Lynne Gackle – Leader, Youth Course
Lynne Gackle is an active clinician, conductor, and adjudicator for various choral clinics, honor choirs, workshops, and festivals throughout the United States. She has conducted All-State Choirs in 23 states and has served as conductor for several Divisional ACDA Honor Choirs and one National Junior High Honor Choir. She has served as conductor of the Australian National Choral Association's High School Women's Choir in Brisbane, Australia, the Alberta Choral Federation's High School Honour Choir in Calgary, Canada and most recently, the DoDDS-Europe High School Mixed Honor Choir in Weisbaden, Germany. In 2007- 08, Dr. Gackle will conduct various workshops, honor choirs and All-State Choirs in Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Florida, Louisiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Wisconsin, and Beijing, China.
Dr. Gackle has taught at all levels, elementary through college, in Louisiana, Florida, and Mississippi. She is the Founder/Artistic Director of the Gulf Coast Youth Choirs, Inc., a community choral arts organization in Tampa, Florida where she also serves as the conductor of the advanced touring ensemble, Le Petit Choeur , the mixed ensemble, Voce di Vitaand the Gulf Coast Girl Choir . Currently, she also serves as Coordinator of the Choral Music Education program at the University of South Florida where she conducts the USF Bel Canto Women’s Choir. Previously, she served as Professor of Music at the University of Mississippi and Adjunct Professor, Music Education at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL.
She received her Bachelor of Music Education degree from Louisiana State University and her Master of Music Education as well as her Doctorate of Music Education from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.
Her choirs have performed at the State, Divisional and National Conventions of the American Choral Directors Association as well as the Music Educators National Conference Bi-ennial Convention. She served as President of the ACDA Southern Division as well as ACDA - Florida. Lynne received the Wayne Hugoboom Distinguished Service Award from the Florida ACDA Chapter for dedicated service, leadership, and excellence in choral music in Florida. In addition to ACDA, she holds memberships in the Florida Music Educators Association, MENC, the Florida Vocal Association, and NATS. She recently served as the National R & S Chair for Children's Choirs for the American Choral Directors Association and currently is the Florida R & S Chair for Women’s Choirs.
Dr. Gackle was a contributing author to the MENC publication, Music at the Middle Level: Building Strong Programs, and has had several articles published in the Choral Journal. Additionally, she is the editor of the Lynne Gackle Choral Series for Colla Voce Music, Inc. and of Choral Artistry for the Singer with Walton Music.
Lynne and her husband Merlin are members of a large church in Idlewild, Tampa, Florida. She is a member of the church choir and also conducts a youth ensemble of 24 male and female secondary students. Her husband conducts a 24 voice men’s ensemble. Lynne writes “I’ve sung in church choirs all my life and it is church music that probably had the most influence on me being a professional musician/educator today. My basic feeling is that whatever I give back to the Lord (via the church) musically must be my best effort... He deserves that. I strive to glorify God through all aspects of my teaching and conducting whether at the University, at Honor Choirs, workshops, conferences, and my church”.
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Dr Nicholas Bannan – Leader, Developing a Singing Community
“Developing a Singing Community” will explore practical, physical and creative means of developing group singing, focusing on establishing leadership skills that participants can take away in order to extend their effectiveness in contributing to getting the world singing again.
Nicholas teaches Music Education at University of Western Australia, where he directs The Winthrop Singers, and is engaged in research in singing and aural development. He plays a leading role in the international research project that is drawing on development in neurology, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology and anatomy to explore the theory that musical communication predates language in the development of human culture. The spiritual dimension afforded by singing, especially in social groups, represents both a significant objective of the activity, and an adaptive purpose that has shaped human existence for millennia. Not to sing represents a diminishment of our potential.
