Conducting & Opera Production - Staff

Chair - Conducting/Professor
Imre Palló

Chair - Opera Production/Senior Lecturer
Stephen Mould, BMus GDip Repetiteur Syd

Senior Lecturer
Neil McEwan, Cert(Cond) Meistersinger von Nürnberg MMus UNSW PhD

Lecturer
Pierre St Just (Opera Coordinator)

Part-time Staff
Anthony Clarke

Chair/Professor in Conducting

Imre Palló

Imre Palló, Chair of Conducting at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, is a renowned conductor whose career spans continents and decades.

Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1941, Palló’s father, Imre Palló Sr., was a leading baritone in the Hungarian State Opera for 50 years, and director of the company for four years. Zoltán Kodály, the Hungarian composer, was an intimate friend of the Palló family and was young Palló's godfather. The composer was very influential in his early musical training and education.

Maestro Palló attended the Budapest Conservatory of Music, majoring in piano, composition and percussion. In 1964, he graduated from the Vienna Academy of Music, where he had studied conducting with Professor Hans Swarowsky. The late Maestro Ferenc Fricsay and Maestro Antal Dorati also took an interest in his musical development at that time.

As a student at the Academy, Imre Palló served as a musical assistant to Herbert von Karajan and Professor Karl Boehm at the Vienna and Salzburg Festivals in addition to conducting the Academy Orchestra.

In 1964, Imre Pallo joined the Wuppertal Opera as conductor and remained with that company until 1968 when he joined the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Duesseldorf.

Maestro Palló made his American debut in 1973 conducting the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. As a result of these performances he was invited to guest conduct the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center and served as one of the principal conductors with that Company for many seasons.

From 1976 through 1991 Imre Palló was the Music Director of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic. Under his leadership the Hudson Valley Philharmonic grew to one of the largest and most successful performing arts organizations in New York State. During Maestro Pallo's tenure, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic received awards from A.S.C.A.P. for adventuresome programming. Under Maestro Palló, the orchestra commissioned works by such renowned American composers as Joan Tower, Meyer Kupferman and Robert Starer.

Imre Palló's guest conducting engagements in the orchestral field have included the National Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Budapest Symphony Orchestra of the Hungarian Radio and Television, Bayerische Staatskapelle, Lisbon Radio Orchestra, and the Israel Philharmonic.

Operatic guest conducting appearances in the U.S. and Canada include the Connecticut Grand Opera, Portland Opera, Canadian Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Philadelphia Opera, Manitoba Opera, Edmonton Opera, St. Louis Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Calgary Opera, New Orleans Opera, Cleveland Opera, and of course the New York City Opera. Maestro Pallo toured with such international opera stars as Shirley Verrett and Grace Bumbry at the New Jersey Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and San Francisco Opera.

In 1987, Maestro Palló was named Principal Guest Conductor with the Frankfurt Opera, where he remained until 1991.

After many years of absence, in 1990 Imre Palló returned to Budapest to conduct Manon Lescaut at the Hungarian State Opera which was received with tremendous public and critical acclaim. Since then he has returned to Budapest often to guest conduct the Hungarian State Opera. He also guest conducts frequently at the Leipzig and Weimar Opera Houses. Other exciting guest engagements in the 90’s have included the Berlin State Opera, several productions at the Oslo Opera, and De Vlaamse Opera.

Recent guest conducting commitments included productions in Budapest (an all Gershwin concert with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra of the Hungarian Radio and Television), De Vlaamse Opera (Un Ballo Maschera), Weimar Opera (Parsifal), Michigan Opera (Turandot), Portland Opera (Werther and Otello), Cleveland Opera (Lucia di Lammermoor, Otello and Rigoletto), Pittsburgh Opera (Cosi Fan Tutte), and the New York City Opera (Madama Butterfly and Carmina Burana).

In 1994, Maestro Palló joined the faculty of the prestigious Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where he was Chair of the Instrumental Conducting Department. In May 2005 he came to the Conservatorium as a visiting lecturer and joined the faculty as Professor and Chair of Conducting and Opera Production in 2006.

While in Australia, Maestro Palló has conducted concerts with Orchestra Victoria, several opera productions with West Australian Opera and conducted Don Giovanni with Opera Australia in their spring season 2007 in Melbourne.

Senior Lecturer

Neil McEwan Cert(Cond) Meistersinger von Nürnberg MMus UNSW PhD

Neil McEwan is a conductor known for his choral direction and a lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He specialises in Gregorian chant semiology and paleography and Early Music performance practice, and was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 1994 for further overseas study in these areas.

