Editorial Committee
Michael Fulcher
Michael Fulcher is a conductor, vocal coach, choral clinician, and organist, who began his musical life as a chorister at St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane. A graduate of the University of Queensland and the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, he studied orchestral conducting with John Curro (QYO), David Porcelijn (ABC Young Conductors Mastercourse), Robert Rosen (Opera Australia), and Sir Charles Mackerras and Sir Mark Elder in the UK.
In 1997 Michael moved to London where he studied conducting and vocal coaching, working for three years in Janice Chapman’s international singing studio.
A graduate of the Guildhall School of Music in London, Michael has lived for significant periods of time in Paris and Milan. He has conducted Productions for Opera Queensland, the Guildhall School of Music (London), Victorian College of the Arts, and the Queensland Conservatorium Opera School (L’elisir d’Amore, Elijah the Opera, Pilgrim’s Progress in the presence of Ursula Vaughan Williams). He has conducted performances of Billy Budd (1993 Brisbane Festival), Don Giovanni (1996 Victorian State Opera season) and La Traviata (touring production of Grange Park Festival Opera UK).
In 2010, Michael prepared the massed choirs for a performance of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the NZSO, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. Michael has conducted a wide variety of orchestral/choral repertoire including the Requiems of Fauré, Duruflé, Mozart, Verdi, and Brahms, masses of Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, Handel’s Messiah, and J. S. Bach’s Magnificat, B minor mass, Johannes-Passion, and Matthäus-Passion, as well as contemporary works by James Macmillan and John Tavener. He recently prepared Polyphonic Voices for the premiere of The Sacred Veil by Eric Whitacre, conducted by the composer.
Michael has been founding Artistic Director of Polyphonic Voices, Director of Music at Christ Church South Yarra, and Director of Chapel Music at Christ Church Grammar School since 2013. He recently gained his M. Mus. St specializing in vocal pedagogy. He is a former National President of the Australian National Choral Association.
Positions held include Assistant Organist, St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane (1985-1993); Director of Music, Trinity College, Melbourne, (1994-1996); Young Artist Conductor, Victorian State Opera (1996); Young Artist Conductor, Opera Queensland (1998); Repetiteur, English National Opera (2000-01); Organist & Director of Music, Wellington Cathedral, NZ (2004-2011); Music Director, Wellington Orpheus (Symphonic) Choir (2004-2011).
Michael Leighton Jones
Michael Leighton Jones has been involved with music all his life – his mother was a professional singer – singing in choirs throughout his school days and at university, as well as playing French horn. Post-graduate studies took him from New Zealand to England, where he sang in the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge (with Sir David Willcocks) and later, Westminster Abbey.
He was a member of the London-based vocal quintet The Scholars, with whom he appeared in more than a thousand concerts world-wide. He left the group to join the music staff at the University of Queensland in 1981. In Brisbane, he formed the vocal sextet Jones & Co, touring with them both nationally and internationally.
He has always maintained an active solo singing career – in recitals, opera and oratorio – appearing with all the major symphony orchestras and leading chamber music groups in Australia and New Zealand. He was a finalist in the London Royal Over-Seas League competition (1974 & 1975) and a Young Musician of the Year for the Greater London Arts Association (1976). He created the role of The Friend in the première of Débussy’s operatic sketches La Chute de la Maison Usher (Frankfurt 1977) and sang in Australian first performances of Rameau Anacréon, Webern Cantata II (SSO & Sir Charles Mackerras) and Penderecki Paradise Lost (SSO, conducted by the composer).
In 1997 he was appointed Director of Music at Trinity College, University of Melbourne, where he conducted the college choir in services, broadcasts, concerts and recordings, as well as on regular international tours to Baltic States, England, Germany, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore and the United States and Canada.
He retired from Trinity College in 2014 and now pursues a busy free-lance career as an adjudicator, arranger, composer and conductor.
Daniel Mitterdorfer
Daniel Mitterdorfer studied piano and organ during his formative years and sang in school choirs. From 2000-2012 he was a member of the choir of Christ Church St Laurence, Sydney, and since 2012 has sung with the choirs of St Peter’s Eastern Hill (Melbourne) and Gloriana Chamber Choir.
Daniel started Crescendo Music Publications in 1999 with the goal of producing new, authoritative editions of out-of-print and hard-to-find choral works, a business that has grown with the involvement of both local and international composers. In 2020, Crescendo Music Publications issued the first complete edition of Charles-Marie Widor’s piano works, spanning seven volumes and more than 1,300 pages.
Brooke Shelley
Brooke has had formal classical training in Piano, Harpsichord, and Composition. She completed a Bachelor of Music (Hons) in Composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and a Master of Music in Advanced Musical Studies majoring in Historical Musicology at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Brooke’s experience in choral singing has translated into the bulk of her composition portfolio being choral music for the liturgy, which has been performed by choirs such as The District Eight (Washington DC); Sydney Philharmonia Choirs; The Song Company, Queen’s Phoenix, Sydney Chamber Choir; Adelaide Chamber Singers; The Choir of Christ Church St Laurence; The Choir of St James’, Sydney; The Choirs of St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane; The Choir of Trinity College, University of Melbourne; Ensemble Gombert; The Giovanni Consort; and Sydney Antiphony. She has been commissioned privately and by choirs such as Sydney Chamber Choir, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, The Choir of Christ Church St Laurence and The Choir of Trinity College, University of Melbourne.
Although classically trained, Brooke has always loved popular music, particularly Scandinavian metal music. She formed the band, Resonaxis, as way of combining metal and renaissance music with the organ improvisations of renowned Australian organist, David Drury. Resonaxis was perhaps the only band in the world with a classical organist.
Brooke’s music has led her to be interviewed on a number of ABC Radio National programmes (Andrew Olle, The Rhythm Divine, In the Spirit of Things), and reviews of her music have appeared in European progressive music magazines and ezines.
Brooke has sung with a number of vocal ensembles in Australia and the UK. She has provided vocals for Nick Littlemore on projects such as Elton John vs Pnau, and White Shadows. Brooke also collaborated with Nick on his Two Leaves Project (Evening of the Sky).
The Rev’d Christopher Waterhouse
The Rev’d Christopher Waterhouse is the Rector of St James’ King Street, Sydney. Christopher holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Tasmania and a Master of Divinity from Trinity College, Melbourne. Prior to his appointment to St James’ Church, he was the Precentor and Chaplain for the Arts at St David’s Cathedral in Hobart, and is a former Director of the St James’ Institute in Sydney.
Christopher was born in the UK and raised and educated in Tasmania. He developed an early interest in the performing arts, particularly theatre and music, and undertook studies in voice and organ. He appeared on stage in many productions in Tasmania before moving to Sydney to work at Sydney Theatre Company. He then moved to London and was the Operations Manager and later General Manager of the St James’ Theatre. Feeling a strong call to ministry in the church he left the theatre industry and moved to Oxford to work at Oxford’s Cathedral at Christ Church and commenced theology studies at Ripon College, Cuddesdon.
Christopher is currently serving on the Council of St Andrew’s College at the University of Sydney and is a Board Director of the Anglican Board of Mission. He has over 20 years of experience as a radio presenter in Hobart, London and Sydney, and previously served on the Board of 2MBS Fine Music Sydney. He has also served on the board of various charities in the philanthropic, church and arts sectors, including The Mission to Seafarers (Hobart), Young Voices of Hobart, the Friends of the Theatre Royal, and Mainstage Theatre.