Choral PD Day

Conductor & Music Educator (VIC)

Mark O'Leary OAM B.Mus.Ed M.Mus is one of Australia's most respected choral conductors, widely admired for his work with Young Voices of Melbourne, Gondwana Voices and Exaudi youth choir. He has been on more than 45 national and international tours and has made 18 CD recordings with these choirs.

Mark has special interests in Kodály teaching techniques, the development of excellence in children's choirs and Australian choral music. He is a regular guest conductor at choral festivals around Australia and is in demand as a presenter on choral music education at workshops and conferences, both in Australia and abroad.

Mark publishes Australian choral music for young choirs in the Young Voices of Melbourne Choral Series and is the creator of the Sight Singing School books and website, which has users from more than fifty countries. He is a Churchill Fellow, an Honorary Life Member of Kodály Australia and was awarded an OAM for services to choral music in 2018.

Conductor, Composer & Music Educator (SA)

Annie is truly excited by children’s and youth choirs, always inspired by their spirit, possibility, and sound. Her works have been performed in major choral festivals in Australia and internationally, as well as being actively sought out for primary and secondary school music programs.

She has worked on the artistic staff of the South Australian Public Primary Schools Festival of Music, Young Adelaide Voices, Gondwana Voices, and Sydney Children’s Choir. Annie was the 2011-12 Composer-in-Residence for Young Adelaide Voices, and the 2014-15 Composer-in-Residence for the Sydney Children’s Choir. Recent collaborations include commissioned words for the inaugural Flame Tree Performing Arts Festival, Pemulwuy Male Voice Festival, Toowoomba Festival of Voices, SCEGGS Compose 120 Project, Scotch College 100th Year Celebrations, New South Wales Performing Arts Unit Concert Series, South Australian Public Primary Schools Festival of Music Concert Series, and the opening of the MOD Research Centre for the University of South Australia.

By day, Annie is a secondary school classroom music teacher, and has taught at Brighton Secondary School, one of four public Special Interest Music Schools in Adelaide, and the Conservatorium High School in Sydney. She is currently the Assistant Head of Performing Arts at Pulteney Grammar School in Adelaide where she teaches Year 7 to 12 Music and champions all things choral as the director of the Grammarphones Middle School and Senior Concert Choirs, the newly-formed “MANCHOIR” for developing male voices from Year 7 to 12, and rallies the whole school from Reception to Year 12 in the massive “Whole School Singing” Project, started in 2023.

In 2020, she was awarded the South Australian World Teachers Day Award for Excellence by the Australian National Choral Association.

Annie is excited to be coming to Tasmania to work with singers at the 2025 Festival of Voices.

Conductor & Music Educator (QLD)

Joshua Clifford is a conductor, singing teacher, performer, and lyricist based in meanjin/Brisbane. He holds a Bachelor of Music (First Class Honours) in classical voice from the University of Queensland, and a Master of Music Studies (with Distinction) from Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University majoring in vocal pedagogy, where he received an award for Academic Excellence.

Currently, Joshua works at Kenmore State High School, Centenary State High School and Ambrose Treacy College (ATC) as a specialist singing teacher and choral director. He manages a busy teaching schedule, and the diverse range of high-school ensembles he conducts includes youth treble choirs, changed and changing-voice tenor/bass choirs, and mixed-voice ensembles. In 2023, the Kenmore SHS Chorale reached the Choral Fanfare Metropolitan Regional Finals and received a ‘Most Outstanding Secondary Performance’ trophy. More recently, Joshua toured with 59 students from ATC to the Australian International Music Festival in Sydney where the choir received a gold award in the competitive event, and he had the thrill of conducting at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.

Passionate about community music-making, Joshua is also the director of the Hillbrook Chorale, who produce their own concert series each year and collaborate with a range of local performers and ensembles. For several years, he worked with Voices of Birralee as a senior musical assistant and has toured as a chorister to Canada, Austria, France, Croatia, Italy, and Slovenia.

Other musical collaborative work includes serving as accompanist for QLD Music Festival’s ‘Help Is On Its Way’ (2019) and ‘Absolutely Everybody’ (2021) choral projects, led by Dr Jonathon Welch, and audition repetiteur/vocal coach for QLD Theatre Company/QPAC’s new musical ‘Round The Twist’.

Joshua regularly adjudicates vocal and choral competitions for both schools and community organisations. His work with the Australian National Choral Association (ANCA) involves serving as the Immediate Past President of the QLD/NT Chapter, and as Editor for ANCA’s national choral magazine ‘Sing Out’.

As a versatile singer, Joshua straddles both contemporary and classical performance contexts, including jazz standards with the Jindalee Jazz Orchestra and choral masterworks with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra including Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Joshua’s interest in language and writing has led to collaborations with composers including Joe Twist, Jenny Moon and Paul Jarman, where he has written lyrics in the creation of new Australian choral works. In his spare time, Josh reads voraciously.

Photo credit: Alastair Bett