McEwan trained as a chorister at St Mary’s Cathedral in Auckland, New Zealand, under the direction of Professor Peter Godfrey. He continued his studies through the Royal Schools of Music, the Trinity College of Music, London and the University of Durham. While resident in France and Germany he studied Gregorian Chant semiology and paleography at the celebrated Abbey of Solesmnes, and at the Musikhochschule in Würzburg. He also studied orchestral conducting and advanced choral conducting techniques in Stuttgart, Berlin and at the Meistersinger Konservatorium in Nürnberg. He holds a Masters degree in Musicology from the University of NSW and a PhD, in Gregorian chant semiological research, from the University of Sydney.

For nearly twenty years he worked in the Concert Music Division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, planning and programming for the six Australian symphony orchestras. During much of this time he presented the Sacred Music on ABC Radio.

McEwan is Director of the Sydney Conservatorium Choir and Chamber Choir, both choirs having had most of their performances broadcast on ABC Classic FM. The Chamber Choir has toured to the USA and Canada in 1993, and New Zealand in 1995 and 2004. On their recent tour to Hungary, Austria and Germany the Chamber Choir received awards in the Bartok Competition in Debrecen, and was awarded a first and special prize in the Vienna Festival Choral competition.

Neil McEwan is frequently engaged as a guest conductor for a number of Australian choirs including National Youth Choir of Australia, Sydney Philharmonia, Melbourne Chorale, Tasmanian Symphony Chorus and served as choral director at the Tasmanian Festival of Voices in 2005. He has conducted in New Zealand, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, England, Canada and the USA. He has also directed the Sydney Chamber Choir and is Director of the Choir of Christ Church St Laurence. Recordings by both choirs made under his direction were nominated for Australian Record Industry Awards (ARIA). In 2006, Neil McEwan transcribed a number of chants for performance from a recently discovered 16th century Gregorian manuscript from Salzinnes Abbey in Belgium and is presently transcribing chants from the 1328 Neri di Rimini Antiphonal which is on exhibition and housed in the State Library of NSW. These Gregorian chants will be performed at the State Library in February, 2008.

Lecturer

Pierre St. Just (Opera Coordinator)

Pierre St. Just is the Opera Coordinator at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Born in South Africa, Pierre St. Just trained as an opera singer at the South African College of Music and worked with the opera company of the Cape Performing Arts Board in all areas of stage management, advancing to Stage Director by the age of 25.

Since emigrating to Australia he has been Stage Manager for the Company of the Performing Arts and for the Sydney International Piano Competition (1977-92). He has also been Co-ordinator for the Festival of Sydney, the International Music Festival and the Pacific Basin Music Festival. St. Just was a member of the state Executive Committee for the Australian Association of Theatre Technicians in 1979/80 and served on the National Advisory Panel for the Sydney International Piano Competition in 1985.

Stage and Production Manager for opera at the Sydney Conservatorium from 1975-95, St. Just was appointed to the academic staff in 1980, lecturing in Theatre Studies. During this time he also designed lighting and sets for opera productions including Riders to the Sea, L'Infedelta Delusa, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi and L'Incoronazione di Poppea. In 1995 he transferred from opera to become Program Manager for the Conservatorium Access Centre, returning to the tertiary program in 2005 as Opera Co-ordinator.

Part-time Staff

Anthony Clarke

Hailed by critics as “…a truly wonderful conductor…” with “…an innate sense of technique and musicianship” and by colleagues as “…an outstanding musician…highly accomplished…”; Australian born Anthony Clarke has developed a reputation as a highly professional, dynamic and charismatic conductor with the ability to enthuse orchestras and audiences alike. During his career, he has worked with professional orchestras in Australia, Italy, France and China. Concerts have included regular subscription series, New Years Eve gala concerts, as well as education and community concerts. He is renowned for his thoughtful insights, clear directions and charismatic nature.

As well as numerous guest conducting appearances, Anthony is the Conductor and Artistic Director of the Sydney Sinfonietta in Australia and the Principal Guest Conductor Artistic Advisor of the Xining Philharmonic in China. His concert schedule includes a diverse range of styles and audiences, including TV and radio broadcasts.

Anthony is well versed in the standard orchestral repertoire, has a great interest in modern music as well as having a passion for historically informed performance techniques and research.

In conjunction with conducting, Anthony has also developed a reputation as an engaging and entertaining educator, capable of opening the world of music to the trained and untrained music lover. As an educator and director he has held positions at prominent institutions within Australia and has been Guest Professor in China at several institutions.

Anthony is a graduate of the Conservatorium of Music University of Newcastle. Post-graduate studies were undertaken with Professor Jan Sedivka, as well as being appointed a Fellow of Trinity College, London. During this period of study Anthony was awarded numerous prizes and awards including the Frank Hutchens Memorial Prize and the Keith Noake Memorial Prize for the most outstanding graduating student. Of special note is an Honourable Mention by the Centre for Australian Cultural Studies for outstanding contributions to Australian culture in the performing arts.