ABOUT US
The Tudor Choristers
Carlos del Cueto, music director
The Tudor Choristers was founded in Melbourne in 1962 by David Carolane OAM and has been directed by Carlos del Cueto since 2024.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Carlos Del Cueto
Music Director - January 2024 - Present
Originally from Mexico, Carlos was formerly Junior Fellow in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music, as well as assistant conductor and Head of Music Staff at English Touring Opera and a BBC Performing Arts Fund Music Fellow. Before conducting was his main focus, Carlos completed a PhD in Music at Clare College, Cambridge, that focused on historical aspects of nineteenth-century Italian opera. He later had the opportunity to work with, and be mentored by, conductors such as Sir Mark Elder, Sir Roger Norrington, Paavo Järvi, Juanjo Mena, and George Benjamin.
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Carlos’ conducting activities span across numerous genres and time periods. He was principal conductor of the Cambridge University Symphony Orchestra, and later worked with orchestras such as The Hallé, the Manchester Camerata. and the London Sinfonietta. In terms of contemporary music, Carlos led the UK premiere of works by Hans Abrahamsen and Simon Steen Andersen, as well as a number of chamber operas.
Much of Carlos’ work with singers has been with opera from all time periods, including productions of Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Handel’s Serse, Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, and several contemporary works at various UK festivals. Before moving to Melbourne in 2023, Carlos served full-time as the music director of a global not-for-profit organisation based in New York, where he worked regularly with musicians from diverse backgrounds and traditions. Carlos has keen interest in classical Indian music, and has traveled to India to train groups of young musicians in various forms of devotional music and Vedic recitation. In addition to conducting, Carlos is a certified organisational coach and a leadership consultant.
Carlos adores the choral music of the Renaissance and is looking forward to conducting the Tudor Choristers and sharing this magical repertoire with the people of Melbourne.
Recent Music Directors
Dr KATHLEEN McGUIRE
Music Director - 2017 to 2023
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.
Kathleen's Achievements
Kathleen brought a great energy to the Tudor Choristers and through her 7 years as Music Director was prolific, with both the baton and academically.
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2017
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Australian premiere of "Benedictus" (2005) by US-Arabic composer Ilyas Iliya, who flew to Melbourne for the concert.
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Celtic program with guest: Claire Patti (voice and harp)
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55th Anniversary concert at MLC, including the world premiere of "Celebration of Love" - words by Roslyn White, music by Tom Henry.
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At the anniversary concert, the choir performed the theme song: "Australia, You're Standing In It" (Tudors had sung it for the TV show of the same name). Star of the show, comedian/musician Stephen Blackburn, accompanied at the concert.
2018
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Establishment of a recorder consort
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Open rehearsals instigated as part of recruitment strategy
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Music library project
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Premiere of "The spirit's child" by Roslyn White (words) and Neil Jewell (music).
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Concert at Brunswick North West Primary School with guests: the school's choir plus a saxophone quintet from Brunswick Secondary College
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Celebrated the 40th Sing Nowell!, which was also the 100th anniversary of Lessons and Carols, Kings College. Program was a repeat of Tudors' first Sing Nowell! program from 1978
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Performance in Foster (Gippsland)
2019
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Performed an Indigenous Australian piece (in Language) by and with guest Wirajuri soprano Shauntai Batzke
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Full program of works by Morten Lauridsen
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Performed in the Music in the Basilica series, Geelong
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Performed at the Anglican Cathedral, Ballarat - positive reviews in local papers
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Collaboration with Whitehorse Brass (Sing Nowell!)
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Sing Nowell! included selections from Rachmaninoff's Vespers
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Planning commences for the David Carolane OAM Choralship Program
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(In July, choristers performed at wedding of Kathleen and Audrie)
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Membership growth, with consistently approx. 40 singers
2020
Fundraising commenced for Choralship Program (Mexican dinner hosted by Kathleen)
COVID PANDEMIC: Tudor Choristers was one of the first choirs in the country to cease in-person rehearsals (due to 'insider knowledge' of health professionals in the choir).
Covid lockdowns led to alternative activities in lieu of cancelled concerts, including:
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Production of four music videos
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Multiple online workshops for choristers (led by KM and individual choristers)
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Voice audits held remotely
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Sing Nowell! CD released Dec 2020 - compilation of recordings from recent concerts and recordings made remotely during 2020.
Research project approved by Australian Catholic University involving Tudor Choristers.
Tudors was a guest artist in the City of Boroondara’s Christmas at Home online concert, December 18 – 21. Others in the line-up included Sylvia Paladino, Glenferrie Brass, and Bob Sedergreen.
Despite the lockdown challenges, approx. 75% of the membership stayed involved.
2021
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50 Choristers and alumni made a video recording for the "celebration of life" service for Tudors' founder, David Carolane OAM, who died on February 2, 2021 at the age of 91.
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Awarded First Prize in the a cappella choir division, Bundoora Eisteddfod
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Our first livestreamed concert (Sing Nowell!). Funds from livestream rentals contributed to the Choralship Program.
Output from the research project:
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Presentation (virtual), international EduLearn21 Conference (Valencia, Spain)
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4,000-word paper published in the conference proceedings:
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K. McGuire (2021). The singer's perspective: discovering new ways of learning through online choir engagement, EDULEARN21 Proceedings, pp. 4624-4633.
https://library.iated.org/view/MCGUIRE2021SIN DOI: doi.org/10.21125/edulearn.2021. ISBN: 978-84-09-31267-2
Two articles published in Sing Out - magazine of the Australian National Choral Assoc:
McGuire, K. (2021). Ageing voices: considering the singers’ perspective. Sing Out – Magazine of the Australian National Choral Association, 38(1), 20–21.
https://online.fliphtml5.com/axggz/pkpa/
McGuire, K. (2021). Surviving COVID-19: Positive outcomes from online choir engagement. Sing Out Magazine – Australian National Choral Association, 38(3), 9–13. https://online.fliphtml5.com/axggz/bthr/
2022
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Concert 1 cancelled due to Covid
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Choralship Program(TM) commenced with first awardee
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60th anniversary concert = tribute to David Carolane OAM, featuring selections from Faure's Requiem, in collaboration with a choir from the Albury area formed especially for the occasion. Performed in Albury, NSW and Hawthorn Town Hall.
2023
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Return to four-concert season
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Inaugural "Sing for a cause" concert - with guests: Scrub Choir, Royal Melbourne Hospital
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Inaugural Yule in Jule(TM) mid-winter banquet with guests: Courtly Arts Performers of Victoria and MC Andy Payne
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Elizabeth the Great - a tribute to Elizabeth II - with members of Whitehorse Brass
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300th anniversary performance of Bach's Magnificat including guest soloists and chamber orchestra
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Tudor Choristers "song book" launched, with multiple "consort" appearances e.g., Masonic Lodge Ivanhoe, Winter Magic Market (Brunswick North West Primary School), Staff Christmas Party at Australian Catholic University.