32 Facts About Joseph Post

Joseph Mozart Post was an Australian conductor and music administrator.

Joseph Post made an unrivalled contribution to the development of opera-conducting in Australia and was, in Roger Covell's words, the 'first Australian-born musician to excel in this genre'.

Joseph Post was born on 10 April 1906 at Erskineville, Sydney, the eldest child of Australian-born parents.

Joseph Post's mother was a chorister, and his father an conductor who involved himself with church choirs and suburban musical societies.

Joseph Post attended the Christian Brothers' parish school at Waverley, won a scholarship, and at age 9 was among the first students at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music, of which he was later to become the director.

Joseph Post studied piano and oboe, and from the age of 15 he played oboe with the New South Wales State Orchestra until it was disbanded in 1922.

Joseph Post graduated in 1927 with diplomas in performance and teaching.

The elder Joseph Post gave his son extensive informal training in the conductor's art.

In 1932 Joseph Post seized an opportunity to organize a 350-voice choir for the Imperial Opera Company to perform in the Williamson Imperial Grand Opera Season.

Joseph Post recognized the potential of radio and accepted an offer from the ABC to form a wireless chorus in Sydney.

Joseph Post severed his connection with the conservatorium, did some conducting with Sir Benjamin Fuller's Royal Grand Opera Company and visited Europe in 1935.

Whilst driving through Bairnsdale on a roadtrip from Melbourne to Sydney in 1937, Joseph Post was involved in a car crash and sustained slight injuries.

Joseph Post served in World War II as a lieutenant, acting major, and commandant of the transshipment centre at Terowie, South Australia, an important staging point on the overland supply route to Darwin.

Joseph Post relinquished command in February 1945 and was placed on the Reserve List of Officers in March.

Joseph Post made many guest appearances with ABC orchestras across Australia.

Joseph Post conducted the first performance of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra on 25 May 1948; the soloist was the pianist Eileen Joyce.

At his debut at the Royal Albert Hall, Joseph Post became the first Australian to conduct at a Promenade Concert; he included a piece by the Australian composer Clive Douglas.

Joseph Post conducted the Halle Orchestra and other British orchestras.

Joseph Post made no secret of his chagrin when he was not appointed director of music in 1957.

Joseph Post was musical director of Gertrude Johnson's National Theatre Movement and principal conductor for its opera.

Joseph Post conducted the trust's first opera production, Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, in 1956, but resigned next year to return to the ABC as assistant director of music.

Joseph Post made television appearances with the Sydney Symphony and conducted numerous operas on television.

At a time when most Australian classical musicians depended on success abroad, Joseph Post built a public career in Australia.

Joseph Post and Sir Bernard Heinze represented the first generation of native-born conductors to rise to prominence under the ABC.

Joseph Post conducted when an Australian was required to support visiting celebrity musicians.

Joseph Post was proud of his efforts to promote 'Australian' composers, releasing recordings of Raymond Hanson's Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra and Robert Hughes's Xanadu.

In 1966 Joseph Post was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

Joseph Post was the first of its former students to fill the position.

Joseph Post eventually put considerable effort into the conservatorium's opera school, but limited his wider involvement to consolidating initiatives begun by Heinze.

Increasingly dogged by ill health, Joseph Post resigned from the conservatorium in late 1971 and moved to the Gold Coast, Queensland.

Joseph Post died of myocardial disease on 27 December 1972 at Broadbeach and was cremated.

Joseph Post had actively discouraged Nola from any sort of musical training.