Life Members

Graeme Morton AM

Graeme Morton AM is the founding Director of the Brisbane Chamber Choir, Senior Lecturer and Choral Conducting Fellow at the University of Queensland, and the Director of Music at St John’s Anglican Cathedral, Brisbane.  He is the former Director of Music at St Peters Lutheran College, where he founded the St Peters Chorale – an ensemble he had the pleasure of conducting for twenty-eight years.

Faye Dumont

Faye conducts the Melbourne Women’s Choir and Australian Catholic University (Melbourne) Chamber Choir. She has led choirs and choral education at MCAE, Melbourne, Latrobe, Monash and RMIT Universities, conducted the choir at APAC Festival Guangzhou, China, and has adjudicated widely, including the Big Sing and SingDownUnder in New Zealand. She has presented at international and national voice, choral and education conferences, and has written many journal articles, choral compositions and choral arrangements.

Dr Margaret Pride

Dr Margaret Pride is currently Music Director for Collegium Choirs in Western Australia, a triumvirate of three choirs: Collegium Symphonic Chorus; Collegium Musicum Choir; and Collegium Vocal Consort. She was Senior Lecturer at the University of Western Australia for many years, lectured part-time a the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts & and currently teaches conducting, voice and piano. In addition she worked with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra Chorus for more than a decade and the small professional chamber choirs Saints & Sinners and the Perth Chamber Singers.

Margaret studied for five years in the United States gaining her performance doctorate under Rodney Eichenberger [choral music and choral conducting ] and Hans Beer [orchestral conducting] at the prestigious University of Southern California. Her other mentors include Robert Shaw & Paul Salamunovich [U.S.A.], Eric Ericsson & Stefan Parkhman [Sweden] and David Willcocks [England].

Noel Ancell

Noel Ancell is Artistic Director of the Australian Boys Choral Institute, conducting the Australian Boys Choir, the Kelly Gang (teenagers) and The Vocal Consort, an adult men’s choir. He is a former President of the Australian National Choral Association and an honorary Life Member. He has taught conducting at undergraduate and graduate level. He also teaches voice, composes, and runs workshops in Australia and abroad. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2009 for service to choral music. He has recently been appointed Artistic Director of NYCA, the National Youth Choir of Australia.

Milly Blakeley

Milly Blakeley has been retired from high school teaching for 17 years but she hasn’t stopped being involved with community music groups. For the past 13 years she has been musical director of The Bluebird Singers, an un-auditioned group of women who enjoy singing for retirement villages and other venues. She loves the challenge of helping them to do the best they can with a wide variety of musical styles.

Ron Smart

Janette Smart

Else Shepherd AM (deceased Feb 2023)
Ralph Morton (deceased)

Helen Pietsch (deceased 2017)