. At the national level the Conservatorium has strong links with bodies such as the Australian Music Centre and the Australian Youth Orchestra (AYO).  In 2007 the Elder Conservatorium will host the National Music Camp (administered by the AYO).

Elder Professors of Music

1. 1884-1901 Joshua Ives, MusB(Cantab)
2. 1902-1918 Matthew Ennis, BMus, DMus(Lond)
3. 1918-1947 E. Harold Davies, BMus, DMus(Adel), FRCM
4. 1948-1964 John Bishop, OBE, HonDMus (Melb.), FRCM
5. 1965-1983 David Galliver, MA(Oxon), ARCM
6. 1987-1994 Heribert Esser, MMus(Cologne)
7. 2001-         Charles Bodman Rae, MA(Cantab), PhD(Leeds), DMus(Adel.), ARCM, FCLCM, FRSA

The following books on the third and fourth Elder Professors of Music contain very interesting accounts of the history and development of the Elder Conservatorium of Music:

Doreen Bridges: More Than a Musician: a life of E. Harold Davies (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing; 2006), 185pp., paperback

Christopher Symons: John Bishop: a life for music (Melbourne: Hyland House Publishing, 1989), 336pp., hardback