I came here as a Ten Pound Pom when I was five and grew up in Adelaide.

My mother and grandmother always bought me tickets for the youth concerts by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and my cousin was one of the first classical guitarists at the Con [in Adelaide]. Her name was Joan Smyth. She was a student of Segovia’s, so I studied classical guitar with her for four or five years, and then I couldn’t resist the temptation to join a rock ‘n’ roll band, much to her displeasure.

Douglas Gautier. Photo © Claudio Raschella

When I was studying at Flinders University, I had a bit of an epiphany. At the opening of the Festival Theatre [on 2 June, 1973], they presented Act Two, Scene 1 of [Beethoven’s opera] Fidelio. I had a non-singing bit part as Jaquino. There were all these great Australian singers like Rosemary Gordon, Ronald Dowd and Neil Warren-Smith. That was followed by Beethoven’s Ninth. I have never forgotten it, so it brought me back into the classical world.

[In the late Seventies], I worked as a music and arts producer for BBC...