Richard Mills, has been appointed to the position of Artistic Director of Victorian Opera.

He succeeds Richard Gill who announced last year that he will leave the company at the end of the 2012 season.

Mr Mills said he is committed to continuing the distinct identity Victorian Opera has established of being flexible and surprising.

Victorian Opera Chairman Michael Roux said that following an extensive nine month international search he was thrilled to announce the appointment of Richard Mills, who is currently Artistic Director of the West Australian Opera. ”His vision for Victorian Opera will increase the international focus of the company while extending the scale and ambition of the repertoire performed.” Mr. Roux said

Mr. Mills said that Victorian Opera’s commitment to new Australian work will continue. “I am keen to continue to develop accomplished, confident new Australian work”, he said. ”Richard Gill’s accomplishments as Founding Music Director are extraordinary and I have great respect for both him and his work. I want to build on his legacy to ensure the values of Victorian Opera – innovation, risk taking and access – continue. “I would like to engage the company’s audiences through a commitment to both vocal excellence and ensuring the joy of discovery has a special place with its public.”

Richard Mills has a reputation of building companies and championing new Australian work. He was Director of Australian Music program for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and is currently Artistic Director of WA Opera where he has been in post for the last 15 years.

Richard Mills’ first full season with Victorian Opera will be 2013 and will be launched in September 2012. He will be released from his contract with Victorian Opera to conduct Opera Australia’s Ring Cycle in 2013.

West Australian Opera later today announced that their Artistic Director of 15 years, Richard Mills will step down at the end of 2012 to take up the same post at the Victorian Opera. WA Opera General Manager, Carolyn Chard said an international search for Mills’ successor had begun.

Richard Mills is deservedly one of Australia’s most sought after composers and music directors and he is now in the forefront of senior Australian composers. He has pursued a diverse career as a composer, conductor and artistic director which has seen him working with almost all of the nation’s music organisations.

Currently, he is Artistic Director of the West Australian Opera, a position he has held since 1997. In 2008 he was Musica Viva’s Composer of the Year and from 2002 – 2008 was Director of the Australian Music Project for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. In 2007/8 he was awarded an Ian Potter Foundation Fellowship. Richard is a senior fellow, Faculty of Music, University of Melbourne; Adjunct Professor of Music, University of Queensland: and Senior Research Fellow Faculty of Music University of Western Australia.

Since his debut as an opera conductor at Opera Queensland with THE MAGIC FLUTE  he now has a large repertoire of standard works, as well as a reputation for conducting contemporary opera and his own compositions. He is one of the few Australian composers who have been commissioned to write operas for main stage performances in Australia, and whose works, SUMMER OF THE SEVENTEENTH DOLL , BATAVIA and THE LOVE OF THE NIGHTINGALE (winner, Helpmann Award) have not only been presented by both opera companies and festivals across Australia but have also received the country’s most prestigious awards.

Recent conducting engagements have included the inaugural concert at the Melbourne Recital Centre; AIDA, THE MAGIC FLUTE, PETER GRIMES  and LA SONNAMBULA  for West Australian Opera; concerts and recordings with the WASO, MSO, TSO and Orchestra Victoria and a concert performance of Wagner’s TRISTAN UND ISOLDE  for the Queensland Music Festival (winner, Helpmann Award).

His 2011 engagements include DIE FLEDERMAUS with West Australian Opera, LOVE OF THE NIGHTINGALE with Opera Australia in Sydney and concerts with the Melbourne, Tasmanian and Canberra Symphony Orchestras.

Richard Mills’ most recent compositions include a score for the Australian Ballet and his PASSION ACCORDING TO ST. MARK  which premiered around Australia in 2009. His song cycle  SONGLINES OF THE HEART’S DESIRES received its European premiere at the 2010 Edinburgh Festival, his Organ Concerto will be premiered with Calvin Bowman and the Melbourne Symphony in August 2011.

His CD recording Richard Mills: Orchestral Works with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra has become a best seller and his three volume CD of the film music of Franz Waxman with the same orchestra was awarded a Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik.. He has recently released a CD of his major orchestral works with the Melbourne Symphony.

In February 2012,  he will be preparing and conducting Richard Strauss’ ELEKTRA with the West Australian Opera, ThinIce, Perth International Arts Festival and Opera Australia. In the second half of 2013 he will be preparing and conducting Opera Australia’s first complete cycles of Wagner’s epic DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN.

The Victorian Opera was established 5 years ago to fill the void left by the amalgamation of the old Victorian State Opera with the Australian Opera to form Opera Australia in 1998 after the financial collapse of the Victorian State Opera. Since it’s creation, it has steered a financially cautious path staging from 3 to 5 staged works annually  and some concerts. A feature of programming has been the presentation of small to medium sized repertoire, presentation of an Australian opera each season, some children’s operas, regular touring, education programs, predominant use of Australian resident singers particularly from Melbourne, and presentation of staged works in smaller scale venues such as the National Theatre, CUB Malthouse, the Arts Centre Playhouse and the new Melbourne Recital Hall.

Unlike its sister State opera companies, the Victorian Opera does not as yet venture into large scale works such as Verdi or Wagner, use Opera Conference productions, share productions with Opera Australia or use the much larger State Theatre for large scale works.

Whether this will slowly change under the tutelage of Richards Mills and who is going to replace Ricard Mills at the West Australian Opera we will have to wait and see.