FABIAN RUSSELL

Fabian Russell is a multi-award-winning conductor, artistic director, pedagogue, orchestral musician and solo performer. Orchestras he has conducted include the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Victorian Opera, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria. He has also served as Associate Conductor of the Australian Youth Orchestra for twenty six seasons and is currently Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of The Orchestra Project that he founded in 2002 Fabian has a particular interest in commissioning new music and has conducted the Australian premieres of more than thirty works by composers such as Gordon Kerry, Brett Dean, James Ledger, Mary Finsterer, Harry Sdraulig and Kate Moore. Born in Sydney, Fabian had a twenty-year career as an orchestral musician including Guest Principal Tuba of the Sydney Symphony for three years from the age of nineteen. In 1993 he was appointed to the MSO where he remained until the end of its 2006 season, as well as performing as a soloist across Australia. He was awarded the Elton John Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Scholarship in 1999. In 2012 Fabian was the recipient of a Sir Winston Churchill Fellowship to research international orchestral training programs. In 2014 he received a Helpmann Award nomination and a Green Room Award for Outstanding Conductor for his critically acclaimed performances of Nixon in China for Victorian Opera. In 2022 Fabian conducted Franz Schubert’s Singspiel Friends of Salamanca also for Victorian Opera, as well as engagements with the SSO, ASO, AYO and The Orchestra Project.