Musical Director
Benjamin Sim
LLM (Juris Doctor), BMus, LMusA, AMusA
The magic of music has intrigued Benjamin for as long as he can remember. His young ears were filled with the instrumental inspiration of Beethoven’s symphonies, the choral creativity of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operas, and the joys of jazz. But it was a chance introduction to the orchestra, and in particular the violin, through an episode of Play School that served as the incentive for the commencement of his formal music tuition at the age of four.
By the age of five, Benjamin had begun playing his violin with the Latrobe & Francis Orchestras in Traralgon. At age 13, he held the position of Concertmaster for the Percy Grainger Youth Orchestra and went on to play as a member of the Melbourne Youth Orchestra for four years, including performances with the Australian Conservatoire of Ballet Orchestra.
While attending St Paul’s Anglican Grammar School in Warragul, Benjamin studied with Melbourne violinists Igor Oskolkov and Cong Gu. He was awarded his Associate in Music, Australia for violin in 2004, and his Licentiate in Music, Australia in 2006.
Benjamin was the recipient of the Trinity Scholarship in 2008 and the Kenneth Moore Music Scholarship in 2009 and 2010 respectively, which enabled him to move to Melbourne to further his studies through Trinity College at The University of Melbourne. He studied with international soloist, Robert Davidovici and former concertmaster of both the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Wilma Smith at The University of Melbourne's Conservatorium of Music, where he majored in Performance and obtained his Bachelor of Music.
Undertaking breadth studies in Law as an undergraduate at The University of Melbourne, Benjamin completed postgraduate studies at Monash University Law Chambers, obtaining a Master of Laws (Juris Doctor) from Monash University. He became a resident tutor for Law at University College, The University of Melbourne before returning to Gippsland to pursue private legal practise.
Benjamin regularly performs as a member of the Celtic quintet, Mollimor. He played cornet for the Warragul Municipal Band for eight years under the direction of Bruce Armstrong OAM and, in 2015, he was appointed Bandmaster of the Warragul Municipal Band. His compositions and arrangements of both instrumental and vocal works have been performed and recorded in a range of local settings.
Continuing to play in both regional and metropolitan-based orchestral and chamber configurations, Benjamin has been employed orchestrally as a violinist for The Melbourne Opera Company and the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra over many years. He has taught music privately and in a number of schools both in Melbourne and across Gippsland. Benjamin has previously served as Eastern Victorian Co-ordinator for Melbourne Chamber Orchestra’s Regional Advanced Strings Education Program; and he remains active conducting chamber and orchestral workshops throughout the region.
