https://www.sydney.edu.au/music/about/our-people/academic-staff/stephen-mould.html                     

Stephen Mould is a Senior Lecturer in Conducting, Opera Studies and Repetiteurship at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and Artistic Director of the Conservatorium Opera.                     

He studied at the Sydney Conservatorium (B Mus, Grad Dip, Repetiteur) and Royal Academy of Music, London before commencing a career as repetiteur, musical assistant and conductor in opera houses in Germany, Belgium, London, USA, Asia and Australia. He was Assistant to the Music Director of Oper Frankfurt (1993-6), returning to Australia in 1996 where he held a number of key positions at Opera Australia, as conductor, musical assistant, and Head Of Music (2004 -8). He has conducted most state orchestras in Australia along with the major orchestras in New Zealand, been engaged by the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane Festivals as well as working for most of the State opera companies in Australia, including State Opera of South Australia, assisting on both Wagner Ring Cycles, Parsifal and retaining an association with that company as conductor. He joined the faculty at Sydney University in 2009, and completed his dissertation, Curating Opera in 2016.                     

His research activities centre upon opera and conducting, with a focus from the mid-eighteenth century until the present day. Interests include the history of opera and the rise of the conductor, along with performance practice-based research across both areas; the developing role of the conductor from the late nineteenth century; Richard Wagner; Mozart reception; Gustav Mahler as conductor and opera practitioner; the impact of historically aware performance practice upon the conducting profession; aspects of authenticity, Werktreue and Retuschen; the historical background to the conducted repertoire are all central areas of teaching and research. His teaching of conducting incorporates the study of the marked scores of iconic conductors of the past. The collection and study of such material forms the core of his current research.                     

His book, Curating Opera is awaiting publication, and he is currently at work on his next, Reading Conductors. He has also published in the area of the visual arts, including a monograph on the lives of Dušan and Voitre Marek, two émigré surrealist artists who migrated to Australia in the wake of WW2. This area of study is an ongoing field of study for Dr Mould.                     

Recent and current HDR students have worked on Retuschen in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony; The role of ambiguity in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw; The future role for opera in defining new cultural contexts; and the developing role of the conductor in nineteenth century Italy.