ANDREW WAILES (BHC Artistic Director & Conductor)
One of Australia’s leading conductors and most respected choral directors, Andrew Wailes was the inaugural winner of the Australasian International Choral Conducting Competition in 1999. Andrew has Directed the Box Hill Chorale since the end of 1995, and since that time has developed it into one of the State’s leading community choirs, directing a significant number of world premieres with the group, leading them on numerous domestic tours, and enabling artistic collaborations with a wide range of professional, tertiary, youth and community ensembles across Victoria.
Well known to Australian audiences, Andrew is also the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra; Conductor and Music Director of the Melbourne University Choral Society; Seasonal Music Director of the Oriana Sunshine Coast Choir in Queensland, and for over 20 years was Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of The Australian Children’s Choir (from 1999 to 2020). Andrew is also a former Artistic Director of the Chamber Strings of Melbourne; Principal Guest Conductor of The Australian Classical Players; and for twelve years directed choral studies at the Australian Catholic University’s Melbourne Campus. In 2022 he commenced as Chorusmaster of a new professional children’s chorus for Opera Australia, and he continues to work with a wide range of choirs and orchestras around Australia.
Andrew has also conducted and taught at all of Melbourne’s major tertiary institutions, including the Melbourne University Faculty of Music; Monash University; the Melba Conservatorium; and the Victorian College of the Arts. For a number of years he directed the award-winning Symphony Orchestra program at Blackburn High School, and in 2010 was invited to become a ‘visiting guest maestro’ at the prestigious ‘Escuela de Direccion de Orquesta y Banda’ in Spain. He has also worked a sessional lecturer in Music History at the School of Audio Engineering (SAE) Institute and Qantum Institute, and regularly appears as an adjudicator at major eisteddfodau around the country.
Andrew is in demand as both an orchestral and choral conductor, and also as a specialist chorus master, and has appeared at many of Australia’s leading festivals, including the Perth International, Adelaide, Sydney, Castlemaine State and Melbourne Festivals.
He has prepared choirs for leading international conductors including the late Sir Charles Mackerras, Maestro Valery Gergiev, Diego Masson, Carlo Bernini, Andrea Battistoni, Marcus Stenz, Christian Badea, Christopher Bell, Jindong Cai, Nicholas Braithwaite, Roy Wales, Douglas Boyd and David Hill. He has conducted many large-scale works in his own right, from Handel’s Messiah (all versions), Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn’s The Creation, to Orff’s Carmina Burana, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Rachmaninov’s The Bells, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater and many major works by Australian composers including the Melbourne premieres of Peter Sculthorpe’s Requiem, Carl Vine’s Choral Symphony, and Nic Buc’s Mary McKillop Mass.
Andrew also makes guest appearances with other choirs and orchestras around Australia, and has frequently conducted overseas. Guest appearances have included concerts with the Christchurch Sinfonia (New Zealand), Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, the Camerata Akademica Freiburg, and the Orchester der Universitat Stuttgart (Germany), Harvard University’s Collegium Musicum, the Yale Glee Club (USA), Guangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra (China), to local ensembles such as Orchestra Victoria, Brisbane Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia of St Andrew’s, the Choir of Trinity College, The Impossible Orchestra, National Boys Choir of Australia, the Australian Army Band, Stonnington Symphony, and many of Australia’s leading choirs including the Australian Intervarsity Festival Choir. He has also appeared as conductor throughout New Zealand, in England, Austria, Germany, Finland, Russia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and extensively throughout China (over 60 concerts in upwards of 20 cities).
In 2012 he participated in an international symposium and a series of new music concerts hosted by the Weil Institute at Carnegie Hall, New York. 2018 highlights included performances in Vienna at the famous Musikverein as part of the Summa cum Laude Festival, and in cities such as Budapest, Prague and Munich. Most recently in 2019 he conducted a series of orchestral concerts in China with the RMPO, and in 2020 toured Italy and Austria, conducting concerts in cities such as Salzburg, Innsbruck, Bologna, Verona, Florence and Rome (including St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican).
An experienced Adjudicator, Andrew has judged various competitions and eisteddfodau in cities such as Shanghai, Auckland, Washington D.C, Vienna, Sydney, Hobart, Cairns, Townsville, and in Melbourne (where he founded the RMP Aria Competition). In 2019 he adjudicated at the World Orchestra Festival in Sydney, at the 93rd North Queensland Eisteddfod in Cairns, and the Asia Pacific Choral Summit in Hong Kong. In 2023 he will sit on the Australian judging panel of the The International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition.
