Chad Kelly
Keyboard | Conductor | Opera


2025

Opera Australia

Conducting performances of Dido and Aeneas at Sydney Opera House with acrobat ensemble CIRCA

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

Orchestral composer and arranger for album Phantom Island

Conductor and Musical Director for performances in Europe and Australasia

Royal Albert Hall (London) Covent Garden Sinfonia

La Seine Musicale (Paris) Orchestre Lamoureux

Den Bosch (Netherlands) Sinfonia Rotterdam

AmberExpo (Gdansk) Baltic Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra

Sydney Opera House (Sydney) Sydney Symphony Orchestra

QPAC (Brisbane) Queensland Symphony Orchestra

Sidney Myer Music Bowl (Melbourne) Orchestra Victoria

Victorian Opera

Reimagining Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail alongside director Constantine Costi. Conducting performances at the Palais Theatre (Melbourne) with Orchestra Victoria

Bach’s Trauermusik

Reconstructing Bach’s Köthener Trauermusik for performances at London’s Wigmore Hall, Leipzig Bachfest, Regensburg Tage Alter Musik. Album recording for Deutschlandfunk.

2024

Australian Chamber Orchestra

Guest Principal Keyboard for Silence and Rapture Australian tour with countertenor Iestyn Davies and Sydney Dance Company

Keyboards for ACO Up Close series with Richard Tognetti and Timo-Veikko valve

Conductor and Composer for performances with the ACO Collective

Sydney Symphony Orchestra

Assistant to Simone Young for performances of Wagner’s Die Walküre

Konzerthaus Dortmund

Composer and performer alongside Soprano Christine Gansch for European tour of Handel der Spion

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Directing performances for the Secret Symphony series

Melbourne Recital Centre

Performances of Die Schöne Müllerin with baritone David Greco

Opera Australia

Music Staff and Assistant Conductor for productions of Mozart’s Idomeneo, Puccini’s Il Trittico, Così fan Tutte, Massenet’s Cendrillon

2023

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Conductor for performances of Handel's Messiah, Hamer Hall, Melbourne, 9th & 10th December

Opera Australia

Music Staff for seasons in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Productions include Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Philip Glass’s Satyagraha, Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Der Ring des Nibelungen

Solomon’s Knot

Principal Keyboard for Bach’s St Matthew Passion at Snape Maltings, Thüringer Bachwochen, Trinity College Cambridge, Bachfest Leipzig, Wigmore Hall (April-June)

Canberra International Music Festival

Performances with the Australian Haydn Ensemble (April)

Melbourne Baroque Orchestra

Guest Directing performances with singer Sally-Anne Russell (August)

2022

Opera Australia

Music Staff for Melbourne and Sydney Winter Seasons. Productions included Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Boito’s Mefistofele, Wagner’s Lohengrin, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Verdi’s Il Trovatore

Canberra International Music Festival

Solo fortepiano recital, keyboard continuo in Haydn’s Creation & and chamber performance of Beethoven’s 6th Symphony (April)

Sydney Symphony Orchestra

Guest Continuo for tour of “Italian Baroque” (August)

Victorian Opera

Conductor for new production of Valtinoni’s Il Mago di Oz (September)

Rachel Podger & Brecon Baroque

Guest Director for recording of new arrangement of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Record release in October 2023 (October)

Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra

Guest Continuo for Mozart’s Requiem (November)

Australian Haydn Ensemble

Guest Director for tour of “C.P.E. Bach: Universe of Harmony” (December)

2021

Bayerische Staatsoper

Music Staff and Assistant Conductor. Productions included Abrahamsen’s The Snow Queen, Verdi’s La Traviata, Otello, Rigoletto, Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Così fan Tutte

Academy of Ancient Music

Guest Director for performances with soloists David Blackadder and Soraya Mafi

Solomon’s Knot

Principal Keyboards for performances at Musikfest Stuttgart, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, Wigmore Hall