His earliest musical experience was as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral. He went on to study Music at Cambridge University, where he specialised in vocal studies and composition. He has taught in several schools, including Eton College. He was Director of Music at Desborough School, Maidenhead, where the choir he conducted was in demand to work with London orchestras and made frequent broadcasts on television and radio. He continued to develop his work as a composer, winning the Fribourg Prize for Sacred Music in 1986 and completing commissions for the Allegri and Grieg Quartets, the Guildhall String Ensemble, Cantemus Novum of Antwerp, and the Gentlemen of St Paul's Cathedral. He was for 12 years the conductor of The Esterhazy Singers, a London chamber choir that specialised in performing the music of Haydn and his contemporaries with the period instruments of the Esterhazy Chamber Orchestra. He also directed the contemporary music groups 1913 Ensemble and Act of Creation, and worked on electro-acoustic projects with the composer Rolf Gehlhaar and the Elektrodome company. He was a Winston Churchill Fellow in 1992, travelling through the USA in preparing a report on the training of choral directors and singing teachers.
His interests as an educator focused increasingly on means of releasing children's creativity, and he formed the partnership Compose Yourself! to provide workshop opportunities for pupils and in-service training for teachers. He carried out research at the University of Reading into the use of electronic resources in vocal education and the means by which vocal potential can be released in singers of all ages and abilities, and this has led to his Harmony Signing project, a new pedagogical system for developing aural sensitivity and creative potential through group singing. He has also worked with Alzheimer’s patients on the potential of singing for retaining social communication between carers and people with dementia. He was awarded his doctorate in 2002 for a study of the evolutionary origins of the human singing voice. From 1999 to 2005 he was Director of the Music Teaching in Professional Practice Initiative, a distance-learning programme leading to Diploma and Masters qualifications administered at the University of Reading.
Nicholas was founder-editor of the journal Mastersinger published by the Association of British Choral Directors, and Artistic Director of ABCD’s 1996 conference in Oxford. He co-edited the Ashgate publication The Reflective Conservatoire with George Odam, and is currently working with the archaeologist Steven Mithen on an edited book for Oxford University Press entitled Music, Language and Human Evolution. He continues to compose, and brings to his teaching the assumption that the purpose of engaging with the music of the past is to develop the confidence and fluency to enable original self-expression. He is a keen follower of cricket and rugby, both of which he played in his youth.
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Lindsay Gray – Director, RSCM
Lindsay Gray has wide experience in education, in church music, and in inspiring young people. He has sung in some of the great choirs of Britain, and directed choirs in parish, school and cathedral settings. Brought up in Nottinghamshire, he gained the ARCO* organ-playing diploma before he left school, subsequently winning a choral scholarship to King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, under the direction of Sir David Willcocks and Sir Philip Ledger. He continued his studies at Durham University, where he sang in the cathedral choir and directed a parish church choir. He was Director of Music at Queen’s College, Taunton (where he also directed the Somerset Youth Choir) and at Cheltenham College, before moving into educational leadership and management.
Mark Williams, Chairman of the RSCM Council, said, ‘The Council is enormously pleased to be able to appoint a person of such wide experience and high achievement. Lindsay Gray impressed the selection panel with the combination of skills he can bring to the role. We have every confidence that he will be able to build on the important work by John Harper over the last decade.’
Sir David Willcocks (88) was Director of Music at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge for many years, and accepted Lindsay Gray to be a choral scholar there in the early 1970s. Sir David, himself the most senior former student of the RSCM, has welcomed the appointment. 'Lindsay Gray is an excellent musician and a man who readily gains everyone's trust and respect. He will prove to be a worthy successor in the distinguished line of RSCM Directors.'
‘I have a very strong desire to devote my life to securing and nurturing the future of church music and inspiring those involved to achieve excellence,’ said Lindsay Gray. ‘I care deeply about the continuing choral tradition and I firmly believe in encouraging different types of music in a variety of different worship settings. At the same time I am conscious that the number of young people involved in church music has steadily declined over a number of years and I relish the opportunity to work within the RSCM to assist in reversing that trend.’
