House Music at Your House

Lyric soprano Amy Moore moved to Australia from the UK in 2015. An accomplished soloist and ensemble singer, Amy enjoys a broad repertoire, with a particular focus on Baroque and contemporary music.

Amy performed solo radio broadcasts with the Gabrieli Consort, OAE, and the RTÉ Orchestra. In concert Amy has appeared with the Bochumer Symphoniker, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Hanover Band and London Contemporary Orchestra.

As a member of EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble Amy premiered countless new works and appeared with many leading contemporary orchestras, including Ensemble Modern, L’instant Donné and Ensemble Intercontemporain. She worked with virtually all the leading UK vocal ensembles and was a member of Norway’s Edvard Grieg Kor from 2012-14, performing regularly with Bergen Nasjonale Opera, as well as taking the role of Iseut in Frank Martin’s Le Vin Herbe.

In Australia, Amy has performed solo concerts with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Bach Akademie Australia, The Choir of St James King Street, Victoria Chorale Melbourne, Trinity College Melbourne, The Australian Bach Society, Willoughby Symphony Orchestra, and Australian Baroque Brass. Amy recently performed in the Canberra International Music Festival, receiving warm reviews for her performances in Bach’s St John Passion and the role of Vikki in Andrew Schultz’s chamber opera, The Children’s Bach.

Amy performs with Bach Akademie Australia, Pinchgut, Brandenburg Choir, Cantillation, and is a member of The Choir of St James King Street. Amy is a Principal Artist with The Song Company.

Featured in:

• Songs of Home - I Think of Thee
• Songs of Home - Jephtha's Daughter
• Songs of Home - Fair Land of Australia

Photo © Noni Carroll for MHNSW

Anna has gained a reputation as a versatile soprano specialising predominantly in the interpretation of early and contemporary repertoire.

Anna is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and New England Conservatory (Boston) and furthered her studies in the Britten-Pears Young Artist Program featuring as a soloist at the Aldeburgh Festival (UK) under the direction of Richard Egarr and the late Antony Rolfe-Johnson.

As a core ensemble member of the Song Company for over a decade, Anna has had the pleasure of performing in a myriad of traditional and exploratory programming expertly demonstrating the versatility and virtuosity of a cappella singing. Equally at home as a dramatist on the stage presenting opera and historically informed chamber music, Anna is a strong exponent in music education, particularly with Moorambilla Voices and Gondwana Choirs.

Anna performs extensively with a number of Sydney's professional ensembles including Pinchgut Opera (since 2004 with notable roles in L'Orfeo, Dardanus, L’Ormindo, Castor et Pollux) and Cantillation; Sydney Chamber Opera (Dusapin’s Passion, Finsterer’s Biographica); Sydney Philharmonia Choirs; Sydney Symphony Orchestra; Ironwood; The Acacia Quartet, Ensemble Offspring; Halcyon; Taikoz; Bach Akadamie Australia, Australian Haydn Ensemble, Salut! Baroque, Sydney Consort and Thoroughbass. Anna has collaborated with international ensembles such as period specialists The Wallfisch Band (Bach Unwrapped cantata programmes at Kings Place, London) and the New Zealand String Quartet (Adam Chamber Music Festival, NZ; Canberra International Music Festival).

Photo © Noni Carroll for MHNSW

Composer, conductor and performer Dan Walker is one of Australia’s most in-demand choral specialists. He has had works commissioned by the Sydney Symphony, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Gondwana Choirs and Halcyon.

As a performer, Dan is a member of the professional vocal ensemble ‘The Consort of Melbourne’, Sydney-based Cantillation, and Pinchgut Opera.

He has been a guest performer with The Song Company and was a founding member of early music ensemble ‘The Parson’s Affayre’.

He is a keenly sought-after conductor, appearing as chorus-master for the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Choruses, and is Artistic Director of Choristry and Habeas Chorus, the choir for the Melbourne legal community.

Image courtesy Dan Walker

A graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and The Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, baritone Dr David Greco has worked in the cutting edge of Historically Informed Performance in Europe. He has performed regularly with The Academy of Ancient Music and Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, and has appeared as a principle in the world’s most exciting opera festivals such as Festival Aix-en Provence and Glyndebourne Festival Opera.

In 2014, he became the first Australian appointed a position with the Sistine Chapel Choir in the Vatican, Rome.

David regularly appears as a soloist with Australia’s finest ensembles and orchestras, such as the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra and most recently with Sydney Symphony in their Helpmann Award-winning concerts of Bach’s cantata for bass, Ich habe genug. In 2017, he was a principle artist with Opera Australia appearing in The Eighth Wonder and The Love of Three Oranges. His recent appearance as Seneca in Pinchgut Opera’s production of The Coronation of Poppea received critical acclaim.

David has an impressive catalogue of solo recordings spread across a variety of labels, including ‘Poems of Love & War’, featuring arias by New Zealand composer Jack Body on the Naxos Label.

