Paul Fitzsimon

Conductor

Paul Fitzsimon is an Australian conductor who has worked across a wide range of music including symphonic, operatic, choral, contemporary classical, and ballet. Since 2019 he has been Chorus Master of the Opera Australia Chorus and has conducted mainstage performances of Madama Butterfly, La Traviata, La bohème, Don Giovanni, The Merry Widow and The Magic Flute. Recent conducting highlights include Mozart’s Requiem at Sydney City Recital Hall with the Opera Australia Orchestra and Chorus, Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat with the Australia Ensemble, and Fauré’s Requiem with the Opera Australia Chorus. From 2013 until 2019 he worked as répétiteur and conductor at OA, working on numerous productions and conducting four of their national tours around Australia.

Paul grew up in Traralgon in country Victoria and began conducting community ensembles at the age of fifteen. He completed a Bachelor of Music majoring in Piano Performance under Stephen McIntyre at the University of Melbourne, at the same time being violist and assistant conductor with the Melbourne Youth Orchestra and an active participant in the Symphony Australia Conductor Development Program with teachers such a Gianluigi Gelmetti, Janos Fürst and Johannes Fritzsch. In 2007 he was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, during which time he made his professional debut with that orchestra as well as performing with the Sydney Symphony, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and Canberra Symphony Orchestra.

In 2009 Paul moved to Germany to undertake a Masters in Orchestral Conducting at the Universität der Künste, Berlin. During his time there he was invited by Matthias Pintscher to conduct at his contemporary music festival in Heidelberg in 2010 and 2011, as well as conduct Stockhausen’s Gruppen with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and Ensemble Modern. In that year he also conducted performances with the Hamburg Ballet as part of the Baden-Baden Festival in John Neumeier’s new production of Stravinsky’s Apollon musagète and Orpheus.

In 2011/2012 Paul worked as Assistant to the Chief Conductor at Oper Graz in Austria and after being invited to assist on a new production of Salome in Sydney in 2012 he joined Opera Australia full-time in 2013. Continuing with his love of contemporary music he conducted the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris in concerts in 2014, focusing on the music of Marco Nikodijevic and others, before returning to conduct the Ensemble and students of the Conservatoire du Paris in Stockhausen’s Gruppen in 2016 in a live broadcast on Radio France.

Since returning to Australia, as well as his work with Opera Australia Paul has conducted performances with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and Willoughby Symphony Orchestra. Passionate about working with younger musicians, he has conducted the Melbourne Youth Orchestra in several concerts and in 2025 lead a production of Massenet‘s Cendrillion at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.

Paul Fitzsimon is supported by Ina Bornkessel-Schesewsky and Matthias Schlesewsky