I am the conductor of Young Voices of Melbourne, Exaudi Youth Choir and the Principal Guest Conductor of Gondwana Voices, Australia’s national children’s choir.

Each week in Melbourne I get to work with fabulous young people aged from 8 – 28 years who want to sing, are good at singing and are prepared to work hard to make great music together. Although there are frustrating days, when not everything goes the way I would like it to, and days when I worry that I am not doing it well enough but there are also so many rewards. I am rewarded by the bright happy faces that look at me in rehearsals, I am rewarded by the happy burble of friends meeting friends before and after rehearsals, and I am rewarded by hearing amazing sounds which move, excite me and bring audiences to their feet. Who could ask for a better job?

I am lucky too, that my work brings me into contact with other young singers around Melbourne.

Projects like the Light Up Your Winter Choral Festival held at the Deakin Edge in 2013 and 2014, brung together enthusiastic singers from schools across Melbourne. We are a diverse mob, from different suburbs, socioeconomic backgrounds and cultures. Some of the choirs are more advanced musically than others, but this doesn’t matter when we come together and do our best to bring a big song to life. We all learn together, and we all learn from each other, and it is very inspiring for us all.

Through my work with Gondwana Voices and the Gondwana National Choral School I get to meet outstanding young singers from all around our vast nation.

Singers from Darwin will be sitting next to those from Perth, Yeppoon, Sydney or Hobart. We meet new friends as we work together who will then become friends and in many cases, for life. We experience the joy of creating something special each time we come together from across the country. How lucky am I to be part of that!

My work with Young Voices of Melbourne, Exaudi Youth Choir and Gondwana Voices is not limited to the Australian continent. All these choirs have had the privilege of travel overseas to show others around the world what young Australians can achieve in the choral arts. I have toured with these choirs to many corners of the globe on more than a dozen international tours, and I am proud to say that our young singers can hold their heads up in any international forum. It may be immodest to say, but we are good at what we do and that makes me immensely proud of all the young singers I work with.

Is there a better job in Australia? Not for me!

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