So you want my arts job: Head of Music, Opera Australia

If you love the canon but enjoy learning, working as the Head of Music for a major company may be the career for you according to pianist and conductor Tahu Matheson.

Tahu Matheson has worked for Opera Australia since 2007 and became the company’s Head of Music in 2017. The accomplished pianist has conducted many of Opera Australia’s productions including Tosca, L’Elisir d’Amore, The Magic Flute, Turandot, La Bohème, La Traviata, Carmen and Carmen on Cockatoo Island, Lohengrin (for which he was nominated for a Green Room Award), Whiteley and The Pearl Fishers, as well as tours of Don Giovanni and The Seven Deadly Sins for Victorian Opera.

Matheson has performed as a soloist in the major concert venues throughout Australia and New Zealand, toured for Musica Viva and Chamber Music New Zealand, and been broadcast on New Zealand and Australian radio and television, including a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for 4MBS Radio in Brisbane. He has also performed with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

Unlock Padlock Icon

Unlock this content?

Access this content and more

Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts