Patrick Brennan

Patrick Brennan holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Before becoming a conductor, he worked as a professional bassoonist performing with Australia’s leading orchestras for more than 15 years.

In his capacity as a conductor and music educator, Patrick has created and developed a number of cornerstone organisations, including the Northern Sydney Schools Wind Orchestra, Northern Sydney Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Central Coast Opera and Regional Youth Orchestra NSW.

In 2020 Patrick was delighted to be selected to gain further professional development as one of Australia’s emerging conductors through the Australian Conducting Academy. This took place with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra under the expert mentorship of Maestro Johannes Fritzsch.

Patrick is also the Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Northern Sydney Symphonic Wind Ensemble (NSSWE), which he founded in 2010 as an extension program for school-aged woodwind, brass and percussion musicians. In 2017, he created the NSSWE Plus program, which offers weekly professional development for tertiary music students, focusing on best practice in pedagogy and conducting. In 2021 he created a conducting program for high schools and tertiary students at the Central Coast Conservatorium of Music. This has led to an exciting new offering of a Bachelor of Music degree through the University of New England to conducting students on the Central Coast.

As Chief Conductor of Regional Youth Orchestra NSW and chair of the Association of NSW Regional Conservatoriums (ANSWRC) he has delivered incredible performance projects for students of regional NSW with some of the world’s greatest orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin and the Australian World Orchestra.