Membership

Introduction

The QYC experience

How to join

Open days

Alumni

Past Members (Alumni)

Throughout its history, the Queensland Youth Choir has produced some very fine young singers and performers, a number of whom have gone on to be highly regarded professionals.

Several have maintained close links with the choir and, from time to time, have provided their services to the organisation as volunteer workers, vocal coaches, choreographers, composers, arrangers, assistant administrators and members of the management committee.

A few of our better-known alumni include:

Tarita Botsman
Tarita made her operatic debut at the age of 22 singing Papagena in The Magic Flute for Opera Queensland. She was then invited to sing other roles with Opera Queensland and has also appeared as a soloist with all of Queensland’s major orchestras. In 1999 Tarita completed the Opera Performance Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She then went on to sing many operatic roles in the UK. Tarita has been the winner a Dante Alighieri Scholarship which enabled her to spend twelve months studying and working in Italy. She made her Italian recital debut at Teatro Il Tempietto in Rome. She has also performed in recital tours of China, the French Pacific Islands, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco. Most recently Tarita returned from working in Munich, Germany where she was participating in the Young Artists Course at the Munich Staatsoper. Tarita won the Young Australian of the Year and the Young Queenslander of the Year Awards in 1998. In early 2002 she moved back to Australia to continue her performance career in Australia and recently has set up a studio for teaching.

Jason Barry-Smith
Jason has established a reputation as one of Australia’s most sought after singers. He has  studied at the Musikhockschule in Munich, with Professor Hanno Blaschke, during 1989-90 and in London with Janice Chapman in 1999. For the first five months of 2002 he was resident at an opera house in Italy. His experience to date embraces concerts, opera and music theatre. As a concert soloist Jason has performed Faure’s Requiem; Haydn’s Paukenmesse; Bach’s St John Passion, St Matthew Passion, Christmas Oratorio; Butterley’s Lawrence Hargrave Flying Alone; Purcell’s Ode to St Cecilia’s Day, The Hoffnung Concert, Bernstein on Broadway, The Lord Mayor’s Gala Concert 2000, Glorious Vienna in Melbourne with stars of Opera Australia, and The Pops Concert at the 4MBS Festival 2000. Jason’s versatility is reflected in the wide range of roles he has undertaken in both opera and musical theatre. He has appeared in the title role of Billy Budd, as Enjolras in Les Miserables, Major General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance, Morales in Carmen, the title role of Don Giovanni, the Boatswain in HMS Pinafore, Dr Falke in Fledermaus, Danilo in The Merry Widow, Escamillo in Carmen, Yamadori in Madama Butterfly, the title role of The Barber of Seville and Guglielmo in Cosi fan Tutte.

Leisa Barry-Smith
Leisa is a familiar face to Brisbane audiences and has been performing professionally since the age of fifteen. She has toured Japan, Indonesia and Taiwan, as well as performing throughout Australia. Leisa has appeared with many Australian personalities including Anthony Warlow, Tina Arena, Rhonda Burchmore, Rick Price and Yothu Yindi. Her music theatre roles include Eponine in Les Miserables, Mary Magdelene in Jesus Christ Superstar, The Baker’s Wife in Into the Wood’s, Sister Robert Ann in Nunsense II, Sylviane in The Merry Widow, and Doll in the Queensland tour of Federation Ragtime. In 1997 Leisa toured Australia and New Zealand with Simon Gallaher and Jon English in HMS Pinafore. Their association continued with the Australian and New Zealand tours of Stephen Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to The Forum. In 2001 Leisa reprised her Perform Award nominated role as Judy Denmark in the award winning musical, Ruthless. Leisa is in demand as a scriptwriter and director and has written and directed shows for Opera Queensland, Dreamworld, the RNA, and The Channel Seven Lord Mayor’s Christmas Carols.

Michael Falzon
Born in Sydney, Australia, Michael fell into acting and music at an early age after it became obvious to his family that he was a kid who simply would not shut up. After a move to Brisbane and great encouragement from his parents, it was in his late teens that Michael began his professional career. Since then he has worked throughout Australia, Asia, USA and UK, performing in theatre, concert, cabaret, television and film, and with various outings as a fashion model.

