Hitting the right note - musical diversity at BGS

What do internationally renowned musicians as diverse as a composer of operas and Hollywood film scores; a classical violinist; two rock bands; a sound engineer; broadcaster; an organist and conductor have in common? They all went to Brisbane Grammar School.

Arthur Benjamin, a student at BGS in 1908, was described in his school report as “bright and intelligent with great natural musical ability”. Praise indeed for what would underscore an illustrious musical career, starting in 1911 when he went to London to study at the Royal College of Music. In 1918, when serving as a gunner with the Royal Flying Corps, Benjamin was shot down by a young Hermann Göring and composed a sonata while a prisoner of war.

Surviving the war, Benjamin went on to have a long international career, and made his name as a concert pianist, conductor, composer and music professor at the Royal College of Music. Though probably best known for Jamaican Rumba composed in 1938, Benjamin was also a prolific composer of film scores, which included Hollywood movies like Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much and Alexander Korda’s An Ideal Husband.

Striking a different chord in more ways than one, fast forward to 1977, singer-songwriters and guitarists Old Boy Robert Forster ’74 and Grant McLennan co-founded The Go-Betweens, which made its name as an indie rock band before disbanding in 2006. The band’s second album Before Hollywood (1983) reached Number 2 on the UK Independent Charts. In 2008, 16 Lovers Lane was highlighted on SBS TV’s The Great Australian Albums series as a classic example of 1980s rock music. The Hale Street Link traffic bridge was renamed the Go Between Bridge in the band’s honour and opened in 2010.

Powderfinger, another band comprising Old Boys, hit the airways in 1989 with its own brand of alternative rock. The original line up included guitarists John Collins ’87 and Ian Haug ’88 with Steven Bishop ’87 on drums and singer-songwriter Bernard Fanning.

Speaking at the 2013 Foundation Day ceremony, Collins said the BGS work ethic empowered what he did with Powderfinger.

“We understood if we were going to make a career out of it we actually had to get in there and do some work, as we weren’t that good so we needed to practice hard,” he said.

Powderfinger went on to win 18 ARIA music awards and performed at major events in Australia and overseas. In 2004 the band was part of the line up at the Danish royal rock concert in Copenhagen at the request of Crown Prince Frederik and his Tasmanian fiancée, Mary Donaldson. Before an audience of 40,000 the band belted out Powderfinger favourites like My Happiness (2001) in honour of the couple.

As part of the Q150 celebrations in 2009, Powderfinger was named as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland, performing its final show at Brisbane’s River Stage the following year.

Sound engineer and Old Boy Ben Tolliday ’96, who played cello in the School’s string and symphony orchestras, credits the BGS environment and cello teachers like Stephen Chin for his love of music. After studying cello at the Queensland Conservatorium, he forged an international career in sound recording, working with the likes of singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette and orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2016 Tolliday was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study film score recording in the USA and UK.

Head of Music Peter Ingram said that Old Boy Ray Chen ’04 is one of the most highly regarded violin soloists in the world today. In his first year at BGS as a Year 8 violinist, Chen won the National Concerto Competition for String Players and became an internationally acclaimed performer. Just four years after leaving BGS he won the senior division first prize of the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists in Cardiff and first prize in the 2009 Queen Elizabeth Music Competition in Brussels. Since then his reputation has gone from strength to strength with numerous concert engagements and the opportunity to have played on a Stradivarius violin loaned by the Nippon Music Foundation.

As a broadcaster and TV presenter, Howard Ainsworth AM, Old Boy ’49, made turning on the radio pure listening pleasure. He was the voice of classical music in Brisbane for some 50 years with a long career as an announcer on ABC Radio before becoming the broadcast manager of 4MBS Classic FM in 1993. Renowned for his radio program Music Lover’s Choice, Ainsworth interviewed a wide range of people including musicians like Yehudi Menuhin and Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Another Old Boy to have made his mark on Brisbane’s music scene is organist Christopher Wrench ’76. After training at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music and the Vienna Conservatorium, where he was Director of Music at Christ Church Vienna, he returned to Brisbane in 1991. He was appointed Lecturer in Organ at the Queensland Conservatorium, teaching, mentoring and adjudicating at organ competitions. Wrench has made numerous broadcasts on ABC Classic FM and is internationally acclaimed as a concert organist, recording artist and concerto soloist.

In Old Boy Simon Hewett’s 1993 school report a teacher noted the Captain of Music conducted and played the clarinet with “musical sensitivity”. Hewett furthered his studies in these fields at The University of Queensland, becoming the youngest ever finalist in the ABC Young Performers Award. He was awarded a German Government scholarship to continue his conducting studies in Weimer.

Hewett made his debut at the Sydney Opera House as a conductor in 2003 before joining the Hamburg State Opera as Resident Conductor and Assistant Music Director. He is now Principal Conductor of both the Stuttgart Opera and the Hamburg Ballet, also appearing as a guest conductor with the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Ballet in Covent Garden, Vienna State Ballet and Opera Australia. His virtuosity as a musician is also reflected in his performances with the Elision Ensemble, a chamber ensemble specialising in contemporary classical music.

From classical to contemporary, sonatas to hard rock, these are just some of the many Old Boys who have become trailblazers in a diverse range of musical careers.

By Vivien Harris – School Archivist