As Headmaster at Llandaff since 1994, Lindsay has more than doubled student numbers and overseen a substantial building programme. Alongside his busy role as a headmaster, he has continued to be active as a choral conductor and singer. He founded and directed the girl choristers at Llandaff Cathedral, and was until recently in charge of the music at Peterston-super-Ely Parish Church, where he developed a successful all-age mixed choir. Lindsay is married with two daughters both of whom have just graduated from Cambridge University.
David Hill, the musical advisor for the appointment, said, ‘Lindsay Gray is someone I warmed to immediately, and his close involvement with music and education make him an ideal new Director of the RSCM.’
The conductor and composer Bob Chilcott, who was a choral scholar at King’s at the same time as Lindsay Gray, said, ‘Lindsay is not only a fine multi-faceted musician but also a man with the vision and energy to move the RSCM ever forward. This is a very exciting appointment.’
Professor John Harper, the present Director of the RSCM, expressed his delight at the appointment. ‘The demands and scope of the post of the Director of the RSCM as both leader and chief executive are very broad. Lindsay Gray brings enormous talent and experience to the task. He is engaging, accessible, and a good communicator. I am certain he will inspire confidence and gain the wholehearted support of the RSCM membership and our volunteers throughout the world.’
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Tony Funk – Leader, Vocal Ensemble Academy
Exploring the intersection of sound, music, the imagination and theology – these are the realms, which Tony Funk finds himself in. After teaching for nearly two decades at Columbia Bible College, Tony continues to share ideas through his work with singers, conductors and church musicians at conferences, choral workshops and sacred music festivals throughout the world.
Within Tony one finds the unique confluence of professional singer, vocal teacher, theologian and expert choral director. Two masters degrees, one in music (University of British Columbia) and the other in theology (Trinity Western University), provide the academic foundation for his work.
Musical ideas have been honed through many experiences including the study of German Lieder in Austria with the late Dr. Eric Werba. While in New York, Tony sang with Alice Parker’s professional choir and after completing a three-week postdoctoral course, Tony was awarded the distinction of Fellow with Melodious Accord. Seventeen seasons with the Vancouver Cantata Singers (five as assistant director to James Fankhauser), and current study with master voice coach Laura Pudwell continue to develop Tony’s voice as a choral singer and soloist.
In 1991 Tony formed the West Coast Mennonite Chamber Choir. The choir has since made thirteen recordings for Communitas(www.communitascare.com), an organization that helps those with mental illness or trauma. The choir holds the unique honor of raising nearly $1,000,000 through CD sales for the work of Communitas.
In 2006 Tony had the privilege of being the first Canadian invited to Australia to work with the National Youth Choir of Australia (NYCA), as well as present lectures for the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) in Brisbane. He was invited to return in 2008 to direct NYCA on their Northern Territories tour, and lead various regional festivals in and around Brisbane for the RSCM. Tony will return to Brisbane in 2009, where once again he will be the first Canadian invited to deliver a plenary address and teach at the International School for Church Musicians.
When not writing, singing or directing choirs, Tony can be found on his farm with his wife and three sons. You can meet Tony on www.tonyfunk.ca
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Graeme Morton - Leader, Church Music Workshop
Graeme Morton’s experience of church music goes back to his childhood days in the Methodist Church, in which his father was a minister. He believes that these early experiences of fervent Protestant music lie at the very foundation of all his musical achievements and interests since.
He was a church organist and choir conductor from age 17, and in the early 1970s was responsible for the installation of one of the first neo-classic church organs in Australia.
He was also the first Sub-Organist appointed to St John’s Cathedral, where he worked with his mentor Robert Boughen for almost a decade.
Since leaving St John’s he has been Director of Music at Christ Church Anglican Church, in St Lucia, Brisbane. The choir’s two CDs have received acclaim for the quality of the choir and the breadth of the repertoire. He also directed the last Brisbane RSCM Summer School.
