There Are Amazing People Doing Wonderful Things Here

CEO GABRIELLE THOMPSON AM WAS ONE OF THE AUSTRALIAN WORLD ORCHESTRA’S FOUNDERS BACK IN 2009. TEN YEARS LATER, SHE HASN’T STOPPED CHASING THE VISION OF A WORLD-CLASS ORCHESTRA, WITH INCREDIBLE PERFORMANCES FOR – AND BY – AUSTRALIANS.

- Oliver Featherston

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone better qualified to be the CEO of the Australian World Orchestra (AWO) than Gabrielle Thompson. She’s spent years working in and advocating for Australia’s arts industry, operating for a decade in the film industry before helping to create the Orchestra in 2009. She’s been the Orchestra’s only CEO since it began and, as a founding director, has helped provide a unique space for Australia’s orchestral musicians to contribute to our national music scene.

What’s more, she comes from a veritable dynasty of Australian music; her ancestor Isaac Nathan composed the first Australian opera, Don John of Austria, and her uncle was Sir Charles Mackerras, famed Australian conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Her brother Alexander Briger AO is the Artistic Director, Chief Conductor, and Co-Founder of the AWO, her mother was a ballerina, and her father spent some time in the theatre – an eclectic artistic family.

But as for Gabrielle herself, she says she only “plays the CD player and the record player”. It’s a self-deprecating joke that’s indicative of a humble nature; when asked what her strengths are as a leader, she reframes the question around “the qualities that make a good CEO, which I hope I emulate”.

Humility aside, Gabrielle has a precise understanding of the requirements of her role. “You have to give people room to be creative, and to feel empowered,” she says. “But you have to guide them as well. You don’t want people empowered and not getting enough guidance, in case they go off on the wrong track, and then you jump all over them later. That’s not the right thing to do. You don’t constantly jump all over people. You let them be.”