Paul Dean is widely regarded as one of Australia's foremost musicians in his multiple capacities as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, composer and Artistic Director. He is Associate Professor and Head of Winds at Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University. He is a founding member of the Endeavour Trio and co-Artistic Director of Ensemble Q with Trish O’Brien. Paul was the Artistic Director of the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) from 2010 - 2015 and a Principal Clarinet with the Australian World Orchestra. Paul was the Artistic Director of the Four Winds Festival and the Tutti Beijing International Youth Music Festival and was also the founder and Artistic Director of the Southern Cross Soloists, the Bangalow Music Festival and the Sunwater and Stanwell Winter Music School.

Between 1987 and 2000 he was Principal Clarinet with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and has appeared as soloist with the Orchestra on over 40 occasions. Paul has performed as soloist with the Queensland, Melbourne, West Australian, Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia and Southern Sinfonia in NZ, and the Trondheim Symfoniker (Norway). As a chamber musician he has been guest artist with the Navarra Quartet, the Doric Quartet, the Heath Quartet, the Australian String Quartet, the Goldner String Quartet, the Grainger Quartet, the Flinders Quartet, and the Tin Alley Quartet. He has performed as soloist at many Festivals throughout world including the Oxford May Music Festival, the Huntington Music Festival, Alpine Classic Switzerland, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Trondheim Chamber Music Festival, Coramba Chamber Music Festival, Camden Haven Music Festival, and the Melbourne, Christchurch, Brisbane, Queensland, Perth, and Sydney Festivals.

Most recently Paul toured Portugal and Hamburg with Trish O’Brien, Jack Liebeck and celebrated Portugese pianist Filipe Pinto-Riveiro. Paul’s recording of the Mozart and Brahms clarinet works for the Melba label, and the clarinet music of English composer Benjamin Frankel for German label CPO have won high praise from critics around the world.

Paul was Composer in Residence with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2019 and has also been commissioned to write works for the Aspen Music Festival (Colorado) and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra for a horn concerto for Andrew Bain, Principal Horn of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Melbourne Ensemble, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Q, Ensemble Francaix, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, violinists Jack Liebeck and Anthony Marwood, cellists Torleif Thedeen, Trish O’Brien, Blair Harris and Patrick Murphy, tenor Andrew Goodwin, pianists Daniel De Borah, Alex Rainieri and the Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition, harpist Marshall McGuire, the Brodsky, Goldner and Flinders Quartets, Katie Noonan, the Melbourne Piano Trio, the Seraphim Trio, the Endeavour Trio, Australia Piano Quartet and the Australian Flute Festival. His opera “Dry River Run” commissioned by the Queensland Conservatorium Opera School, premiered in September, 2018 and in 2017 the Queensland Symphony premiered the Orchestral Fragments of the opera.