Graeme is Director of Music at St Peters Lutheran College, where he is founder and conductor of the St Peters Chorale, now in its twenty-sixth year. This exceptional school choir has Rejoice in the Lamb, the Vivaldi Gloria, and Mendelssohn’s Elijahin its 2008 programme. The Chorale’s recent overseas tour included performances in York Minster, Merton College, Trinity College and St Anne’s and St Agnus in London.
Graeme is also Artistic Director of NYCA, the National Youth Choir of Australia, and Director of the Brisbane Chamber Choir, (which is also the St John’s Cathedral Chamber Choir). He holds a Master of Music (Organ) from the University of Queensland, and teaches conducting at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music.
He is a strong protagonist for Australian music and has commissioned many of Australia’s composers, including Ross Edwards, Vincent Plush, Stephen Leek, Matthew Orlovich, Paul Stanhope and others.
As Co-Founder and first Director of The Australian Voices, Graeme performed Australian music extensively, as he has with all his ensembles. As a composer Graeme is published by Augsburg Fortress, Kjos Music, and Morton Music.
He hosts a weekly radio programme of choral Music titled “The Choir Room” on radio 4MBS.
He has toured overseas on numerous occasions, including Finland, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, Japan, North America and New Zealand. He has lectured in the Summer Programme at Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey, and in 1996 was Visiting Professor of Choral Music at the famed St Olaf College in Minnesota. As a Churchill Fellow he observed choral leadership in the United States and in Canada.
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Dr Ralph Morton – Course Director
Ralph Morton’s life as a church musician began at the age of ten, when he started playing the organ in a very small suburban church in Brisbane, and continued in several Methodist Churches until he become organist and later choir director at Christ Church Anglican Church, St. Lucia, Brisbane. He studied music at the University of Queensland, learning organ from Robert Boughen. In 1972 he began study at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles and was awarded a Master’s Degree in Choral Conducting, and a Doctorate in Organ Performance. During his stay in Los Angeles he funded his studies through work in a local Presbyterian Church and a Jewish Temple.
He was for some years Director of Music and Director of Chapel Music at Anglican Church Grammar School before taking up his current position of Director of Music at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Brisbane where he conducts the Cathedral Choir and Cathedral Schola.
Ralph has been involved in RSCM for many years. He was organising secretary for the 1972 Brisbane Summer School, and became chair of the Southern California branch during his stay in the US. He is currently Queensland Chair and National Chair.
With his brothers he is a co-founder of Morton Music, a firm which specializes in publishing Australian choral music. His work as organist, conductor and accompanist is demonstrated on half a dozen CDs.
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Michael Fulcher – Co-Leader, International Organ School
Michael Fulcher (Organist and Director of Music, Wellington Cathedral of St. Paul) is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music in London, the Queensland Conservatorium of Music (Griffith University) and the University of Queensland where he graduated with a high distinction in organ performance. He is a recipient of many awards including the Margaret Nickson Prize for Piano Accompaniment, the Hugh Brandon Prize for Organ performance and the Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Scholarship. In Australia, Michael held the position of Assistant Organist of St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane, for many years and Director of Music at Trinity College within the University of Melbourne where he also taught in the Faculty of Music and directed the Faculty choirs. In Brisbane, Michael also formed the chamber choir Vox Nova and was conductor of the Queensland University Musical Society conducting such works as A sea symphony and Messa di Requiem of Verdi. In 1990 he studied the organ with David Sanger in London.
Michael also conducted operatic productions for Joseph Ward at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music Opera School including the Australian premiere of Billy Budd, L’elisir d’amore and Elijah (the stage production). During his time in Melbourne Michael won a place on the ABC Young Conductors Mastercourse, studying with David Porcelijn and also studied privately with the late Robert Rosen formerly of the Royal Romanian Opera. He was Young Artist Conductor at the Victoria State Opera in 1996 and at Opera Queensland in 1998 conducting productions of Don Giovanni, L’elisir d’amore and Faust, and working on Xerxes, Madama Butterfly and Die Frau ohne Schatten and Janacek’s Glagolithic Mass.
