Australian-Chinese conductor Dane Lam has been appointed as the new Artistic Director of State Opera South Australia, and has already begun working in the role.
Lam is currently the Music Director of the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of China’s Xi’an Symphony Orchestra, and will continue in these roles.
Dane Lam. Photo supplied
Speaking to Limelight, he says, “While the transformation of the orchestra and audience in Xi’an is well-established (I’ve been in the position since 2014), my position in Hawai’i is new and exciting, with audiences already responding to our unique offering as a Pacific orchestra for all of Hawai’i. I’m particularly interested in finding synergies between all three of these wonderful organisations I’m privileged to lead. We all straddle the Pacific and Pacific Rim and are well-placed to explore what it means serving our communities.”
Born in Brisbane to an Australian mother and a Singaporean-Chinese father, Lam played piano, clarinet and saxophone as a child, and studied conducting under Gwyn Roberts at the University of Queensland. Following an assistantship and three years of study with Gianluigi Gelmetti, then Chief Conductor of the...
Looking forward to Lam’s first season as artistic director, hoping he will continue the splendid work of Stuart Maunder in previous years, and developing repertoire and a company suitable for performance in 2024 and beyond. Hopefully he will be able to sculpt a Ring Cycle, some Strauss [most especially late Strauss], some Benjamin Britten and more 20th century work, including Sondheim and 21st century offerings. The company must be champing at the bit to get it’s teeth into a range of work commensurate with it’s skills.