Who We Are
We're a group of women 18 years and over who love music. We're passionate about choral singing, enjoy a challenge and take pleasure in performing for and entertaining others. We do not audition for the choir and while some members read music this is not a prerequisite.
We usually sing in 3 parts (SSA) and are led by our highly accomplished musical director and piano accompanist. We raise funds through membership fees, concerts and grants and we endeavour to assist a charity each year
At the end of each term we meet socially for dinner and celebrate our achievements.
A dedicated committee oversees the day-to-day management of the choir.
Musical Director - Lydia Gardiner
Bachelor of Music - Composition
The University of Western Australia
Lydia is an accomplished composer and singer based in Perth. She performs with the St George’s Cathedral Consort, Voyces, the Vanguard Consort and Gondwana Chorale and is currently completing her honours in composition at UWA. During her second year at UWA, Lydia was awarded the Dorothy
Ellen Ransom prize for composition, as well as the people's choice award at the same event.
She also participated in the 2020 WASO composition project where she collaborated with renowned cor anglais player Leanne Glover who premiered her work When I am Near to Thee and is a participant in the 2022 WASO composition project where she will write for an 18-piece chamber orchestra.
Lydia has been commissioned by many groups and in 2021 she was engaged by Tura New Music to write for the Perth Festival where her piece The Whale and I was performed by the St George’s Cathedral Consort and violinist Shaun Lee-Chen. Limelight wrote of this piece: ''This remarkable work for choir and violin more than stood its ground against the major figures of the preceding works, an absolute credit to Gardiner.''
In December 2021 her work A New Ceremony of Carols was performed to a sold-out audience by the St George’s Cathedral Sonus Angelorum choir, which Limelight described as ''a work every bit as complex and moving as Britten’s.''
Lydia enjoys listening to audiobooks, playing video games and discovering new restaurants, bars and mini-golf locations around Perth. She was appointed as the FWC Musical Director in January 2022
Accompanist - Cece Caddy
Bachelor of Music (Hons)
The University of Western Australian
Cece is a multidisciplinary pianist in the fields of Classical and Jazz music, who has conducted and accompanied theatre productions, choirs, jazz bands and smaller ensembles.
She has accompanied and sung with the Bunbury Young Voices (2009 - 2016), and the Bunbury Catholic College Choir (2012 - 2017) as well as various instrumental ensembles at the University of Western Australia.
Cece has a particular interest in the music of Nikolai Kapustin as well as other Classical/Jazz crossover pianists, and is also undertaking her own private research into transgender voice training for both speaking and singing voices.
In 2021 she graduated with a Bachelor of Music from the University of Western Australia and is currently completing an Honours in Music while working as a librarian at the same institution. She is hoping for a long and happy career in libraries and archives (after completing some more research of course!)
Cece describes herself as a science fiction fanatic, and when she isn't watching, reading, writing or listening to Doctor Who, she's probably trophy hunting in video games or creating spreadsheets.
Basically, she only leaves the house to pet other people's cats or play for the FWC, to which she was appointed as accompanist in January 2022.