After moving to the U.K. in 1997 Michael studied conducting with Mark Elder and Sir Charles Mackerras, worked for English National Opera conducted productions for New Sussex Opera, completed studies at the Guildhall school of Music and Drama in London and spent several years assisting Janice Chapman in her international singing studio.
In 2001 Michael conducted the Australian premiere of Roxanna Panufnik’s Westminster Mass for the 51st Intervarsity Choral Festival to critical and audience acclaim. He also prepared chorus and principals for the world premiere of Going into shadows by Andrew Schultz in London and Brisbane.
In 2002 Michael conducted productions of Postcard from Marocco by Dominic Argento in London and The Pilgrim’s Progress of Vaughan Williams for the Brisbane Festival in the presence of Ursula Vaughan Willimas and prepared Katarina Jovanovic for the role of Violetta for Grange Park Opera and Belgrade Opera. At 24 hours notice he also conducted a performance of La traviata for Pimlico Opera for an indisposed Mark Shanahan. Michael has also worked as repetitieur and chorus master on productions of Marriage of Figaro and Don Pasquale for Stanley Hall Opera in 2002 and 2003.
His work as an accompanist includes concerts with Katarina Jovanovic in London, Paris, Washington, Toulouse, Avignon, Reims and Clermont-Ferrand. Michael was assistant conductor for a world premiere in the Aarhus Summer Opera in Denmark in summer 2004, as well as chorus master and vocal coach for the Stanley Hall Opera production of Rossini La petra del Paragone in July 2004.
Michael Fulcher was very active as vocal coach and accompanist in London and Paris where he was also Organiste Titulaire of St George’s Anglican Church, Paris. Michael has conducted the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hanover Band.
Particularly interested in 20th century music, he has conducted the NZ premiere of Lament for Jerusalem (April 30), Sir John Tavener’s latest work, with the Orpheus Choir and NGC Wellington Sinfonia. Other engagements for 2005 include organ recitals at Wellington Town Hall and Wanganui Collegiate School, and for the NZ Choral Federation adjudicating the Big Sing at Palmerston North in August and conducting a Come’n’Sing workshop in May (Hummel Mass in B flat and Rutter Gloria) and of the Mozart Requiem for the Anglican Diocese of Wellington.
This year, he has given give recitals with sopranos Madeleine Pierard, Alison Cormack (winners of the Lexus Songquest), Lisette Wesseling, Nicola Edgecombe and Barbie Paterson.
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Christopher Willcock -
Leader, Composing for the Australian Church
Christopher Willcock is one of the world's leading Catholic composers of liturgical music, but also has a wide range of concert compositions to his credit, notably settings of modern poetry.
OCP released his "Who did you see?" collection - in March 2008. Youthful rhythms and World Youth Day themes feature strongly, and the music will be welcomed by the Ignatian-based MAGiS youth movement. As always, the texts are incisive, and include pieces from top Jesuit poets and writers -- Didier Rimaud, Andrew Hamilton and Paul Begheyn. "Spirit-Power" takes up the theme of World Youth Day 2008 and is expected to feature at Pope Benedict's final mass in Sydney on 20 July 2008.
With Michael Leunig, Christopher won the 2006 Classical Music Award for Choral or Vocal Work of the Year with Excerpts from Southern Star, a cycle of nine Christmas carols composed in collaboration with the author, cartoonist Michael Leunig. Southern Star has now been released on CD by ABC Classics with Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols, and 5 shorter Christmas pieces, featuring the harpist, Marshall McGuire, and the Choir of Trinity College, University of Melbourne. Gondwana Voices have also sung excerpts from the work at various times.
