Original Article: ABC Upper Hunter
Updated 29 Oct 2018
As Australia's music community mourns the passing of renowned educator, conductor and composer, Richard Gill, it is hoped a new music academy in the New South Wales Upper Hunter Valley will continue his legacy.
Conductor and music educator Richard Gill has died, aged 76. Supplied: Brendan Read
The Muswellbrook Richard Gill National Music Academy (Richard Gill School) will operate as an independent primary school, with music and physical education as cornerstones of the curriculum.
A board has been formed to oversee the school's establishment, which is currently in the process of being registered, after it was announced in September this year in conjunction with Muswellbrook Shire Council.
Speaking at that time, the school's chair and Mr Gill's long-time friend, Kim Willams, said the academy would completely embrace the musical educator's innovative philosophy.
"Richard's been an indefatigable warrior for the primacy of music from the very get-go in education from kindergarten," he said.
"This is one of the few schools in Australia that from kindergarten through to year six will have music as a central element in daily education, so that every kid will start the day with music and with physical activity.
"I think it's something that will be held up across Australia as really being an exemplar of a new-fashioned approach to education."
It is intended that the school will open in 2020 with a small cohort of students from kindergarten to grade three, with hopes the academy will evolve into a high school in future years.
Award-winning conductor Richard Gill teaching visiting Chinese students at Sydney Grammar School, July 26, 2016. (ABC News: Ursula Malone)
Music teachers remember 'larger-than-life' educator
Tributes honouring Mr Gill and his contribution to Australia's musical fabric have flowed thick and fast since he died on Sunday, aged 76, after a battle with cancer.
Dr Wendy Brooks is the director of the Upper Hunter Conservatorium of Music and is heavily involved in planning the new music academy in Muswellbrook.
She said she had vivid memories of being taught by Mr Gill when she first started as a student at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in the 1980s.
"He was just the most inspiring teacher-educator and I know there's a whole group of us who just feel so very privileged that we had him as one of our lecturers," she said.
"I'd come straight from the country, an 18-year-old who'd never seen a grand piano in real life, and he was this larger-than-life man."
PHOTO: Kim Williams AM, Dr Wendy Brooks, and Muswellbrook Mayor Martin Rush outside the proposed location of the academy. (ABC News: Cecilia Connell)
She said he was still planning the school, right up till the time of his passing.
"Richard spoke to us, to the board of the new school, just about four weeks ago and he shared with us his rationale and his philosophies for that school.
"He really wanted children to have the opportunity to create their own music, to be able to read and write music, have good literacy in music and have lots of opportunity for making music.
"He prepared the rationale and the school philosophy after he'd left hospital, when he'd gone home and into palliative care, that was when he was working on this and he worked really hard.
"Every time I spoke to him, he was still thinking, he was still writing, and I think he's made quite clear his vision for the school, based on his own understanding of how children learn music.
"He was terribly excited and he was terribly emotional, as we all were, that this dream that he had could possibly come to fruition.
"Luckily for us all, he had the opportunity to write that down and the people who take on the school will have that chance to try and put that right into action."
First posted 29 Oct 2018, 2:29pm