Office Bearers

Luke is a creative professional working across a number of industries including SaaS, the performing arts and consulting. An artist at heart, Luke has been involved with ensembles that have sung for the Pope, performed with Adele and produced a number of sold-out concerts in his home state of WA. 

Having spent 12 years in Marketing & Business Development in the private sector, Luke moved into arts management in 2010 and has worked for WA Youth Orchestra, West Australian Opera, Perth Theatre Trust, West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Luke serves on the boards of a number of arts organisations and his work focuses on ensuring that an arts organisation has a strong foundation of support enabling the artists to create the art with ease and little distraction.

Along with Dr Robert Braham OAM, Luke founded Voyces in 2012, which in 2020, became The Choral Collective, an organisation focused on creating professional opportunities in choral music. The Choral Collective directly owns and operates Voyces, Vanguard Consort & Perth Choral Institute and is the parent company of West Australian Young Voices & Winthrop Singers.

 

ANCA's National Secretary supports the operations and strategic dimensions of the Council. Judith helps with our website, email and file administration as well as the governance role in assisting the chair and president to meet our documentation responsibilities. 

It is the responsibility of the Council Treasurer of the Association to ensure that;

• All money due to the Association is collected and received and that all payments authorised by the Association are made and,
• correct books and accounts are kept showing the financial affairs of the Association, including full details of all receipts and expenditure connected with the activities of the Association.
• A statement of ANCA's financial affairs is presented to the Council on a regular basis, the timing to be determined by the Council

Tim brings to the role a background in consulting engineering, business leadership and governance, community singing, performance, organising choir and independent music festivals and a belief that community singing is a social good that is vital to the health of our community.

My primary interest in participating in National Council is to support all efforts to enable ANCA to realise its purpose as the peak body for the choral community and achieve a financially sustainable platform upon which to deliver the support services that the sector requires to enhance the standing of and participation in group singing across Australia.

 

Joshua Clifford is a singer, teacher, conductor, and lyricist based in Brisbane/Meanjin. In 2017 he graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Music (Class I Honours) with an extended major in classical voice performance. Joshua has performed in works including Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mahler’s Symphony 2, Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast and Mozart’s Requiem. In 2019, he was invited to work with the UQ Chorale as language coach to prepare for their performance of Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. In 2019, Joshua was UQ Chorale’s language coach for Bernstein’s ‘Chichester Psalms’, in Hebrew. He has also returned as an alumnus to perform with UQ in Beethoven’s Symphony 9 (2021), and Verdi’s Requiem (2022), conducted by Dane Lam. Joshua is currently completing a Master of Music Studies in Vocal Pedagogy at the Queensland Conservatorium where in 2020 he was awarded a Griffith Award for Academic Excellence.

In 2017 Joshua entered the role of Senior Music Assistant at Voices of Birralee. From 2014 to 2021 he was a member of the Birralee Blokes conducted by Paul Holley OAM. Joshua has travelled extensively with Birralee, including to the Western Front in France three times to commemorate centenaries of the Battles of Fromelles and Pozieres (2016), Armistice Day (2018) and ANZAC Day (2019). The most recent of these included performances in Austria, Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy.

A keen writer and lyricist, Joshua has collaborated with Australian composers including Paul Jarman and Joseph Twist to create lyrics for new choral works. These collaborations have resulted in premieres at QPAC (“Fields of Allonville” – Twist, “And Now The War has Ended” - Jarman), both based on the experiences of WWI Australian diggers. Another collaboration with Joe Twist led to “Flying Home” (both pieces are available for purchase from singscore.com.au). Joshua continues writing and working with composers to create new, engaging, and meaningful musical works.

Joshua has enjoyed working with Opera Queensland twice as Director’s Scribe for two productions: with Lindy Hume in her Helpmann-nominated production of Don Giovanni (2018), and Patrick Nolan’s critically acclaimed production of Tosca (2019). In 2021, Joshua was Chorusmaster for a new chamber opera in development (Spirit Orphan), composed by Corinna Bonshek and presented by the Brisbane Music Festival.

With the Queensland Music Festival, Joshua has served as an official accompanist for their choral projects: ‘Help Is On It’s Way’ in 2019, and ‘Absolutely Everybody’ in 2021. From 2019 to 2021, he was the assistant conductor & accompanist for the Brisbane strand of MEN ALOUD!, led by Dr Jonathon Welch. Passionate about community music-making, in 2022 Joshua began directing the Hillbrook Chorale, and he programmes and presents regular concerts with this ensemble, including exciting collaborations with local musicians.

