Vanessa Scammell

Conductor

Vanessa Scammell’s most recent engagements include 5 performances of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban with the Sydney Symphony, a double bill (The Dream/Marguerite and Armand) for The Australian Ballet, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 for the Melbourne Symphony and Megan Washington with the Tasmanian, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras. In 2021/2022, she conducted the Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland and West Australian Symphony Orchestras in programmes such as Vera Blue, The Bamboos, Birds of Tokyo, An Evening with Anthony Warlow, Love Actually, To Barbra With Love and Opera in the Outback (for Opera Queensland). In 2025, she conducts the Macao Orchestra and all six major Australian symphony orchestras.

She enjoys a diverse portfolio of work as a conductor of ballet, musical theatre, concert repertoire and opera.

Vanessa’s postgraduate study included a Masters in Conducting; she has been the recipient of the Brian Stacey Award and the Robert and Elizabeth Albert Conducting Fellowship for The Australian Ballet.

Conducting credits include:

The Australian Ballet: The Dream, Body Torque, Nutcracker, An American in Paris

Opera Australia: The Merry Widow, My Fair Lady, South Pacific, La traviata

Musical Theatre: Funny Girl (Sydney Symphony Orchestra), Hello Dolly, The Light in the Piazza, The Producers, Damn Yankees, West Side Story, Chicago, The Phantom of the Opera, Titanic, CATS and Fiddler on the Roof.

Films in Concert: The Man from Snowy River, The Princess Bride, Casino Royale, Spiderverse, The Holiday, Love Actually.

Vanessa has regularly conducted the Sydney, Queensland, Melbourne, Christchurch, West Australian and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras.  Her concert credits include: From Broadway to La Scala; Peter and Jack starring Barry Humphries, Idina Menzel LIVE – Barefoot at the Symphony; Eskimo Joe and Lea Salonga in Concert. She has also conducted staged concert versions of Sweeney Todd and Jekyll & Hyde (both starring Anthony Warlow).

She was Musical Director for The Divorce (an opera commissioned for television by Opera Australia, Princess Pictures and the ABC) and was the Helpmann Award’s Music Director for 13 years.

In 2018, Vanessa conducted The Merry Widow for Opera Australia, West Australian Opera and Opera Queensland. She also led a symphonic tour of Planet Earth for the BBC; in 2019, she conducted the national tour of Blue Planet 2 for the same organisation.