His theatrical credits include The Pirates of Penzance (Opera Queensland & Essgee Productions); Hello, Dolly! (Gordon/Frost & Adelaide Festival Trust); H.M.S. Pinafore (Essgee Productions); Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (The Really Useful Group); In Concert with Michael Ball (Lyric Theatre, Sydney); and his Helpmann Award nominated performance in We Will Rock You around Australia since August 2003.

With fellow performers Dale Burridge, David Malek and Simon Pryce, Michael formed SMA Productions, the producers of the sensational corporate and concert act The Rat Pack's Back (theratpacksback.com). Now in their third year, they have performed hundreds of shows around the world attracting some of the country's top talent into their fold. With their first Mo Award nomination, sell-out concerts at Sydney's Twilight at Taronga, The Adelaide Festival, and weekly engagements from Oz to the UK, 2004 marked the launch of The Rat Pack's Back in London through SMA Productions UK ltd.

Hand-picked by none other than Brian May and Roger Taylor of QUEEN and writer/director Ben Elton, in 2003 Michael was cast in the leading role of "Galileo" in We Will Rock You - the first ever production of the show outside London's West End.

After almost two years leading the cast of We Will Rock You around Australia, 2005 will see the release of Michael's debut album.

Ian Stenlake
Ian was born in Barcaldine. He spent time in Dalby and Mackay, and later moved to Brisbane where he attended Brisbane Boys' College. He then went on to study Commerce-Law at the University of Queensland, paying his way by working as an assistant nurse at Holy Spirit Hospital. While in Brisbane Ian spent two years with the Grin and Tonic Theatre Company and sang with the Queensland Youth Choir. Taking time out from studies in 1991, he travelled overseas and, while in Rome, scored a part as an extra in Godfather III. He decided that acting was in his blood and on returning to Australia moved to Sydney to study at NIDA. Ian has since appeared as Oscar Stone in several series of Stingers and most recently appeared as Clifford Bradshaw in the Australian production of Cabaret. Ian is married to one of Australia's best-loved performers, Rachel Beck, who also starred in the Perth season of Cabaret.

Karen Williams
At the age of fifteen, Karen was awarded a Rotary Exchange that took her to the USA where she studied various genres of vocal technique and went on to win the Wisconsin Vocal Championship. On her return to Australia she became an inaugural member of the Queensland Youth Choir. In 2002, Karen released her debut CD - Shining - which reflects her love of diverse country music including bluegrass, folk, traditional and contemporary. As well as making appearances and winning awards at country music festivals around Australia, Karen has performed at Expo 88, with Colin Harper's Queensland Pops Orchestra and has toured to Fiji and on several occasions to Japan. Karen is the founding member of the Williams Trio, which has recently won awards at the Gympie Muster and the Tamworth Country Music Festival.

Craig Allister Young
Craig Allister Young is a cellist with the Queensland Orchestra and co-founder of the cabaret ensemble X-Collective. His skills as a composer, song-writer, arranger and orchestrator have been utilised by many ensembles and organisations such as Dreamworld, the Song Company, the Ten Tenors and, in 2000, Craig wrote the score for the Olympic Soccer opening ceremony in Brisbane for Showstopper Events. For the past three years Craig has been developing his unique cabaret ensemble X-Collective and has started writing an opera with librettist Leisa Barry-Smith.

Others
Other alumni who have pursued a career in music or allied fields include David Kidd (the Ten Tenors), Danielle Garner, Scott Martin, Lionel Theunissen and Michael Priest.

Alumni Database

The Queensland Youth Choir would like to maintain contact with its former members to keep them up-to-date with what's happening in the organisation, to invite them to concerts and other events, and to advise them of opportunities for further involvement with the QYC.

All former members are invited to provide QYC with their current details. We would also ask for your assistance in passing on this information to any other former members with whom you are in contact.

There are two ways in which details can be provided:

CLICK here complete the online alumni database registration form.

CLICK here to download a copy of the alumni registration form in PDF format.

You will need to download your free copy of Adobe Reader by clicking this button if you do not already have it installed.