Trailblazer set to hang up his baton

TASMANIAN Symphony Orchestra managing director Nicholas Heyward believes the time is right for him to step away after a successful 17 years at the helm.

Mr Heyward has announced that he will step down at the end of 2018, as he will be 65 at the conclusion of his current contract and is ready to move on.

“It seemed like a pretty good time to hand over to someone with new energy and to take the TSO in new directions,” Mr Heyward said.

“But also, when I started 17 years ago, I gave myself a list of things that I really wanted to achieve, and we’re just about there.”

During the mid-2000s, Mr Heyward helped the TSO evolve from being part of the nationally-based ABC Concert Music to becoming an independent, not-for-profit Tasmanian institution.

He has also secured and developed ongoing relationships with cultural institutions within Tasmania and interstate, including collaborations with Mona and the Festival of Voices.

He enabled and encouraged a range of initiatives away from the concert stage, and has been a driving force in the TSO’s successful collaborations with contemporary music artists such as Sarah Blasko and Megan Washington.

Mr Heyward said other highlights of his tenure included sending the orchestra to China, and the orchestra winning a Helpmann Award.

He will miss working as the managing director, but hopes to stay involved in the arts community.

TSO chairman David Rich said Mr Heyward’s departure was “inevitably a loss.”

“Under his very strong leadership, the TSO has flourished,” Dr Rich said.

“Tasmania has been transformed over the last decade or so, and the TSO, under Nicholas’s leadership, has been critical in that.”

Dr Rich said the TSO will undertake an international search for a successor.