Background
Bishop was born in Adelaide and studied piano from the age of 12 under the tuition of the distinguished Adelaide teacher William Silver.
Bishop was born in Adelaide and studied piano from the age of 12 under the tuition of the distinguished Adelaide teacher William Silver.
There, Bishop studied conducting in addition to furthering his piano studies with Herbert Fryer.
His first appointment as a conductor came in 1928 for the Royal Wellington Choral Union and Wellington Philharmonic Orchestra in New Zealand. He returned to Australia in 1936 to take up a position as Director of Music at Scotch College in Melbourne. From 1940 to 1947 he was conductor of the Melbourne University Conservatorium Orchestra.
His involvement with music in Victoria led him to become the first president of the Victorian School Music Association.
In 1954, he founded the National Music Camp Association and was subsequently responsible for the establishment of the Australian Youth Orchestra in 1957. In 1948, Bishop became a Professor of Music at the University of Adelaide, where he reformed the curriculum and faculty, and set up a visiting lectureship program
He was instrumental in the establishment of the Adelaide Festival of Arts and became its inaugural arts director in 1960. Bishop continued in this position until his death.
His involvement in the arts also included his positions as Chairman of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Committee for Music and as Federal President of the Arts Council of Australia.
He died suddenly in the foyer of Australia House in London, of hypertensive cardiovascular disease, on 14 December 1964, aged 61.