Monday 20 January to Thursday 23 January 2025
The Music School,
Methodist Ladies’ College
207 Barkers Rd, Kew
Australian Choral Conductors Education and Training (ACCET) welcomes your presence at its 31st Choral Conductors Summer School. Four exciting and involving days of demonstration, participation and learning will fit conductors with new skills and confidence to face the music, and the choir, in 2025.
Accet presents
Victoria Ely
(United Kingdom / Australia)
Conductor, Evoke Chamber Choir
Director of Music, University of Reading
Singer, workshop leader, guest conductor across UK and Europe
A versatile conductor with a fresh approach to music-making, Victoria is in demand across the UK and Europe. She has worked with professional and non-professional ensembles, including Mid-Wales Opera, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Schleswig-Holstein Festival (Germany), Cumbria Rural Choirs (UK, and appears regularly as guest conductor for other ensembles. In 2016 she founded the international award-winning chamber choir Evoke, of which she is Music Director; and she is Director of Music at the University of Reading. Victoria is regularly invited as choral workshop leader for festivals, recently appeared at AMJ Eurotreff (Germany), European Choral Association’s Europa Cantat (Hungary), Cranleigh Choral Week (UK) and Worcester International Festival for Young Singers (UK). As an ensemble singer she has sung with the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra (NDR), City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus and St Endellion Festivals, with numerous recordings on disc and film. She teaches conducting both privately and with Voces Academy and is a respected facilitator and leadership coach in executive education.
Victoria began her career in Melbourne with bachelor’s degrees in Music (Piano Performance) and Business; then gained a M. Music in Choral Conducting at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, with Distinction.
Dr Elizabeth Scott
(Australia)
Associate MD, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs
Lecturer conducting Sydney Music Conservatorium
MD since 2008 Vox, Sydney Philharmonia Youth Choir
Doctorate in Choral Conducting 2021
Elizabeth Scott is the Associate Music Director of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and is a Lecturer in Conducting at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She is a graduate of Symphony Australia’s Conductor Development Program and was awarded the Sydney Choral Symposium Foundation Conducting Scholarship in 2008. As an undergraduate at Sydney Conservatorium of Music she earned the prestigious Student of the Year Award and Rueben F Scarf Scholarship for academic and musical excellence. As holder of scholarships from the Hungarian Ministry of Education she undertook post-graduate studies in choral conducting, vocal performance and aural training in Hungary and Germany. Elizabeth completed a Doctorate in Choral Conducting in 2021.
Elizabeth has been the Musical Director of Vox, Sydney Philharmonia’s youth choir since 2008 and has built this ensemble into one of Australia’s leading youth choirs. She regularly works as a chorus master for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and has prepared choirs for Sir Simon Rattle, Simone Young and Stephen Layton. Appearing recently as a guest conductor for the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and the National Youth Choir of Australia, she also regularly works with Gondwana Choirs and Cantillation and has performed and recorded with Pinchgut Opera and The Song Company.
Nadine Manion
In 2020 Nadine Manion used a Dr C Iain Medgett Churchill Fellowship ‘to investigate vocal technique and care of the transgender singing voice’, interviewing singing teachers and choir directors in USA, Canada and UK. Her Churchill Fellowship report is recommended and enlightening reading for voice teachers and conductors.
Nadine is a performer, voice teacher and vocal health specialist in Sydney, a lecturer at JMC Academy and is NSW President of Australian National Association of Teachers of Singing (ANATS). She holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong and is currently undertaking a Masters in Speech Pathology, Charles Sturt University.
“This has been a life-changing Summer School. Epic and inspiring.
Fantastic tutoring, loads of ideas, positive environment.”
Emphasis on conducting
Development of your conducting skill is the central goal of the 31st ACCET Summer School. This will occur through group tuition, demonstration and master classes. In five group conducting workshops you will improve your skill and confidence in choral conducting. To assist you in nominating your current skill, for the application form, consider the following:
Basic
- has limited experience rehearsing and conducting a choir
- needs basic conducting patterns
- needs confidence in score preparation
- needs confidence in cueing entries and executing cut-offs
- needs beginning information on running rehearsals
Intermediate
- has substantial experience rehearsing and conducting a choir
- has had previous conducting tuition
- wants to increase technical skills with entries and cut-offs,
phrasing, legato, staccato, accent, pauses, dynamics
and time changes - wants to advance knowledge of music interpretation
Advanced
- is willing to audition on the first day to gain a place
in the advanced group - has had much experience rehearsing and conducting
skilled choirs - has had considerable conducting tuition
- is willing to tackle advanced music
Master classes
Led by Victoria Ely and Dr Elizabeth Scott, observed by the whole summer school, the master classes will provide learning along with the development of conductors in their midst.
Repertoire for you
In your participant bag there will be complimentary music. In sessions you will learn many new works, in music reading from the package you will be introduced to a range of music, and you will be introduced to a selection of non-western music.
The Programme
The venue
The Music School at Methodist Ladies’ College is an ideal venue for the ACCET Summer School – Melway 45 E8 – with major sessions in Flockart Hall and all other sessions within the Music School building.
There is parking in the grounds and underneath the hall.
Tram 16 runs by the school and trams 24, 48 and 109 are within walking distances. Tram 16 connects with the Glenferrie Station.
Accommodation
Information for Kew and surrounds, and for the City of Melbourne, is available on the web site within registration materials.
Registration
Is available below and information can be printed out as needed. Payment may be by direct debit (please label it distinctly as from you), cheque or money order.
Or download a Tax invoice and Registration form to print out.
“I came to the Summer School knowing next to nothing and have come out with so much.
So much good repertoire that I look forward to using with the choir.”
