Vietnamese Conductor

Helen Quach was a trailblazing symphony conductor born in Vietnam. In 1958, as a second-year student at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, she became one of the first two women to receive a scholarship to study with renowned conductor Nikolai Malko, who was then leading the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

In 1967, Quach moved to New York after winning the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition. This victory earned her a position as an assistant to Leonard Bernstein at the New York Philharmonic, where she conducted at a gala concert and appeared on Bernstein’s television series.

Quach returned to Sydney in 1969 to perform with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In 1971, she founded the Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra in Sydney. Her career expanded further in 1974 when she became the music director of the Manila Symphony Orchestra. By the late 1970s, Quach split her time between conducting the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra for six months each year and traveling internationally as a guest conductor. From 1980 to 1983, she served as the conductor of the Taiwan Symphony Orchestra.

Breaking into a field dominated by men, Quach stood out as one of very few women conducting major symphonies globally during the 1970s. Alongside other pioneers like Sarah Caldwell, Sylvia Caduff, and Zheng Xiaoying, she defied the odds. Despite her achievements, Quach noted that some of her greatest challenges came from her own cultural background. “As you know, an orchestra is supported by the society, and Chinese society is not the best soil to develop musical talents. All parents want their children to become doctors or engineers. Nobody wants their children to dedicate their lives to music,” she observed.