PSO 2010 Conductors
Paul Terracini | Steven Hillinger | George Ellis
Paul Terracini – Artistic Director
Paul Terracini is an Australian conductor, composer and arranger who returned to live in Australia in 2007 after almost 20 years living and working in Europe. Following guest appearances with Penrith Symphony Orchestra in 2009, he has been appointed Artistic Director from 2010.As well as conducting concerts and opera in Europe, Paul has conducted numerous recordings with the Prague Symphony Orchestra and has composed and arranged extensively for international film and television, including the acclaimed television series Hymns of the Forefathers and Classical Destinations. Other recent commissions include orchestrating Paul Dukas’ Villanelle for a CD of French Horn Music conducted by Barry Tuckwell. His Concerto for Brass was premiered in 2009 by the Chicago Symphony Brass.
Paul previously held permanent positions as Principal Trumpet in the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Lecturer in Brass at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music and Principal Trumpet in the Danish Chamber Players.
For more information about Paul, visit www.paulterracini.com
Steven Hillinger – Guest Conductor
Steven Hillinger is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where he studied French Horn with Anthony Buddle and conducting with Henryk Pisarek and John Hopkins.In 1994 he was shortlisted to audition for the position of Assistant Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. As a finalist three times in the Westfield Young Conductor of the Year Awards, he has conducted the Queensland, Adelaide and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras. In 1998 he 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 and was Musical Director of the City of Sydney Wind Ensemble from 2001 to 2006. He currently conducts the University of New South Wales Wind Orchestra and Concert Band, several school symphony orchestras in Sydney, and the North Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
George Ellis – Conductor, Pops for Tots
George Ellis is well known as conductor and presenter of PSO’s popular annual children’s concerts, Pops for Tots. He has presented concerts for children all around Australia, was director of the Babies Proms at the Sydney Opera House from 2002 to 2007, and in his work with children has appeared on national television and radio. In 2009 he returned to the Sydney Opera House as composer and conductor for the Orchestral Babies Proms series.In 2000, George conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Millennium Choirs for the Sydney Olympic Games and in 2004 he was musical director of the Millennium Choir for the Athens Olympics. Active as a conductor for stage and film as well as on the concert platform, he has been Assistant Conductor for La Traviata (Opera Australia) and conducted music for the movie Mao’s Last Dancer.
George studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the University of Colorado, and has conducted the Sydney, Adelaide, West Australian and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, the State Orchestra of Victoria and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra.