Australia
The New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music was impressed by his display of skills in 1930, and offered him the directorship in the summer of 1933. Accordingly, in 1934 Bainton and his family started a new life in Australia.
Bainton conducted the choral and orchestral classes at the Conservatorium, and founded the Opera School. At the Conservatorium he taught Australian composers including Miriam Hyde.
Coinciding with Bainton's arrival in Sydney were moves to form a permanent professional orchestra for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, the New South Wales Symphony Orchestra (later renamed the Sydney Symphony). Bainton conducted that ensemble's inaugural concert in 1934.
He introduced music previously unheard in Australia, such as Elgar's Symphony No. 2 in 1934 and The Dream of Gerontius in 1936; Bax's Third Symphony; and works by Debussy, Sibelius, Delius, and Walton, among others. In 1944, the premiere production by the Conservatorium Opera School of Bainton's opera The Pearl Tree received acclaim from the press and public alike. An additional night's performance was given due to demand, and on this latter occasion a bust of Bainton was unveiled in the foyer.
Australia then had a mandatory retirement age of 65, but Bainton continued to conduct (temporarily with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra), and gave lecture tours in Canada. In 1956, a heart attack severely affected his health, and on the morning of 8 December he died on the beach at Point Piper in Sydney. His wife had predeceased him by only a few months.
Read more about this topic: Edgar Bainton
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