The Sydney Symphony Orchestra has announced that Kalkadunga composer and performer William Barton will join the SSO’s Board of Directors.

Barton, 41, is the first First Nations appointee to an expanded Board of 11 members. Barton will be one of three musicians (with SSO Principal Cello Catherine Hewgill and Principal Double Bass Kees Boersma) at a table dominated by philanthropic and corporate heavyweights including Roslyn Packer, Geoff Ainsworth and Susan Ferrier.

William Barton. Photo © Keith Saunders.

Australia’s leading yidaki (didgeridoo) player, Barton is also a composer who works across classical and traditional First Nations music, and has had a long association with the organisation. In July 2022, the SSO gave the world-premiere of Barton’s Of the Earth – a work for which the Orchestra joined forces with Sydney Children’s Choir, Gondwana Indigenous Children’s Choir, soprano Nicole Car and mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung – commissioned to celebrate the reopening of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.

Barton’s appearances with the Sydney Symphony span almost two decades, with the Orchestra also recording and performing a number of his works on international tours.

Chair of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Board Geoff Wilson said: “We are...