Ben Northey marks 20 years with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Mr Northey will notch up 20 years of conducting the renowned orchestra, rising from making his debut to his current position as the MSO's principal conductor in residence.

To mark the milestone, Mr Northey will lead the orchestra in a series of concerts which include Beethoven's Symphony No.6 Pastoral which featured in his debut with the MSO in 2003.

"That first concert was a magical kind of experience," Mr Northey said. "With the naivety of youth you don't quite understand the magnitude of things until you look back with perspective.

"I had been studying conducting for about two years and won a competition so I came back from overseas, had lots of time to prepare for (the concert), studied really hard and conducted the whole concert without music in front of me.

"To turn up and not use music is not unusual, but it is crazy for someone so inexperienced."

In the audience that day were several of his music teachers from Ballarat and other teachers and mentors who helped him along the way.

Mr Northey grew up in Ballarat playing violin, flute, clarinet, trumpet, saxophone and piano and was a professional musician for 10 years before he thought about becoming a conductor. He studied conducting at Finland's Sibelius Academy after being accepted as the highest placed applicant in 2002.

Now, with more experience under his belt, he is enthusiastically stepping into the role of mentor himself.

"I've crossed 50 and all of a sudden I'm doing a lot more and that's naturally happening ... at the right time now I've got more to offer and more experience to share.

"I'm trying to step into that leadership role ... to help more people understand the potential of Australian music. I believe we've got so much talent here in Australia and we don't celebrate it enough."

He said Australian music had a lot to learn from sport.

"It's about identifying talent and there's a lot to learn from sport in Australia. It's not a fluke we are overachieving at sport - it's the result of a really well executed plan and spotting talent early in the teenage years and that's what we need to do better in music.

"For conductors, we need to identify talent early and give them a pathway."

This week's MSO Bartok and Beethoven concerts in Melbourne and Bendigo, celebrating Mr Northey's 20^th anniversary, will also feature Peter Sculthorpe's Kakadu and the debut of piano soloist Berta Brozgul in Bartok's Third Piano Concerto in homage to his other passions.

"The pillars of my work here in Australia are supporting Australian music and composers, and supporting Australian artists particularly emerging artists in performing great music."

"Berta Brozgul is making her debut with the orchestra and I think she's an absolute superstar and it's exciting because that was me, making my debut, and here 20 years later we are with someone else making theirs."

Over Mr Northey's 20 years with the MSO he estimates he's conducted more than a thousand concerts ranging from education programs for tiny tots to film scores, classical masterpieces, pop concerts and more.

His final MSO concert this year will be conducting George Michael: Freedom! at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

"It's really difficult to pick out individual highlights because there's been so many concerts but the free Myer Music Bowl Concerts are always the ones I come back to.

"They're really memorable because we perform such great music and it's a free event for the people of Victoria. I feel like that connection with the community and state and the people of Melbourne sums up what the orchestra is all about and so I really value the opportunity to conduct so many of these Myer Music Bowl concerts.

READ MORE:

"I'm always moved when I stand up on that stage and see 10,000 people all there for the love of music, there to share something magical and celebrate the role of the orchestra in the lives of the city and the state."

Mr Northey said the collaboration with artists of all genres - from classical musicians to major Australian and international stars - and the diversity of music was always exciting.

"The role of music is bringing people together ... that's its superpower. We reach very wide at the MSO with music from all the migrant cultures in our city, the First Nation's projects we have done, and the multiple genres we take on.

"All orchestras are performing a more diverse repertoire of music than they were ... but Melbourne is a real leader in that space, especially in Australia, people look to Melbourne as a boundary-pushing orchestra always doing something new, something different, something exciting and really re-examining what the potential of a big arts organisation is.

"We can find things that really resonate very deeply with people."

Sign-up for The Courier's news alerts direct to your inbox. Select Breaking News Alerts in My Newsletters & Alerts in your account preference centre.