In 2018 David released his debut recording with ABC Classics label of Schubert’s Winterreise with keyboardist Erin Helyard. This year he will complete the Schubert song cycle trilogy when he makes the first Australian period-instrument recordings of Die Schöne Müllerin & Schwanengesang on the same label.

2020 will see David release two contrasting recital disks of Bach Cantatas for Bass, one with Australian early music ensemble Van Diemen’s Band, and the second with Dutch based Luthers Bach Ensemble on the European label Brilliant Classics.

David is also an active researcher into historical nineteenth-century voice and has recently completed his PhD at Melbourne University.

Photo courtesy David Greco

Dr Matthew Stephens is research librarian at the Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection. He is particularly fascinated by early book, musical instrument and sheet music collections in NSW and the stories they tell.

Studying singing at the Music Department, University of Sydney, Matthew has more recently led the interpretation of the history of domestic music in MHNSW’s house museums.

Since 2015 he has been MHNSW’s representative in the Sound Heritage network (UK) and is co-author and co-editor of Sound Heritage: Making Music Matter in Historic Houses (Routledge, 2022). In 2019, Matthew curated the Songs of Home exhibition at the Museum of Sydney, which examined the musical landscape of NSW during the first 70 years of European settlement. He has collaborated with the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, on numerous projects including as Partner Investigator on the Australian Research Council Discovery Project ‘Hearing the Music of Early NSW, 1788-1860’ (2021-23).

Photo © Noni Carroll for Sydney Living Museums

James Doig obtained a Bachelor in Music Performance at the Australian School of Music where he studied piano and conducting. He later studied harpsichord with Huguette Brassine and voice with Jan Del Pratt as part of a Bachelor in Vocal Performance at the Queensland Conservatorium. James then completed a Masters of Music in Performance at the Sydney Conservatorium, specialising in early keyboard with Neal Peres Da Costa.

James performs regularly as an instrumentalist and singer with professional and semi-professional ensembles. He sings oratorio, opera and lieder, and also works as a cantor, singing chant and sacred polyphony. As a chorister, James has sung with the Song Company, St Mary’s Cathedral Choir, Omega Ensemble, Queensland Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

James is the musical director at St Michael’s (Belfield), Our Lady of the Assumption (Homebush) and the assistant musical director at Sacred Heart (Mosman). He is harpsichordist in residence for the Greater Sydney Orchestra and a regular guest harpsichordist for the Sydney Bach Society.

In 2012, James founded Prima Luce. The ensemble has toured extensively through Europe and rural Australia and has released four CDs, selling over 4,000 disks.

In 2014, James was highly commended in a conducting competition with the London Classical Soloists. In 2017, he was also chosen to partake in the finals of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s Oratorio Competition in Melbourne. In 2019, James performed the Brandenburg Concerto no 5 with SQO orchestral leader Warwick Adeney.

James has worked under conductors such as Johannes Fritsch, Richard Bonynge, Paul Dyer, Stephen Moore, Thomas Wilson, Dr Neil McEwan, Ronald Smart and Eduardo Diazmuñoz.

Photo © James Horan for MHNSW

Dr Katrina Faulds studied fortepiano with Geoffrey Lancaster (University of Western Australia) and Colleen Rae-Gerrard (Australian National University) before completing postgraduate studies with Stanley Hoogland at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.

In 2012 she formed a duet partnership with Dr Penelope Cave, performing several times at Chawton House Library, Chawton, Hampshire, as well as Lodge Park, Gloucestershire, and the Turner Sims Concert Hall in Southampton. Katrina and Penelope appear in the Hidden Histories film series about music at Tatton Park, Cheshire, directed by Professor Jeanice Brooks, and recorded music by Larry Goves for Aura Satz’s installation ‘Sound Ornaments in the Music Room’, which was part of the Tatton Park Biennial in 2012. The duo’s most recent performance was in 2019 for the Genootschap Belle van Zuylen at the Geelvinck Muziek Museum in Zutphen, Holland.

In 2015, Katrina completed a PhD in historical musicology at the University of Southampton in which she looked at dance and dance music across the turn of the nineteenth century and its connection with elite female identity.

Katrina has worked as administrator for the Sound Heritage network, which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and since 2017 on the AHRC-funded project ‘Music, Home and Heritage: Sounding the Domestic in Georgian Britain’, coordinated by Professor Jeanice Brooks and in partnership with Sydney Living Museums.

In 2017, Katrina appeared as guest fortepianist and presenter at MHNSW’s Sound Heritage Sydney symposium, held at Elizabeth Bay House.

Photo © James Horan for MHSNW

Luke is a Sydney-based composer, musical director and pianist. Recent commissions include Capricorn and Desert Sea for Sydney Philharmonia, Storm Bird, Buruwan Elegy and Birinyi for Gondwana Indigenous Children's Choir with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Where Sails Once Flew for Adelaide Chamber Singers. Luke arranged the national anthems for the 2015 Netball World Cup and in 2012 was composer-in-residence for Sydney Children's Choir.

In 2018, Luke's musical Between the Sea and Sky was selected for the New York Musical Festival where it won awards including Best Musical and Outstanding Music.

