Hannah Spracklan-Holl
Hannah Spracklan-Holl joined the ACC in 2013 just before her first year as an undergraduate baroque violinist at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.
“I had never thought of myself as a singer (and I still don’t!) but I quickly learnt the impact singing could have on all aspects of my musicianship. The most memorable experience I’ve had with the ACC was my first tour to Europe with the choir, in 2013. I had never been to Europe before, so it was very exciting! It was this trip that motivated me to study German, because I wanted to be able to communicate with the families we stayed with. This has proved to be useful; I’m now studying a PhD in Musicology with a focus on the musical lives of seventeenthcentury German noblewomen. It’s difficult to pick favourite repertoire that I’ve sung with the ACC over the 6 years, but a particularly special moment was singing JS Bach’s motet Fürchte dich nicht in Bach’s own church, the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, in 2013 and 2017.
Elspeth Bawden
Soprano Elspeth Bawden joined the ACC in 2016 when she was a student at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. In 2017 she was admitted to the Royal College of Music in London. In that year, and again in 2019, she was a soloist during the Australian Chamber Choir’s European tour. She now spends much of her time as a recording artist, creating soundtracks for Japanese animé.
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Alex Hedt
I sang before I walked (really!) but joined my first choir at eight years old, and from then on was completely hooked, going on to study choral singing and conducting during my Bachelor of Music. This led to stints in various church and symphonic choirs, but I always had a hankering to sing in a chamber choir – and here I am!
I have been singing soprano with the ACC since 2015. It gives me the opportunity to explore a diverse range of styles. I love analysing the intricacies of the German Baroque one minute and letting my inner diva loose on Afro-American spirituals the next.
I am deaf in my right ear, which sometimes makes choral singing quite the challenge! I don’t see it as something that has held me back, though; it just means I hear music differently to others. I’m so interested in this field that I am currently doing a doctorate, researching how people who sing in choral societies – large suburban symphonic choirs – think about musical ability and disability.
Elizabeth Anderson
Contralto Elizabeth Anderson, a founding member of the ACC and its Manager, has had a love of choral music since childhood. She regularly sings as a soloist with the Choir of the Scots’ Church. As a harpsichordist she has appeared as a soloist with the Sydney Opera House Orchestra, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the Queensland Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria and has released seven CDs. Highlights from her international tours include the City of London Festival, Dublin Early Music Festival, Old English Court Moscow and Symphony Hall Osaka.
Jennifer Wilson-Richter
Jennifer joined the ACC in 2013, and sings either Soprano or Alto, as needed. She enjoys singing across a wide variety of styles, from Renaissance, through Baroque, Classical and Musical Theatre to a-capella settings of Bon Jovi and Amy Winehouse. Her favourite work sung with the ACC is Stanford’s Magnificat for Double Choir in B flat Major (which appears on programs in 2024 as part of the ACC’s international tour). Jennifer admits that the highlight of her time with ACC was to meet the love of her life, now her husband – Lucas.
Alexander Owens
Alex joined the ACC in 2018 singing Bass. Alex is a second year undergraduate student at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and has sung with a host of other choirs, including Victorian Opera and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus. His favourite choral work is a little-know Benjamin Britten piece, AMDG. Alex mentions Schubert’s beautiful and moving Winterreise as his favourite vocal work. Alex has a passion for music management and is a developing composer who studies mathematics alongside classical singing.
Ria Polo
Ria Polo (alto, organist and assistant conductor) joined the choir in 2016. “I was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia. My parents came from the same province (West Java), Mom is a Sundanese and born in Bandung, and my father grew up in Indramayu. Indonesia is such a multicultural country (consisting of 34 provinces) and each province has its own traditional languages (that’s 300 languages)” I came to Melbourne to further my studies in music at the University of Melbourne. I loved the winter season in Melbourne and was determined to live and work in this lovely city after I finished my studies. Fifteen years later, I am living and working here and proud to call myself a Melbournian!
Stewart Webb
I started singing with the ACC as a tenor in 2018. I sang with the Australian Boys Choir for 8 years, where I got most of my singing training from, and continue to sing with their adult male ensemble The Vocal Consort, as well as many other choirs and groups in Melbourne.
Some of my favourite singing moments in recent years have been found in exposure to performing with baroque ensembles (such as with the Melbourne Baroque Orchestra in the ACC’s Mozart Requiem). There’s a definite scene for baroque performance in Melbourne and it’s been amazing to sing in many concerts with such old instruments that have a different and interesting timbre than their more common modern counterparts.
Singing with the ACC has definitely been a privilege – both to sing amongst such a high standard of performers, and to be part of a paid professional group, given that the broad amount of my choral experience has come from volunteering or training groups.
Amelia Jones
Amelia is a soprano based in Melbourne. She studied classical singing at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, before moving over east to continue her studies. Whilst at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Amelia developed a keen passion for baroque music, most notably performing the role of Eurydice in Charpentier’s opera La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers under the baton of Erin Helyard. Other notable performances include the role of Damon in Handel’s Acis and Galatea directed by renowned Baroque soprano Sophie Daneman, and singing as part of a quartet in the world premiere of A Tasmanian Requiem. Amelia is an avid choral musician, currently a member of Australian Chamber Choir and Principal Soprano at The Scots’ Church. Never one to go entirely down the conventional path, Amelia has recorded vocals for various Australian video games, short films and Japanese Animes. Her most recent Anime project, Made in Abyss won multiple awards including ‘Anime of the Year’ and ‘Best Score’.
Lucien Fischer
I’ve been singing with the ACC for almost two years as a Bass (and Tenor in emergencies!). I’m a sucker for Renaissance and Baroque music in particular, so the selections of 16th and 17th century music that we performed in the ‘Venice’ program in October and November 2017 was right up my alley. We’re so lucky that some of Australia’s best early music instrumentalists call Melbourne home, and it was a great pleasure for us to work with them on this music.
It’s always impossible to identify a single most memorable performance, but if I had to choose I think it would be a concert we gave in Klagenfurt, Austria in July 2017. Such experiences are of course linked to the place and to the people involved too: we’d just driven into Austria from Italy through the awesome Dolomites, and our performance venue in beautifully clean and green Klagenfurt was a stunning example of Baroque architecture and quite a change from the glitz and glamour of the Italian churches. I recall that we were all in particularly good voice that evening, and we were even received congratulatory claps of thunder as a summer storm passed over that evening!
I enjoy singing with the ACC because the musical programs are always so varied, and in each program there’s often a lot of music that’s new to me which keeps things interesting. Choral singing is as much about the social interaction as it is about the music, so I’m privileged to be able to sing with so many great people!
My dream for the future is small ensemble singing in Europe combined with freelance solo work.
