William Arundel Orchard, OBE FRCM, was a British-born organist, pianist, composer, conductor and music educator whose career was mostly carried out in Australia.
Orchard was educated privately before attending the University of Durham where he graduating with a Bachelor of Music (BMus) in 1893. Three years later he immigrated to Australia, initially taking up a choir master's position in Perth, Western Australia. He later worked in Hobart and New Zealand, before settling in Sydney in 1903.
In 1905 Orchard garnered some critical attention with his score for the comic opera The Coquette ; Or, A Suicidal Policy (a collaboration with W. J. Curtis and John Ignatius Hunt). The following year he and Curtis wrote and co-produced a second comic opera, The Emperor. Later collaborations with Curtis were Uller the Bowman (cantata, 1909) and Dorian Gray, an opera based on Oscar Wilde's story The Picture of Dorian Gray.
In 1908 Orchard became the founding conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He also conducted the Sydney Madrigal and Chamber Music Society from 1908 to 1915.
From 1916 Orchard began teaching at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music, taking over as Director in 1923. The University of Durham made him Doctor of Music (DMus) in 1928. He retired from the Conservatorium in 1934, but in 1935 established the first music degree course at the University of Tasmania, teaching it until 1938. In 1938, he founded the Musical Association of Tasmania, becoming its first President. After moving back to Sydney Orchard became the Visiting Examiner for the Trinity College of Music, and constantly travelled around Australia for the next 20 years.
Arundel Orchard died on board the Dominion Monarch while returning to Australia from a visit to England. He was buried at sea, off Cape Town, South Africa.