Luke is also a musical director in theatre, and in 2018 was the musical director for Sydney Theatre Company's The Harp in the South. Other credits include Muriel's Wedding and Chimerica (Sydney Theatre Company), The Events for Sydney Festival/Belvoir/Malthouse, Hamlet (Belvoir), The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (Belvoir/Sydney Festival) Big Fish (Hayes Theatre), and The World's Wife (Melbourne Theatre Company).

Photo © Noni Carroll for MHNSW

Nardi Simpson is a Yuwaalaraay storyteller and performer living in Sydney. Her early music training at the Eora Centre of Aboriginal Studies, Visual and Performing Arts in Redfern, Sydney saw her begin a career as a musician, songwriter and performer with vocal duo Stiff Gins, travelling both nationally and internationally for twenty-one years and releasing three albums during that time.

Nardi's writing journey in 2014 participating in Indigenous Writers’ Mentorship Programs with Writing NSW and FATSIL Young Indigenous Writers Initiative. In 2016 , as part of Liveworks Festival, Nardi co-wrote and performed in the theatre work Spirit of Things: Sound of Objects.

In 2018 Nardi received the State Library of QLD’s Blak&Write Indigenous Fellowship and began refining what was to become her debut novel Song of the Crocodile. In 2019 Nardi wrote and premiered her debut play Black Drop Effect for the 2020 Sydney Festival. In early October 2020, Song of the Crocodile will be released with Hatchette Australia.

Nardi continues to perform with Stiff Gins, works with student ensembles and directs cross-cultural choir Barayagal at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and is currently undertaking a PhD with the ANU School of Music. Heavily involved in the making and sharing of culture in both her Sydney and Yuwaalaraay communities, Nardi lives in Sydney with her partner and teenage son.

Photo courtesy Nardi Simpson

Researcher, University of Sydney

Project director for House Music at Your House, Nicole Forsyth, violist, loves storytelling through music, and the possibilities of old and new art telling stories across time.

Nicole’s career has featured work for Big hART Inc, Bundanon Trust, Moorambilla Voices, The Song Company, Halcyon, Ensemble Offspring, Sydney Chamber Choir, Biennale of Sydney, Melbourne Recital Centre, Sydney Opera House Utzon Room, Sydney Living Museums, most of the Historically Informed Performance companies, and major festivals in Australia, and she has collaborated with numerous Australian composers.

Nicole co-founded Ironwood in 2006, and is Artistic Curator of BachBand@StJames, resident at St James King Street, which has a commissioning program for new work. She was Principal Viola for Pinchgut Opera 2001–2015. Her discography as principal and solo viola includes over 50 recordings for ABC Classic and other companies.

Nicole lectures in the Historical Performance Division at Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Her PhD, with Sydney Living Museums, looks at the music collection of Rouse Hill Estate 1813–1986, on Darug country, northwestern Sydney.

Photo © Noni Carroll for MHNSW

A vocalist who performs in many genres, Nyssa has sung with Hans Zimmer, OneRepublic and for Screen Australia. Stage highlights include Voices of Angels with Gondwana Choirs, Hans Zimmer: Revealed at the Qudos Bank Arena and Spectacular – A Tribute to ABBA for Metropolis Touring. 

As a Cabaret artist Nyssa has performed solo shows at Sydney’s Sideshow and Eastside Sydney Music Festivals.

In 2019 Nyssa was a Sydney Cabaret Competition finalist and a Sydney Fringe Festival award nominee.

Nyssa graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2016. During her studies Nyssa was the recipient of the Diane Wishart and Estivo European Chamber Music Summer School scholarships.

Featured in:

• Musical tour back in time
• Sound Heritage Sydney
• Here and There: Music at Home in Sydney and London, 1830–1845
• Songs of Home: Exploring the Past Through Music

Photo courtesy Nyssa Milligan

Gondwana Choirs comprises the most accomplished choral groups of young people in Australia. Led by Artistic Director & Founder, Lyn Williams AM, the organisation is synonymous with performance excellence and has a reputation for the highest standards of young people’s choral music in Australia and internationally.

In 2019, the Sydney Children’s Choir celebrated its 30th anniversary with the spectacular Gondwana World Choral Festival, which brought the world’s finest children’s choirs to Sydney for a week of 21 performances. Broadcast on ABC Classic, the festival included the world premieres of Only I by Nico Muhly and I am Martuwarra by Paul Stanhope. In 2020, SCC has been invited to perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.

Gondwana’s national choirs represent Australia on the world stage. In 2019, Gondwana Voices travelled to Berlin to perform Brett Dean’s Vexations and Devotions with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in the Philharmonie under the baton of Vladmimir Jurowksi. In 2020, Gondwana was honoured to be the only Australian choir invited to perform at the World Symposium on Choral Music hosted by the International Federation for Choral Music.

Website: https://www.gondwana.org.au/portfolio/gondwana-choirs

Sydney Children's Choir perform outside the stables at Rouse Hill Estate. Still taken from video by James Murray, MHNSW