Penrith Symphony Orchestra

Sarah-Grace Williams
Sarah-Grace Williams is fast gaining a reputation as one of the leading Australian conductors of her generation. After graduating with First Class Honours from the University of Western Sydney in performance, composition and conducting, she studied conducting in St Petersburg and Amsterdam.

In February 2006, Sarah-Grace was appointed Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Strathfield Symphony Orchestra. She is also Associate Conductor with The Occasional Performing Sinfonia (TOPS), director of the AIM Showcase Vocal Ensemble, and has been an annual guest conductor with PSO since 2000.

In 2007 Sarah-Grace conducted six concerts with Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra and an education concert with The Queensland Orchestra. As one of the principal graduates from the Symphony Australia Conductors Program, she has conducted the Melbourne, Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras and The Queensland Orchestra in both rehearsals and concert. She has also toured as a conductor throughout Europe, Asia, Great Britain and New Zealand.

Sarah-Grace lectures in Conducting, Musical Theatre and History at the Australian Institute of Music and works as a Musical Director and Vocal Specialist for the Catholic Schools Performing Arts (CaSPA). Working regularly as a freelance Clarinettist and Pianist, Sarah-Grace is the Principal Clarinettist of PSO.

John Buckley
John Buckley began his professional music career at the age of sixteen. He is a conductor, multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger.

He studied conducting with Robert Rosen in Melbourne and has been conducting professionally since 1987. He auditioned successfully for three Symphony Australia conducting courses and had the privilege of conducting the Queensland, Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras. His debut with Penrith Symphony Orchestra was in 1996.

John is the Commanding Officer and Music Director of the RAAF Air Command Band and the Sydney Wind Ensemble. He is also a lecturer and conductor of the Wind Symphony at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, a post he has held for the past three years.

John is very active as a music educator, clinician and adjudicator and enjoys every opportunity to bring the joy of music to fellow musicians and audiences alike. He is delighted to be renewing his association with the Penrith Symphony.

Steven Hillinger
Steven Hillinger graduated with a Bachelor of Music in 1992 from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, studying French horn with Anthony Buddle and receiving the Richard Merewether Memorial Scholarship for French Horn in 1991. As a horn player, he has performed with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra and the Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra.

In 1993 Steven completed a Graduate Diploma in Conducting at the Sydney Conservatorium, studying with Henryk Pisarek, before undertaking a Master of Music course as a student of John Hopkins. In 1993 and 1994, he was awarded the Alan Bellhouse Memorial Scholarship for Conducting.

In 1994 Steven was shortlisted to audition for the position of Assistant Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He has been a finalist three times in the Westfield Young Conductor of the Year Awards, with the Queensland, Adelaide and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras respectively, and on each occasion was awarded a TOAN Conductor in the Community Fellowship.
In 1998, Steven was awarded a Queen’s Trust grant to visit Europe to continue his research into music repressed by the Nazis.

Steven has conducted most of the leading community, university and youth orchestras in Sydney. He was Musical Director of the City of Sydney Wind Ensemble from 2001 to 2006.

Currently, Steven conducts several school symphony orchestras (with whom he has toured overseas)as well as the University of New South Wales Concert Band and the North Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

George Ellis
George Ellis (a.k.a. “Big G”) is well known as presenter of PSO’s popular annual children’s concerts, Pops for Tots, as well as the Sydney Opera House Babies Proms.

George studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the University of Colorado. He has conducted the Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphonies and the State Orchestra of Victoria as part of Symphony Australia’s Conductors Program.

In 2000, he conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Millennium Choirs for the Sydney Olympics Opening and Closing Ceremonies. He teaches at the Australian Institute of Music and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Access Centre.

George appears with Penrith Symphony Orchestra in 2008 by arrangement with Big G Conducts.

Graham Abbott
Sydney-born Graham Abbott is one of Australia’s busiest and most versatile home-grown conductors. He has worked with virtually all the major orchestras, choirs and opera companies in Australia and has also conducted in the UK. He is a respected music educator and since 2003 has been the Producer and Presenter of Keys To Music on ABC Classic FM.

Graham is also one of Australia’s leading Handel specialists. A former Kingswood resident, he conducted his first Messiah thirty years ago with the Nepean Choral Society (now Penrith City Choir).