ABOUT US
The Tudor Choristers
Dr Kathleen McGuire, music director
The Tudor Choristers was founded in Melbourne in 1962 by David Carolane OAM and has been directed by Dr Kathleen McGuire since 2017. Specialising in unaccompanied music, The Tudor Choristers has performed for most of Australia's leading concert organisations, including the ABC, Musica Viva, the Victorian Arts Centre, and the Victorian Arts Council.
The choir has made radio broadcasts, appeared on national television, and in feature film. Performances under such notable guest conductors as Sir David Willcocks and Philip Ledger, and tours of New Zealand and North America, have confirmed The Tudor Choristers' ranking as one of Australia's pre-eminent choral ensembles.
Recent achievements include winning the A Cappella Choirs section of the Boroondara Eisteddfod (2020), producing a Christmas CD: Sing Nowell! (2021) and touring to New South Wales in 2022.
The Tudor Choristers Inc is an incorporated asssociation under the Victorian Associations Incorporations Act 1981 and is governed by a committee according to its Rules. The choir is a member of the Australian National Choral Association.
Dr KATHLEEN McGUIRE
Music Director
Kathleen has conducted the Tudor Choristers since 2017. Born in Melbourne and with a stellar career spanning more than three decades in seven countries, Kathleen has directed choral and instrumental ensembles on international stages including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and Sydney Opera House. She earned her doctorate in conducting at the University of Colorado, Boulder (USA), Master of Music with Distinction at University of Surrey (UK) as a Rotary Ambassadorial Fellow, Graduate Diploma in Education at Monash University, Graduate Diploma in conducting at the Victorian College of the Arts and BMus in composition at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. She studied conducting with Robert Rosen, Nicholas Braithwaite, Theodore Kuchar, Dr Joan Catoni Conlon, Dr Owen Rees, Nicholas Conran and Robert Spillman, and received mentoring from Simone Young AO, Marin Alsop, Christopher Martin, Sian Edwards and David Carolane OAM.
Kathleen lived in the USA for almost two decades, including a decade as Artistic Director and Conductor of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus and eight years as the Principal Conductor of the Community Women's Orchestra. In San Francisco, “Kathleen McGuire Day” was designated on two occasions by mayors of San Francisco. She was named “Local Hero” by ABC-TV, and The American Prize awarded her work several times in the Professional Composer Division. Her compositions and arrangements are published by Wirripang, Shawnee Press and Hal Leonard Music. She is a Board Director of the international Women's Philharmonic Advocacy, a member of American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the Music Arrangers Guild of Australia (MAGA) and the Honors Society of Pi Kappa Lamba.
Kathleen returned to Australia in 2013. In additional to freelance conducting and composing, she is a Lecturer in Education (Music) at the Faculty of Education and Arts, Australian Catholic University.