music to the state curriculum. One of Heinze's great achievements came with the advent of wireless radio. As director-general of music with the new National Broadcasting Service at 3LO-3AR (forerunner to the ABC), he was able to inspire a generation of Australians to the love of orchestral music that was until then largely a luxury confined to the upper classes. Heinze envisaged a central professional full-time orchestra in Melbourne. After Alberto Zelman's death in 1927, he was offered the conductorship of the Melbourne Philharmonic Society (later the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic); many of the players of the RMP's orchestra also played in Fritz Hart's Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. This led to the loss of the RMP Orchestra's separate identity. From 1932 to 1937, Heinze was co-chief conductor of the MSO with Hart, and sole chief conductor until 1950. The MSO was renamed the Victorian Symphony Orchestra in 1949, reverting to its original name in 1964. In 1929 Heinze was appointed music adviser to the Australian Broadcasting Commission. There he oversaw the inception of its State orchestras, celebrity concerts, youth concerts and fine music broadcasting. His last appointment of significance was as director of the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music (1956–66) succeeding Sir Eugene Goossens, who had resigned in scandal. After leaving the directorship in 1966, Heinze continued to conduct the main Australian orchestras on a regular basis until the late 1970s. He also conducted overseas orchestras: on 14 January 1947, he was the conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in the professional concerto debut of the 14-year-old Glenn Gould, who played Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4. He died on 10 June 1982, aged 87, in Bellevue Hill, Sydney, survived by his wife Valerie née Hennessy. Honours Bernard Heinze became a Fellow of the Royal College of Music in 1931. He was knighted in 1949, the first Australian musician to receive this honour. Sir Bernard was named the 1974 Australian of the Year. On Australia Day 1976, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia for his services to Australian music. Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award The Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award was inaugurated following the death of Sir Bernard Heinze in 1982, and is given annually to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to music in Australia. References Sources ABC: Dimension in Time Brighton Cemetery 1894 births 1982 deaths Australian conductors (music) Sydney Conservatorium of Music