Richard John Mills AO FAHA^[1] (born 14 November 1949) is an Australian conductor and composer. He is currently the artistic director of Victorian Opera, and formerly artistic director of the West Australian Opera and artistic consultant with Orchestra Victoria. He was commissioned by the Victoria State Opera to write his opera Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1996) and by Opera Australia to write the opera Batavia (2001).

Career

Mills was born and grew up in Toowoomba, Queensland, and went to Nudgee College in Brisbane. He studied in London with Edmund Rubbra at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and worked as a percussionist in England and for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Mills started conducting and composing in the 1980s.^[2]

In 1988, to celebrate the Australian Bicentenary, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) commissioned Mills to re-orchestrate Charles Williams's Majestic Fanfare, the signature tune of ABC news and television broadcasts, in a more modern, Australian idiom.

He was engaged to conduct Opera Australia's first complete production of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen in the State Theatre, Melbourne, in 2013, the bicentenary of the composer's birth.^[2] On 5 June 2013, he withdrew from the Opera Australia Ring cycle.

Works

Works for the stage

• Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (1987), ballet
• Earth Poem / Sky Poem (1993), a music theatre work for Aboriginal dancers and musicians, orchestra and electronic sounds
• Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1996), opera in two acts, libretto by Peter Goldsworthy after the play by Ray Lawler
• Batavia (2001), opera in three acts, libretto by Peter Goldsworthy
• The Love of the Nightingale (2007), opera in two acts, libretto by Timberlake Wertenbaker
• Galileo (December 2023), libretto by Malcolm Angelucci^[3]

Vocal and choral works

• Festival Folk Songs (1985) for mezzo-soprano, tenor, boy soprano, large mixed chorus, children's chorus, 2 brass choirs (optional) and orchestra
• Sappho Monologues (1991) for soprano and orchestra, texts after Sappho, edited by the composer
• Symphonic Poems (2001), setting of David Campbell and James McAuley poems for soprano, mezzo-soprano, bass, large mixed chorus, 3 brass bands
• The Little Mermaid (2005) for children's chorus, narrator, orchestra; text after Hans Christian Andersen
• Four Antiphons of the Blessed Virgin (2 September 2005, at the Ospedaletto, Venice) for tenor and organ
• Songlines of the Heart's Desire (2007), commissioned by the Ian Potter Trust, to poems by an anonymous fourth-century Chinese poet, Bengali Rabindranath Tagore, American Kenneth Patchen, French Tunisian Amina Said, and Australians John Shaw Neilson and Judith Wright.^[4]

Concertos

• Trumpet Concerto (1982) for trumpet and orchestra (written for Bruce Lamont)
• Soundscapes for Percussion and Orchestra (1983) for percussion solo and orchestra
• Fantastic Pantomimes (1987) for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, trumpet and orchestra
• Cello Concerto (1990) for cello and orchestra (written for Raphael Wallfisch)
• Flute Concerto (1990) for flute and orchestra (written for James Galway)
• Violin Concerto (1992) for violin and orchestra
• Concerto for Violin and Viola (1993) for violin and viola solo and chamber orchestra (written for and premiered by Dene Olding and Irina Morozova)
• Double Concerto (2002) for violin and clarinet (written for Walter and Elsa Verdehr from Michigan State University)
• Double Concerto (2018) for two violins and strings (written for Melbourne Chamber Orchestra)

Orchestral

• Bamaga Diptych (1989)
• Tenebrae (1992)
• Pages from a secret journal
• Symphony of Nocturnes (2008)

Chamber works

• Sonata for Brass Quintet (1985)
• String Quartet No. 1 (1990), revised (2007)
• Four Miniatures (1992) for violin, clarinet and piano
• Here where death and life are met (no year) for high voice and piano, text by Judith Wright
• Requiem Diptych for Brass Quintet (1997)
• Songs without Words (1998) from the poems of Ern Malley for oboe and string quartet
• Jamaican Entertainment (2002) arrangements of music by Arthur Benjamin for flute, clarinet, soprano and piano, see: Two Jamaican Pieces).
• A Little Diary (2002) for clarinet and string quartet
• Woman to Man (2004) song cycle for mezzo-soprano and piano, text by Judith Wright
• String Quartet No. 2 (2007)
• String Quartet No. 3
• String Quartet No. 4, Glimpses from My Book of Dada (2010)
• Impromptu, after Schubert (2014)
• Lachrymae, Chorales… Postlude (2014) for string octet

Instrumental works

• Epithalamium (1985) for solo organ
• Pastoral for Solo Oboe (1993)
• Six Preludes for Solo Oboe (1991)

Educational works

• Little Suite for Orchestra (1983) for student orchestra
• Miniatures and Refrains (1986) for student string quartet
• Sonatina for String Quartet (1986) for student string quartet

Awards and nominations

In 1982, he won the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award.^{[citation needed]}

In 1999, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).^[5] He was promoted to Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2024 Australia Day Honours for "distinguished service to the performing arts as a composer, conductor and artistic director".^[6]

In 2019, he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA).^[7]

APRA Awards

The APRA Awards are held in Australia and New Zealand by the Australasian Performing Right Association to recognise songwriting skills, sales and airplay performance by its members annually.

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987.

Bernard Heinze Memorial Award

The Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award is given to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to music in Australia.

Don Banks Music Award

The Don Banks Music Award was established in 1984 to publicly honour a senior artist of high distinction who has made an outstanding and sustained contribution to music in Australia.^[18] It was founded by the Australia Council in honour of Don Banks, Australian composer, performer and the first chair of its music board.

Green Room Awards

• He received the Green Room Award in 2001 and 2002.^{[citation needed]}

Helpmann Awards

The Helpmann Awards is an awards show, celebrating live entertainment and performing arts in Australia, presented by industry group Live Performance Australia (LPA) since 2001.^[19]