Electric is an apt description of conductor and UQ School of Music student Dane Lam’s career to date.
Aged just 22, he already has a string of achievements in the music world including conducting UQ’s Symphony before he even started University, conducting the Sydney Symphony at the Opera House, and attending a renowned Siena Summer School for young conductors three times.
On top of all of this, he conducted the Melbourne Symphony in 2006 for a concert broadcast live on ABC Radio.
The former Mansfield High School student graduated with his Bachelor of Music with honours from UQ in December 2006 and in April 2007, was told he had won a two-year scholarship to study conducting at the world-renowned Juilliard School in New York – the first Australian to do so according to the school's own records. He begins his studies there in August 2007.
Mr Lam said he was drawn to conducting after growing up in a house where classical music was constantly played, in particular the scores to famous ballets. His mother and grandmother both played amateur piano.
“It’s fantastic being able to get 120 musicians to speak as one,” Mr Lam said. “I cannot narrow down my favourite composer and love Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven and Mahler but Beethoven symphonies are my favourite to conduct as they’re very human and gutsy.”
According to UQ School of Music Senior Lecturer and head of its conducting program, Gwyn Roberts, Mr Lam is one of a small yet highly talented band of Australian conductors aged in their 20s and 30s on track to fill the void left by the likes of the late Stuart Challender.
At present, overseas born and trained conductors head every state orchestra in Australia and Mr Lam said he would dearly love to return to Australia as a conductor down the track.
Mr Roberts said a distinct advantage of the conducting program at UQ had been its integration with the Symphony Australia Conductor Development Program.
“This ongoing co-operation has contributed to the graduation of a number of young conductors from UQ including Benjamin Vary (active in Europe), Dr David Banney (currently at the Newcastle Conservatorium), Tanya Simons (currently a postgraduate student in the United States) and Simon Hewett (currently assistant to Simone Young at Hamburg Opera and Ballet),” Mr Roberts said.
“While at UQ, Dane has worked on the wide variety of music skills that a conductor needs to develop, and has conducted the University Symphony Orchestra in rehearsals and performances, particularly the Opera Workshop Project in 2005."
Mr Lam said he chose UQ after discussions with Mr Roberts who visited Mr Lam’s high school towards the end of Year 12.
“I received offers of places at both the Conservatorium of Music and UQ and chose UQ because of its excellent conducting program and aural studies training – ‘hearing’ music is an obvious foundation skill for conducting,” Mr Lam said.
Conducting was an all-consuming career for the former Rochedale, now West End, resident who has financed his studies by working in retail and as a piano teacher and is now raising money to cover his living expenses while overseas.
Mr Lam said a turning point had been his meeting and working with one of the world’s greatest conductors and Sydney Symphony Orchestra chief conductor, Gianluigi Gelmetti.
Not only did he get to work as the Maestro’s assistant and share conducting duties on the 2004 Sydney Symphony Regional Tour, he studied with Gelmetti at Siena’s prestigious Accademia Musicale Chigiana from 2003–2005.
Mr Roberts said prizes Mr Lam had won including the 2004 Boris Christoff Prize and the 2005 Pellegrino Scholarship were further testament to his considerable talent.
Media: Gwyn Roberts (07 3365 3921, 0427 923 187), Dane Lam (0422 067 909) or Shirley Glaister at UQ Communications (07 3365 1931).
