About
Kelly Phythian,
Conductor - Meriden Singers
The Meriden Singers have long played a key role at Meriden School, where they regularly sing at assemblies, chapel services, concerts and special occasions. They are also active outside of the school, singing at many community events throughout the year. They have achieved outstanding recognition in choral competitions, including the ABC School Choir of the Year Awards in 2007 and the finals of the Australasian Choral Championships in 2010 and 2011. Sue Elliott, their conductor for the past 12 years, retired at the end of 2010 and in 2011 they have had two new conductors. Jodie Spooner-Ryan worked with Singers for a short time before leaving to have her third baby. Kelly Phythian recently took the reins and will be their conductor on tour of central Europe with performances in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic.
Kelly Phythian has always had a passion for singing, studying voice from an early age. After completing a Bachelor of Business and receiving the Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship, she was accepted into the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. It was here that she formalised her music training, graduating with a Bachelor of Music and, later, a Master of Teaching. Throughout her career she has always remained an active music-theatre performer, starring as Laurey in Oklahoma in 2006, and most recently undertaking the role of Maria in The Sound of Music. She worked as tutor to the Australian Girls’ Choir, where she instructed girls aged 8 to 18. Kelly has also been the Choral Director for the St. Scholastica’s College Choir, a 50-voice female ensemble, and the Santa Sabina College Glee Club. In 2011 she joined the music staff of Meriden School, conducting the school Choir, Intermediate Singers and Senior Singers.
David Slater, Conductor
Meriden Symphony Orchestra
The Meriden Symphony Orchestra was formed in late 2008, adding younger players to the existing Senior Orchestra to become a complete orchestral ensemble. It is a very young group with players as young as 12 and an average age of just 16. It has developed a passion to tackle major orchestral works and challenges not often attempted by school orchestras. Recent performances have included Mars from The Planets by Holst, Bizet’s Carmen Suite No.1, Khatchaturian’s Spartacus ballet suite and the complete Symphony No.9 in E minor “From the New World” by Dvorak. They toured China and Singapore in 2009 and in June 2012 will give a concert in Sydney Town Hall for the school’s 115th before departing for their tour of central Europe with performances in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic.
Their conductor is David Slater, an Australian composer, conductor and music educator. He studied composition at the University of Sydney and later moved to Germany to take up scholarships for further studies in music. On return to Australia in 1980 he became conductor of a number of groups in Sydney and Canberra, including New Music ensembles, chamber orchestras specialising in Baroque and Classical repertoire, and theatre orchestras. His compositions have won numerous commissions and awards, twice being short-listed for Australia’s most prestigious composition prize.
He lectured at the Canberra School of Music at the Australian National University and became Head of Music at a leading Canberra independent school. On moving to regional New South Wales he founded the music department in a new college and established the North Coast Camerata and the Coffs Harbour Regional Youth Orchestra. He later went on to conduct the String Orchestra of the Gold Coast Youth Orchestras while working as Head of Music at an independent college in Queensland, before returning to Sydney in 2008 as Head of Music at Meriden, one of Australia’s oldest girls’ schools. For his conducting he has won the Symphony Australia Prize, the National Prize of the Orchestras of Australia Network, and received nominations for Australia Day awards.