Joshua’s primary job is as a Singing Teacher at Kenmore State High School, Centenary State High School, and Grace Lutheran College, where he maintains a busy schedule. Joshua is the Choral Director of Concordia (changed/changing male-voice choir), Vox Nova (Grade 7 ensemble), and Chorale (SATB premier ensemble) at Kenmore. At Grace, Joshua was director of the school’s acapella ensemble ‘Gathered Voices’ who were national finalists in the 2019 AUSACA competition in Melbourne. Two further ensembles at Centenary – an all-comers SAB ensemble and small TBB group. Joshua has also adjudicated the Clayfield College Music Festival vocal section and held workshops for school and community choirs (including Brisbane Girls Grammar School in 2022).

In 2021, Joshua became the Vice-President of the QLD/NT chapter of the Australian National Choral Association (ANCA). In 2022, he stepped into the President role of this chapter. In his spare time, Joshua loves to cook with his friends, read novels about Ancient Greece, and add to his growing collection of funky pants.
 

Dr Naomi Cooper is a freelance choral conductor. She holds a PhD in music for her thesis on directing community choirs and has presented this research nationally and internationally. She has conducted primary and secondary school choirs in public, private and diocesan Catholic schools, and currently leads ensembles at the International Grammar School Sydney and Monte Sant’ Angelo Mercy College. 

Some of her current community choir projects include the national Estonian-Australian choir Kooskõlas who performed at a large song festival in Estonia in 2019, ParkinSong (a choir for people with Parkinson’s disease and their carers), New Day Carers Choir (for people caring for loved ones with lived experience of mental illness), Sydney Alterna Choir and Northside Community Choir.

Naomi works as a sessional academic at Macquarie University where she teaches vocal studies. She also runs a busy studio teaching classical and contemporary guitar. Naomi also serves on the National Council for ANATS, as NSW Chapter Treasurer for ANATS and as Vice-President of Kodály NSW. 

Sharon Batterham is a choral music and vocal specialist, with several years’ experience as a soloist, chorister and conductor. She completed tertiary music studies at the University of Melbourne, with a Bachelor of Music, in composition and voice, and a Bachelor of Music Education. Sharon studied voice with Kevin Casey and Hartley Newnham, and performed regularly with the Faculty of Music Choir and Chamber Singers.

As a child Sharon sang with the Australian Children's Choir, and performed at several venues throughout Melbourne, regional Victoria and South Australia. Sharon participated in the ACC’s first international tours to Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, and worked with various conductors and musical groups during that time. Sharon has also sung with the Royal Philharmonic Choir, Faye Dumont Singers, CHIME Choir and the Australian Youth Choir.

Conducting became a particular interest when Sharon commenced tutoring the training groups of the Victorian Boys' Choir, and she continued developing this area with positions in the Australian Girls' Choir and the CHIME Choirs. Training in choral pedagogy followed, under Rodney Eichenberger, Andre de Quadros and Doreen Rao, and Sharon was selected from conductors around the world to attend the 3rd Choral Symposium held by the Toronto Children’s Chorus under Jean Ashworth-Bartle.

After a break to raise her family, Sharon is now the Music Director of Southern Voices. She is in demand as a presenter at choral workshops for all age groups, and is developing a conductor and accompanist education program within the structure of Southern Voices. Sharon is the Director of Cantabella, the senior choir of Canterbury Girls’ Secondary College; she teaches voice at Killester College and Our Lady of Sacred Heart Bentleigh, and is on the committee of the Australian National Choral Association’s Victoria/Tasmania branch.

DR. ANDREW FOOTE

In a professional concert and operatic career spanning 40 years, Andrew performed more than 30 operatic roles for professional companies throughout Australia, and is a Helpmann Award winner.  As recitalist, oratorio soloist, recording artist, crossover cabaret artist, opera principal, and opera director, he consistently drew superb accolades.  He is Chorus Director of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra Chorus, and Chair of Vocal Studies at the University of Western Australia Conservatorium of Music, where he teaches voice, directs the Symphonic Chorus and chamber choirs, and passes on his experience to the next generation of musicians.