Mark Shiell

Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Zelman Memorial Symphony Orchestra, Mark Shiell has established a reputation as one of the leading Australian conductors of his generation. During the last 3 years his guest conducting appearances have included the West Australian Symphony, Victorian Opera, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, Canberra Symphony, Sydney Sinfonia and Melbourne University Symphony Orchestra.

Shiell is currently the Principal Conductor of the Canberra Concerto Orchestra, Choir of the Southern Cross and the Macquarie Philharmonia. His passion for working with and encouraging young musicians is well known and he is regularly invited to work with youth orchestras across Australia and in Asia.

Mark Shiell is a devoted interpreter of new music. He is a regular guest conductor with the renowned Sydney- based ensemble, Halcyon. He has also conducted numerous Australian and World Premieres with other ensembles including the Melbourne New Orchestra, of which Shiell was both co-founder and Principal Conductor and in the field of opera with works such as Matthew Hindson’s Love, Death, Music and Plants and Emma O’Briens Avatara.

Originally a flautist, Mark Shiell studied at the Victorian College of the Arts where he won the Gwen Nisbett Award for Outstanding Musical Achievement. His conducting study began with Graham Abbott through Monash University and with John Hopkins in the renowned Masters Program at the Faculty of Music, University of Melbourne. Further study has taken him to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Perugia where he has been pursuing the teachings of the great Russian conducting pedagogue, Ilya Musin. (more details...)

Jane Elton Brown

Jane Elton Brown graduated from Melbourne University, B.Mus.,Dip.Ed., receiving the Dwight Prize in Education. She subsequently gained the degree of Master of Music (Melb) with first class honours. In 1971, Jane was appointed Director of Music at Methodist Ladies College and held that position for 29 years. She is currently Director of Music at MacRobertson Girls’ High School. (more details...)

Philip Carrington

Philip Carrington is an accomplished performer and educator. He has trained and conducted many student and community orchestras, including the Zelman Symphony for almost twenty years, and performed in many solo and chamber music recitals and as a soloist with several orchestras. He has taught violin and viola extensively, and his pupils have developed variously into performers of classical, popular and world music, as well as competent teachers. (more details...)

Nicholas Carter

In 2007 Nicholas graduated from the Faculty of Music, University of Melbourne, majoring in singing. Since 2003, he has studied conducting with Richard Gill. For OzOpera, he has conducted performances of Brundibar and The Beggars Opera. In 2005 and 2007, Nicholas took part in the Symphony Australia Conductor Development Program, working with the Adelaide and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, The Queensland Orchestra and the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra in Sydney. (more details...)

Gyula Cseszkó

Born in Adelaide to Hungarian and Dutch parents, Jules obtained a Bachelor degree in Music Performance on the Viola and as a young man made his conducting debut at the Adelaide Town Hall. Conductor Henry Krips commented after observing Jules at this performance, that the "young man showed great promise". Life has been a journey for Jules and his family, since being married 15 years ago to the love of his life, Elonie. After over a decade of preaching, he decided to return to music and pursue his childhood dream of conducting. (more details...)

Joshua Geddes

Originally from the Victorian country city of Sale, Joshua grew up in the local brass band playing all the brass instruments before deciding to specialise in Trumpet and French Horn.

Joshua has learnt conducting from the inside out having performed with many leading ensembles such as the Melbourne Youth Orchestra, Melbourne City Opera and the Australian Army Band Melbourne. (more details...)

Phillip Green

Phillip Green began his professional career as Principal cellist with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and has since conducted all of Australia's major symphony orchestras. He has devised and directed numerous events in Australia and New Zealand, conducting opera, dance and symphonic works in many metropolitan and country locations. (more details...)

Peter Handsworth

Peter Handsworth was awarded a first class Honours degree in 1987 after the completion of four years study at the Elder Conservatorium with David Shephard. Further postgraduate studies in Germany with Wolfgang Meyer saw the beginning of an extensive international career as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player throughout Europe, Japan, Australia, South America and South East Asia. (more details...)

Basil Hawkins

Born into a musical family in India, Basil began playing the piano and violin at an early age. In 1968 he migrated to Australia, and obtained degrees in teaching and performance at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. He studied conducting with various teachers including the late Robert Rosen, and has worked with many orchestras and musical societies in Victoria. (more details...)