Southern Star was commissioned by the Australia Council Music Fund. The carols are for 4-part adult voices, or 3-part children's voices, and accompanied by harp. As the same forces are needed for Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols, this can be programmed as a companion-piece.
In July 2006, the Melbourne chamber orchestra Australia Pro Arte, under the direction of Jeffrey Crellin, premiered 'Southern Cross Station' which it commissioned to mark the opening of the new Spencer Street railway station (now called Southern Cross Station) in the centre of Melbourne.
In April, Christopher was called to Rome to organise music for the Papal Mass celebrating the Jubilees of the first Jesuit Companions. He spent the first semester of 2006 as the St Thomas More Chair of Jesuit Studies at the University of Western Australia, and delivered the annual Slattery Lecture for the School of Philosophy and Theology at The University of Notre Dame Australia.
The Melbourne Chorale appointed Christopher Willcock for 2004 as their first composer-in-residence. That year they performed two new a cappella pieces, Etiquette with Angels, a setting of a poem by another Australian Jesuit, Andrew Bullen and a setting of the Latin psalm 50, Miserere, which was premiered with well-known settings of the same text by Allegri and Gorecki. The Chorale also performed his John Shaw Neilson Triptych in late July 2004.
Willcock's Akhmatova Requiem for soprano solo, strings and percussion, was first performed in St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne in October 2001. This setting of the poem cycle "Requiem" by the great 20th century Russian poet, Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966), prompted a Russian listener to enquire how the composer could have known what Leningrad felt like during the Stalin Terror. Six songs from the cycle were then performed during the 2002 Melbourne Festival, again by Merlyn Quaife, soprano, but this time with the Orchestra Victoria Chamber Ensemble under Richard Mills.
Other major works have been performed in recent years by the Tallis Scholars (May 2000) and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (December 1998). Performances of "Gospel Bestiary", an all-Jesuit work commissioned for the Tallis Scholars, were very warmly received. Critics praised it - "a gloriously witty piece", "the choir sounded positively liberated". Christopher Willcock set to music the poem by Andrew Bullen SJ, for the brilliant voices of this a cappella group. Performed again in London in late 2000, "Gospel Bestiary" was acclaimed as the highlight of the night.
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Rev Michael Faragher – Leader, Playing for God
Michael was born in Townsville in 1958. His family then moved to Brisbane where he received most of his education and grew up with his younger brother and two sisters. His mother and father were deeply committed Anglicans and he became a chorister first in his local parishes and subsequently in St John’s Anglican Cathedral, where he sang and played for services for some 20 years.
After completing his secondary education, Michael became a professional musician, joining the Australian Army Band Corps and serving in Brisbane and Adelaide. He also performed as a saxophonist, pianist with many different ensembles and artists, serving as music director for Rolf Harris, Ronny Corbett and other visiting artists. He also arranged music for service bands and orchestras and has composed music for film, television and radio. During his 12 years of army service, Michael completed the degrees of Bachelor of Music with first class honours (1992) and a Master of Music (1995) at the University of Queensland; he was awarded the University Medal (1992) and the Australian Army Exemplary Service Medal (1991). Michael also holds a Fellowship Diploma in saxophone performance from Trinity College, London (1985) and a Master of Education from Deakin University. He is regularly invited to perform at many Australian jazz festivals and church events around the country.
Currently employed as Head of Music at Radford College, Michael is also heavily involved in Canberra musical life, playing and conducting in many jazz, community and church settings. (He recently played for and directed the music at the Anglican General Synod services). Michael's interests and practice as a pastoral musician are informed by his wide experience of many musical styles.
Michael first tested his vocation to Holy Orders as a postulant in the Diocese of Brisbane and was ordained deacon at St Saviour's Cathedral, Goulburn in December 2007. After completing a theology degree and further formation studies he hopes to be priested at the end of this year. His wife Dr Rhonda Faragher is an academic at the Australian Catholic University; their children are Luke, (an officer cadet at the Australian Defence Force Academy), Paul and Ruth.
