Gondwana National Choirs

AJ America is a performer, conductor and creative producer. She is the Artistic Director of Luminescence Chamber Singers and Children’s Choir, Canberra’s premiere vocal ensembles, and currently serves as the Chair of the ACT Art’s Minister’s Creative Council. AJ performs regularly as a soloist and a consort singer in Sydney and Canberra, appearing with the Luminescence Chamber Singers, Cantillation, the Choir of St James’ King St, Pinchgut Opera and Vox Plexus (Melbourne). She is a regular collaborator with conductor Roland Peelman, and Ella Luhtasaari (piano). In recent years, AJ has also served as a tutor for the ANU School of Music H-Course Vocal Ensemble, Director of Choirs at Radford College, and as a guest conductor for the Sydney Children’s Choir. 

Paul Holley is a choral conductor and music educator. His personal warmth and passion for choral music have inspired many singers to discover and develop their skills as choral musicians. With over 25 years of teaching experience in schools and many years of working with instrumentalists and singers Paul knows how to connect with people of all ages and enjoys collaborating with them in the music making process. 

Presently, Paul is the Artistic Director of Voices of Birralee a community youth and children’s choir organisation based in Brisbane. He conducts two of the signature choirs the Birralee Blokes and Resonance of Birralee. Both of these ensembles have toured nationally and internationally, won several competitions, made numerous recordings and supported community events. He is also the co-conductor of the national youth choir Gondwana Chorale. In addition to these roles, Paul is a workshop presenter, choral clinician, guest conductor and mentor to younger conductors. He was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in January 2016 for his services to choral music. 

Christie Anderson is a singer and award-winning conductor and Artistic Director of Young Adelaide Voices and the WATU Youth Choir Festival.  Christie is a core singer and Associate Conductor of the multi-award-winning Adelaide Chamber Singers and a founding member of the EVE vocal trio.  She has sung and conducted in numerous festivals in Australia and internationally.

In 2020 Christie will be touring to Europe with YAV and the choir will be performing a new Roxanna Panufnik commission with ensemble Apollo 5 and the English Chamber Orchestra and she will be giving Australian music workshops with Robert Hollingworth’s ensemble The 24 at the University of York.  Later in the year she also gets to sing in Belgium and Germany with Adelaide Chamber Singers and then to China with her women’s ensemble Aurora, who are the guest Australian choir at the 15^th Beijing International Choral Festival.

 Christie is Co-Convenor of Choralfest 2021 and has been a lecturer in the University of South Australia’s School of Creative Industries team since 2018.  This is Christie’s fourth National Choral School and she is delighted to work with Kim and Gondwana Novus.

Rowan is a freelance conductor, adjudicator and clinician based in New Zealand. He holds undergraduate degrees in Voice and Composition and has completed a Masters degree in Choral Conducting with First Class Honours studying with Dr Karen Grylls at Auckland University. Rowan founded the Taranaki Youth Choir and the internationally-acclaimed Choralation Choir from Westlake Girls & Boys High Schools. Under his direction, Choralation is the most successful choir in the history of the NZ Secondary School choral festival The Big Sing. In 2014, Choralation was awarded 1st Place in the Summa Cum Laude Music Festival in Vienna where they performed in the Musik Vehrein. Rowan currently holds the positions of Director of Choirs at Holy Trinity Cathedral Auckland, the Music Directorship of the Auckland Youth Choir and was made an Associate Conductor for New Zealand’s professional chamber choir, an ensemble he also sings in, Voices New Zealand. He is a Choral Advisor for the NZ Choral Federation. 

Hugh Lydon is a teacher, singer and conductor who is passionate about choral music. This love was developed as a chorister in Westminster Cathedral from 1992-1997. In his final year at the Cathedral, the choir received the Gramophone Classical Music Awards for both ‘Best Choral Recording of the Year’ and ‘Record of the Year’, the only time a cathedral choir has won either of these categories.

Hugh studied Music Education at Trinity College Dublin, before moving to Perth in September 2010. He commenced work at John Septimus Roe ACS, where he was an active member of the Music Department until the end of 2018.

In 2017, Hugh founded the Perth Choral Institute; an organisation that delivers choral education to singers of all genres. PCI operated residential Summer Schools from 2017-2019 and multiple Boot Camps throughout each year, where singers could experience styles from Gospel to Christmas Carols.

In February 2019, Hugh began employment at Aquinas College, directing the inaugural Schola Cantorum. The choristers of the choir receive nine hours of music education weekly and perform throughout Perth. They have sung alongside many ensembles, including WASO for performances of Britten’s ‘War Requiem’, Mahler’s ‘Third Symphony’, and Lachlan Skipworth’s ‘The Tides of Longing.’

Hugh continues his own involvement in choral music, both as a singer and as conductor. He has performed in or alongside The Gesualdo Six, I Fagiolini, St George’s Cathedral Consort and The Giovanni Consort, and has conducted The Giovanni Consort, WASO Chorus and St George’s Cathedral Consort.

Since mid-2021, Hugh has been the Children’s Chorus Master for West Australian Opera, preparing children for performances of Pagliacci, Carmen and Tosca. He also held the position of Chorus Master for Tosca and Carmen.

Hugh was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2022 to create tertiary pathways for choral musicians in Western Australia.