So you want my arts job: Chorus Master

Paul Fitzsimon has been Opera Australia’s Chorus Master since 2019. Here, he shares the secrets of his trade.

Australian conductor Paul Fitzsimon has been Chorus Master at Opera Australia since 2019 and has worked as répétiteur and conductor with the company since 2012, most recently conducting performances of La Bohème at the Sydney Opera House in early 2022.

He was Assistant Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2008/09 and has conducted all of the symphony orchestras in Australia. In Europe he has conducted the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris and the Hamburg Ballet at the Baden Festival.

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Richard Watts is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM, and serves as the Chair of La Mama Theatre's volunteer Committee of Management. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and was awarded the status of Melbourne Fringe Living Legend in 2017. In 2020 he was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize. Most recently, Richard was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Green Room Awards Association in June 2021. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts