Staff

Christopher Bowen, OAM, Music Director

Christopher is Music Director of the Sydney University Graduate Choir. The Choir, Orchestra, Soloists and Graduate Choir, perform regularly at the University of Sydney's Great Hall. The major choral repertoire as well as lesser known works are performed.


Christopher Bowen completed his conducting studies at the Vienna Conservatorium following his degree in music at Melbourne University. Since then he has conducted numerous orchestras and choirs in Austria and Australia.

While in Vienna he conducted the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and was a staff member of the Vienna Conservatorium. Since his return to Australia he has worked with the Victorian State Opera; Opera Australia; the Australian National Orchestra and Choir and has been a staff member of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. His conducting repertoire embraces the major orchestral and choral works from the 16th century to contemporary works.

As a composer, Christopher has received critical and public acclaim for his considerable body of work which comprises orchestral, choral works, instrumental, chamber music and works for the stage. Many of his commissioned compositions and arrangements have been performed and broadcast on ABC, ORF (Austrian Radio) and 2MBS-FM.

In recent years major commissions have produced orchestral and choral works such as Triste, Triste; Chorea; Requiem (dedicated to those who died whilst fighting for East Timor’s independence); the satirical Démocratie based on Arthur Rimbaud’s prose-poem and Tenebrae.

A number of CDs of his work are available, including a recording by the Australian National Orchestra and Choir.

In 2007 he conducted the inaugural City of Sydney Sings Messiah massed choir concert, led by the Graduate Choir, at the Sydney Town Hall.

Christoper received the Stephen Lardner Memorial Award for Excellence in Adult Education in 2007. In 2008, he was made an Honorary Fellow of the University of Sydney. On Australia Day 2009, he was awarded the OAM (Medal in the General Division), for:

service to choral music as a composer, conductor and director, particularly through the Sydney University Graduate Choir, and to music education.

Click on this link to view Christopher's web page.