Brett Weymark loves dogs. This is just as well, because his arrival at my house for this interview so enraptures the family cocker spaniel that she relieves herself on one of his shoes. Fearful this is an omen of the conversation to come, I remark that the welcoming gesture is at least better than being dumped on by a critic. The conductor laughs at a volume that fills the room, a singer’s laugh.

“One thing I’ve learnt over more than 30 years of being a professional musician is that if there’s a problem in the room, it’s usually you,” he says.

Brett Weymark

Brett Weymark. Photo © Keith Saunders

It’s a relief that someone whose head would not look out of place crowned with an olive wreath on the back of a Roman coin is still self-deprecating after 20 years as Artistic and Music Director of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, probably the country’s major massed-voice empire. Weymark may have scored the Medal of the Order of Australia for his efforts over two decades, but he’s not the sort to let laurels of any sort go to his head. He remembers too...