IN a surprise move, musical director and pianist Vivienne Winther, has taken up the directorship of the Macquarie Conservatorium of Music in Dubbo.

Winther told “CityNews” that she was excited by her new move, and especially thrilled when she saw the state-of-the-art Dubbo Regional Theatre and Convention Centre, which houses a 500-seat tiered theatre and 700-seat auditorium – a breadth of cultural life of which many people outside of Dubbo had no knowledge.

In another plus,  she discovered that singing studies were headed up by former Opera Australia soprano Dawn Walsh. She replaces Toowoomba pianist Kathy Pingel, who has directed the Conservatorium for 12 years.

Winther, one of our most distinguished musical directors, has presided over the children’s musical organisation Music for Everyone for the past 10 years and seen it win the 2009 National Music in Communities Award as best all-round community music program in Australia.

She has been a sessional lecturer at the ANU School of Music since 1993 and one of the most in demand operatic repetiteurs in town.

A graduate of the then Canberra School of Music, in the 1980s and early ’90s she taught at the music school of the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts.

A fiery personality, and passionate about the arts scene in Canberra, Winther was always keen to get involved in debate about our arts and has worked collaboratively with many arts organisations and events in the ACT, including the National Multicultural Festival and Culturally Innovative Arts, (CIA) the group directed by the late David Branson.

But it is as the longtime artistic director of Stopera, the ACT’s chamber opera company, that she is probably best-known.

With the string of successes behind her, including large outdoor opera productions by Lake Burley Griffin, she has ranged from popular concerts comprising Puccini and Verdi arias to challenging classics like Handel’s “Ariodante” and contemporary works such as Michael Berkeley’s “Jane Eyre”.

It was for taking on such artistic challenges and raising the profile of opera in Canberra that she was made 2005 Artist of the Year.

In recent years, Stopera, which is in its heyday performed avant-garde works like “Distressing the Diva” by Nigel Kellaway and “The Nameless Dead” by Judith Crispin, has not been blessed with artsACT funding on the scale that helped it on its feet after it was founded in 1995.

Winther is not normally someone who would leave town quietly, but she has done so this time, arguing that she will be coming back to Canberra regularly to keep Stopera going.

It’s a worthy objective, but one that will require a formidable degree of discipline. Winther, after all, is going to one of the country’s most far-reaching regional music academies, both geographically and in its scope.

She told “CityNews” that it was part of a network of music schools in regional NSW that was the envy of the rest of Australia.

Formed 25 years ago, the Macquarie Conservatorium now has about 700 students and 28 full staff.

In addition via video conferencing, it reaches out to students in remote areas and also presents public concerts and workshops throughout the year.

As director, Winther will be expected to oversee the Conservatorium’s musical life, its marketing activity, physical, financial and human resources, community engagement and strategic development.

It’s a demanding job, but those who know Winther cannot doubt that she’ll be up to the challenge.