Jem Herbert

Jem Herbert

Originally from Mansfield in north-east Victoria, Jem grew up learning cello and piano. At aged 8 he joined the Australian Boys’ Choir which gave him a deep love of vocal and choral music. This led to him being admitted to the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School (VCASS), one of Australia’s leading schools for the training of performing artists. Some of his earliest operatic experiences come from his schooling, including concert performances of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Developing as a versatile musician, Jem also began composing and conducting, graduating with top music awards.

Beyond school, Jem has completed a degree in Piano Performance at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, graduating with first-class honours. Throughout university, Jem sang with the Choir of Trinity College, Melbourne, eventually becoming the Conducting Scholar. He is often commissioned as a composer for the choir, writing music for chapel services and concerts. In 2022, Jem composed a major music theatre piece for the 250th year celebrations of Trinity College. Called Mageia: A Musical Fable; it was something between opera, operetta and Broadway, and the process of composition through to production left a lasting passion for music in the theatre, particularly opera.

Following this passion, and with experience as a pianist, singer, composer and conductor, the job of the répétiteur seemed a perfect way of combining these interests. In 2024 he returned to the Melbourne Conservatorium for a Graduate Diploma in Opera Performance. Here, he worked on Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief and Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, conducting the latter. He also composed a mini-opera for the students called Eulogies and Entanglements.

On rare occasions when Jem is away from music, he enjoys spending time with his two border-collie kelpies and being in the Victorian High Country where he grew up.


Experience

Conductor – Hansel and Gretel (2024) – Melbourne Conservatorium of Music – Union Theatre
Orchestral Pianist – Parrwang Lifts the Sky (2024) – Victorian Opera – Malthouse Theatre
Pianist – The Old Maid and the Thief (2024) – Melbourne Conservatorium of Music – Melbourne Mini Opera Festival – Hanson Dyer Hall
Composer & Conductor – Mageia: a Musical Fable – Trinity College Music Theatre Society – Trinity College, Melbourne

Other experience

Conducting Scholar (2024) – the Choir of Trinity College, Melbourne
Director (2023-2024) – The Trinity Singers

Jem Herbert