Andrew has directed choral music at many important events in Melbourne and around Australia, including six AFL Grand Finals, the AFI Awards, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the opening of Stadium Australia, the Closing Ceremony of the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, the Opening Ceremony of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, International Rugby Tests, the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, Melbourne Cup, the President’s Cup, the Prime Minister’s Olympic Dinner and at many other major events.
2022 highlights included conducting the Australian premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Coronation Cantata “Moscow” and a number of works by Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo, and touring with the acclaimed Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and his family, as orchestra manager, assistant conductor and chorusmaster for Bocelli’s East Coast tour of Australia.
A trained singer, Andrew has appeared as a soloist with groups such as Opera Australia, IHOS opera, the National Youth Choir of Australia, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Collegium Musicum of WA and Past Echoes Early Music Ensemble. He has regularly appeared around Melbourne as a soloist in concert and oratorio performances, in works ranging from Mozart’s Solemn Vespers of the Confessor, Coronation Mass and Requiem; to Orff’s Carmina Burana, Faure’s Requiem and Gounod’s Solemn Mass for Saint Cecilia to Handel’s Messiah and Acis and Galatea, and Britten’s Serenade for tenor horn and Strings. Song cycles he has performed include Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel and Five Mystical Songs, and Schumann’s Dichterliebe.
Andrew is a former President of the Australian Intervarsity Choral Societies’ Association, is an experienced public speaker, and also mentors a number of Melbourne’s emerging young conductors and singers. He is listed in the inaugural edition of the “Who’s Who” in Victoria, and the International edition of Strathmore’s Who’s Who.
WILLIAM SCHMIDT (BHC Principal Accompanist)
A finalist in the 2014 Australian National Piano Award, the Australian pianist and composer William James Schmidt studied piano performance with Glenn Riddle at the University of Melbourne, and with Dr Johannes Kropfitsch in Vienna at the Konservatorium Wien, completing his Master of Music in 2011.
William has been concerto soloist with ensembles inclusing the University of Melbourne Faculty of Music Orchestra and the Preston and Zelman Symphony Orchestras, and has performed on air many times for radio stations 3MBS and ABC Classic FM, both of which have broadcast his compositions on numerous occasions. William has also recorded live for major radio stations in California, as soloist, chamber musician, and associate artist for singers, and was the featured composer for the Camberwell Music Society’s 2011 concert series.
His competition successes include first prizes in the Australian Youth Piano Recital, the National Pharmacies Piano Concerto Competition, the Musical Society of Victoria’s David Henkels Award for composition, and the Grainger Composition Prize.
In 2004 William was awarded LMusA, and was subsequently awarded the Victorian Music Teachers Association’s Kault Prize.
Other awards include the Australian Music Foundation’s Inaugural Guy Parsons Award, the Australian National Piano Award Travelling Scholarship, and University of Melbourne scholarships including the Katherine Kearns Award, the Sir Rupert Hamer Arts Scholarship, the Eric and Linda Jullyan Memorial Scholarship, the Ronald William Capon Prize, the Ormond Exhibition, the Maude Harrington Prize and the McConnan Memorial Trust.
William has worked extensively as an accompanist, solo and chamber pianist, music director, composer and teacher. He is an active recitalist and performer around Melbourne, and frequently appears with leading chamber ensembles such as Flinders Quartet.
William’s YouTube piano channel can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/user/willjsch
SAM HARTLEY (BHC Associate Accompanist)
Sam Hartley is a pianist and composer currently based in Melbourne. He is Associate Accompanist of Box Hill Chorale, having performed with the choir on numerous occasions over the last few years.
Having commenced studies on piano at the age of 5, Sam went on to complete a Bachelor of Music at the University of Melbourne in 2013, studying with Professor Ian Holtham. While at university, Sam performed extensively, both as a soloist and as an accompanist for numerous choral groups in Melbourne. During this time Sam was also the recipient of numerous faculty, university and college awards. Following his undergraduate studies in Music, Sam went on to complete a graduate Law degree (Juris Doctor, University of Melbourne). After spending some time studying and working in law and management consulting, he returned to music full-time in 2018, traveling to the United Kingdom where he completed a MPhil in Music Studies from the University of Cambridge in 2019. Since returning to Australia, he has worked full-time as a performer, composer and music tutor.
Active as a composer, Sam’s original compositions include contemporary classical works for piano, choir and instrumental ensembles, as well as popular songs. Sam’s recordings include Visions and Recollections, Fantasy on the Theme of Faust, Clouds and Chaos, and most recently his album Autumn Reflections has been released.
Apart from his work for BHC, some of the other groups Sam has worked with include Victorian Opera, Melbourne University Choral Society, Royal Melbourne Philharmonic, Melbourne Chamber Choir and Cloud 9 Women’s Choir.
