Bennett William Macpherson, OAM
AICSA Roles and Affiliations
PUCS Member 1972-1978
PUCS President 1974
AICSA Treasurer 1974-1976
PUCS Assistant Conductor 1976-1978
SUMS Conductor 1983-
Festival Chorusmaster CIV1989, MIV1991, SIV1995, PIV1997, MIV1998
Festivals Attended
BIV1972, PIV1973, AIV1974, SIV1975, PIV1980, SIV1982
Biography
Ben Macpherson is involved in choral music as both a singer and conductor. He is a member of the Sydney Chamber Choir, has sung with the Australian Opera Chorus, conducted the Taverner Consort of Voices and the Sydney Chamber Choir and, since 1986, has acted on occasion as chorusmaster for the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. His broader musical commitments have also included conducting engagements with the Sydney Youth Orchestra and the SBS Radio and Television Youth Orchestra, and his present position as Conductor in Residence of the Sydney University Symphony Orchestra. Part of his time with these orchestras has been spent in workshopping and conducting the works of young Australian composers. However, it is within the national intervarsity choral scene that his contributions have been most significant.
Ben’s work also extends beyond the performance sphere to a role in the training of young arts administrators. Both the choirs and festivals with which he has been involved over the last twenty-five years are administered and produced by tertiary students, for whom they represent important opportunities to learn social and organisational skills. Ben has made sustained and significant contributions to music in Australia, most especially to the development of young artists and arts administrators through university choirs and Intervarsity Choral Festivals and, more generally, to the fostering of a love of music among young people.
In the Australia Day honours announced in January 2002, Ben was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division for his services to music.