Lionel Albert Jack (John) Bishop
(26 October 1903 – 14 December 1964) was an Australian academic, conductor and patron of the arts. Bishop played a leading role in the development of music education in Australia and was a founder of the Adelaide Festival of Arts.
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Biography
Bishop was born in
Adelaide and studied piano from the age of 12 under the tuition of the distinguished Adelaide teacher
William Silver. In 1919, he won the Alexander Clark Scholarship to the
Elder Conservatorium, and in 1923, he won the South Australian Elder Scholarship to the
Royal College of Music in
London. There, Bishop studied conducting in addition to furthering his piano studies. His first appointment as a conductor came in 1928 for the
Royal Wellington Choral Union and
Wellington Philharmonic Orchestra in
New Zealand.
He returned to Australia in 1936 to take up a position as Director of Music at
Scotch College in
Melbourne. From 1940-1947 he was conductor of the
Melbourne University Conservatorium Orchestra. His involvement with music in
Victoria led him to become the first president of the
Victorian School Music Association. From 1948, with the co-operation of fellow music teacher, Ruth Alexander, he organised summer
music camps for young musicians. In 1954, he founded the
National Music Camp Association and was subsequently responsible for the establishment of the
Australian Youth Orchestra in 1957.
In 1948, Bishop became a Professor of Music at the
University of Adelaide, where he reformed the curriculum and faculty, and set up a visiting lectureship programme. He formed a partnership with
Sir Lloyd Dumas in the late 1950s to help found a major arts event in
South Australia. He was instrumental in the establishment of the
Adelaide Festival of Arts and became its inaugural arts director in 1960. Bishop continued in this position until his death. His involvement in the arts also included his positions as Chairman of the
UNESCO Committee for Music and as Federal President of the
Arts Council of Australia.
He died suddenly in the foyer of
Australia House in London, of hypertensive
cardiovascular disease, on 14 December 1964, aged 61.
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