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Christopher Wrench – Co-leader, International Organ School
CHRISTOPHER WRENCH was appointed Director of Music & Organist at St Mary’s in 1994. One of Australia’s foremost organists, Christopher is a distinguished graduate of the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University and the Vienna University of Music where he studied with Michael Radulescu. A prizewinner at numerous international competitions including Odense (1st Prize, 1992), St Albans (Audience Prize) and Dublin (2nd Prize), Christopher performs regular recitals, concertos and broadcasts throughout Australia and overseas.
Wrench has appeared at the Melbourne Autumn Music Festival, the Sydney Festival, the Brisbane Festival, the New England Bach Festival, and as soloist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Adelaide Chamber Orchestra, The Queensland Orchestra, and The Queensland Youth Symphony Orchestra. Annual international tours have taken him to Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, England (incl. Westminster Abbey, King’s College Cambridge), Germany, Hong Kong, Italy and Sweden.
Landmark performances in Brisbane include the complete organ works of J.S.Bach and Maurice Duruflé. Wrench recorded J.S.Bach’s Organ Sonatas at the Garrison Church, Copenhagen in 2003. In 2007 he performs solo recitals in Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Germany and Denmark.
Christopher performs a broad solo repertoire spanning many centuries whilst also enjoying work as a liturgical musician, teacher, chamber musician and Lieder accompanist. With a reputation as an outstanding collaborator, Christopher has performed with leading Australian artists such as Diana Doherty (oboe), Daniel Mendelow (trumpet), Yoram Levy (trumpet), Jason Barry-Smith (baritone), Margaret Schindler (soprano), Markus Stocker (cello), Paul Boyd (dancer/choreographer), and his wife Emily Cox (choral conductor). He is Lecturer in Organ at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University and founding artistic director of the concert series ‘Music at St Mary’s’.
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Rupert Jeffcoat – Co-leader, International Organ School
Rupert Jeffcoat hails from Scotland where he was a Cathedral chorister at St Mary's Edinburgh under Dr Dennis Townhill. After a short time at Guildford Cathedral he was appointed Organ Scholar at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he was fortunate to study under Dr Peter le Huray, Peter Hurford, Alexander Goehr and Robin Holloway. He received two Firsts in Music, and he also assisted regularly at both St John's College and King's College.
After University he worked for the Edinburgh Festival as repetiteur, arranger, composer, organist, pianist and even clock-player! After teaching at Roman Catholic monastery he moved to Birmingham where he worked with the major musical groups in the Midlands. In 1997 he was appointed as Director of Music at Coventry Cathedral, where he built up a busy programme of four choirs with broadcasts, recitals, civic occasions and royal visits.
Rupert has led tours to Russia, Japan, Germany, South Africa, Ireland, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Palestine and Israel - his interests in languages has proved invaluable, in concerts, in markets or at checkpoints! As a composer, Rupert has some 200 works to his credit: his Third Service is performed on every continent (except Antarctica!)
As an organist, Rupert has broadcast and recorded widely, and given recitals in numerous countries. His discs have received critical acclaim for their imagination and inventiveness: his vol XI in the English Cathedral Series (Regent Records) was reviewed as “truly virtuosic” by The Gramophone Magazine. In May 2005 Rupert gave the prestigious 60th anniversary recital marking the end of the war at Frankfurt Cathedral with a mixture of German and British repertoire. Rupert delights in playing unplayed, under-played and even unplayable music, and enjoys passing his enthusiasm and experiences on to other organists.
Rupert, who is also an Anglican priest, arrived in Australia in July 2005 to be Director of Music at St John's Cathedral in Brisbane, where the vibrant team of musicians explore the rich musical heritage of Anglican music.
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Neal Nuske
Neal Nuske biography to be uploaded soon.
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