community & joy
through music
Music is the activity, the pursuit, the interest that connects us all and we’re here to encourage and develop the musician in everyone.
Quick website guide ...
Welcome to Mitchell Conservatorium
The Conservatorium welcomes students of all ages and levels of experience to its extensive individual and group teaching program, and its wide range of performing ensembles. Please read all about what is happening at MitCon and about our experienced and qualified teachers. You can click here to see all 2025 enrolment information.
Who we are
Music is the activity, the pursuit, the interest that connects us all – and we’re here to facilitate the musician in everyone. With studios in Bathurst and Lithgow, the professional staff of MitCon are passionate about providing regional communities with access to quality music tuition and performance. We are very proud of our broad program of tuition offerings, ranging from school-based programs through to quality individual and group tuition for all ages. and our array of inclusive community music ensembles.
Whatever your musical interests, we have a program that will cater for you and your family, with the most comprehensively qualified staff in this part of NSW.
As a proud founding member of the peak body for music education in non-metropolitan NSW, the New South Wales Association of Regional Conservatoriums, we are connected to resources across the state and across the country. Our focus is on guaranteeing continuity for students in their music education journey from beginner through to the advanced.
Our history
Mitchell Conservatorium began operations as the state’s first regional, community-based, music centre – the Central Western Music Centre, in May 1978. As a division of the NSW State Conservatorium of Music, it operated in Bathurst and Orange. The initial enrolments for Bathurst and Orange were 90 students, with six teachers, and this increased to almost 250 students and eleven teachers by the final term of that year. Piano, singing, violin, brass, clarinet, flute, classical guitar and musicianship were the major subjects offered. Six months later there were almost 500 students with 28 part-time staff at the combined locations.
Further expansion occurred across the Central West region during the 1980s, with branches opening in Lithgow (1981) and Forbes (1984). Student numbers consequently grew to over 1000, and staff to almost 50, by 1986; with individual lessons provided in almost the complete range of string, woodwind, brass and percussion instruments, piano and singing, along with recorder, accordion, pipe organ, chamber music groups, children’s choir and classes in early childhood music. In 1996 the Orange Music Centre became independent and in 2013 we celebrated our 35th birthday. Since its inception, Mitchell Conservatorium has had five CEOs: Laurie Orchard (1978 – 1987), Max Reeder (1987 – 2004), Fiona Thompson (2005 – 2013), Graham Sattler (2014 – 2021) and our current Executive Director, Andrew Smith.
Our teaching and administration staff
