The $10,000 prize will be award during the 2015 Helpmann Awards ceremony in July.

West Australian based conductor Jessica Gethin has been named the recipient of the 2015 Brian Stacey Emerging Conductor Award, receiving a $10,000 cash prize. The annual awards, established in 2002, recognise an Australian conductor, early in their professional career, who shows significant promise and skill. The coveted conducting gong is affiliated with Australia’s most highly regarded arts and entertainment awards, the Helpmann Awards, and as part of the prize Gethin will appear at the Helpmann Awards Ceremony in July. Gethin joins an impressive list of previous Brian Stacy Award-winners including Guy Noble, Simon Hewett and Daniel Smith. Gethin is only the fourth women to be awarded the prestigious prize.

Currently the Chief Conductor of the Perth Symphony Orchestra and Co-Artistic Director of the Perth Chamber Orchestra, Gethin has an extremely diverse background having worked in genres ranging from Baroque and period performance, classical, jazz, opera, ballet, musical theatre, and commercial projects including film scores and pop recordings. 2015 has been a significant year for the conducting talent, as this latest gong follows hotly on the heels of Gethin’s appointment as one of the inaugural fellows in Dallas Opera’s Institute of the Women Conductors. Gethin will travel to Dallas in November this year and spend a year being mentored by Dallas Opera’s Music Director Emmanuel Villaume and Principal Guest Conductor Nicole Paiement.

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