Greg Hocking

Greg Hocking has been Musical Director of the Essendon Choral Society since 1989. He has considerable experience conducting choirs and orchestras as well as performing in shows. Professionally, he is an entrepreneur and theatrical producer and runs the Athenaeum Theatre and the Comedy Club and is currently involved with the Melbourne Opera Company of which he is a founding director. He has conducted nine operas, including Puccini's Tosca and Madame Butterfly, and Mozart's The Magic Flute and Così fan Tutte. (more details...)

Gerald Keuneman

Gerald Keuneman has been the Music Director of the Whitehorse Orchestra since 1990. He is an orchestral director with commanding experience in the world of fine music and offers a unique blend of quality and authority in music direction.

His musical background includes performing as a cellist in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the ABC Show Band, and many stage, film and TV productions. He has wide experience in conducting and directing community and corporate orchestras, arranging touring orchestras for visiting artists and in running musical workshops and senior classes at seminars, schools and camps. (more details...)

Michael Loughlin

Michael is an experienced conductor and musical director, having been involved over many years with a variety of orchestras, choirs, opera companies and music theatre companies.

He studied conducting in Melbourne with the late Robert Rosen and spent time with a number of different teachers in Czech Republic and England. In 1996 he formed the Loughlin Chamber Orchestra, which has performed regularly in and around Melbourne. He has also conducted Stonnington Symphony Orchestra, Geelong Chamber Orchestra, Kooyong Chamber Players and Sydney and Melbourne Youth Orchestras. In the early seventies, he was a violinist with the Elizabethan Melbourne Orchestra (now State Orchestra of Victoria). (more details...)

Pat Miller

Pat Miller began conducting in 2003 before going completing a Master of Music at the University of Melbourne studying under John Hopkins. Pat began his professional career in 2005 conducting the National Tour of Bizet’s Carmen for Ozopera. Further training through the Symphony Australia Conductor Development Program through has led Pat to conduct the Tasmanian, Queensland and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras. (more details...)

Rick Prakhoff

Rick is a versatile conductor with a repertoire ranging from grand opera and contemporary chamber opera through to orchestral, choral and chamber music. His musical career began with the classical guitar in Perth at the age of ten, continuing those studies at the University of WA and London. After teaching classical guitar for two years in Perth and a further 18 months pursuing a solo career in London, Rick returned to Perth in order to broaden his musical career by studying conducting with Richard Gill at the WA Conservatorium of Music (WAAPA) with voice as a double major. (more details...)

Tom Pugh

A flute player, Tom began his conducting studies at the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide with Professor Heribert Esser before moving to Melbourne in 1995 to commence a Masters in Conducting at the Victorian College of the Arts. Whilst studying with Barry Bignall and Graham Abbott, he conducted numerous performances with VCA ensembles, including Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Belioz's Les Nuits d'Ete and Sibelius' Pelleas and Melisande. From 1995-97, he was an associate conductor with the VCA Opera Studio, assisting in productions of Prokofiev's Love of Three Oranges and Ravel's Les Enfants et les Sortileges. (more details...)

Joannes Roose

Joannes Roose studied conducting in Vienna on a Churchill Fellowship, and upon his return to Australia founded the Sinfonia of Adelaide, and directed the Adelaide University Choral Society, the Adelaider Liedertafel, and numerous orchestral performances. He has been Musical Director for the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust in two outstandingly successful seasons of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the South Australian Theatre Company, guest conductor with the ABC Adelaide Singers, The Elder Conservatorium Orchestra and the Adelaide Metropolitan Light Opera Company. (more details...)

Steven Stanke

Steven Stanke studied conducting at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music with Alan Cumberland, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Mats Nilsson and Harry Spence Lyth, and the University of Melbourne with John Hopkins.

Recent conducting engagements include the Bucharest Sinfonia, The Opera and Oratorio Company of Australia, Mornington Peninsula Theatre Company, the Bands of the Royal Australian Navy and the Bands of HM Royal Marines. (more details...)

Michael Woods

In a past life, Michael Woods was a trombone player. A former student of Roger Davies at the Victorian College of the Arts, he was a principal player in five Australian Youth Orchestra seasons and in the Victoria State Opera and Australian Pops Orchestras. He also played in the orchestras of the ABC and the Australian Opera and Ballet. As a 22 year old, he won the audition for a permanent principal position in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. (more details...)