To celebrate World Choral Day on 14 December 2025, UWA Choral Society is pleased to honour our current choristers who first joined UWACS over 30 years ago. We honour your loyalty and commitment to joy through fine music-making over the last 30 years.
Moyra Armstrong ~ joined 1974
Music was part of my home life from very early on - singing, church music and the organ were an integral part of my childhood.
At age 12, joining my school Madrigal Choir was the beginning of 72 years of unbroken choir membership from 1953 to present day. I had 3 wonderful years in Durham University Choral Society. Music and playing the organ were part of my course in Durham. After my probationary year teaching, I married and went to live in Cambridge for 11 years where I joined the Cambridge Philharmonic: King’s Evensongs and annual Carols, Madrigals on the River, organ recitals and concerts galore - it was a musical dream come true.
Arriving in Perth, I joined UWACS in May 1974; my first concert, in the Octagon, was to celebrate the 21st Birthday of the Music Department with Professor Sir Frank Callaway conducting. I had no idea it would prove to be such a long and happy choral path.
So many highlights - Messiah in the Perth Concert Hall, (how strange to see the audience in summer dresses fanning themselves in the heat instead of wearing heavy winter coats and scarves as in UK!); the Berlioz Te Deum in Kings’ College Chapel where the music soared into the fan vaulting - too many to mention!
Most important has been the choir friendships, camaraderie, and team work, as we work through the repertoire. For me the real highlight has always been the tuning up of the orchestra at final rehearsals with a great sense of anticipation for when at last it all ‘comes together’!
Finally, inheriting a Messiah Score from my friend Lesley Clark (UWACS 1933-73) which first belonged to her father, founder member Charles Hames (UWACS 1931-51), I have been privileged to sing from a score which has provided joyful harmony from the UWACS ranks through nine decades. I treasure it all.
Megan Barrett-Lennard ~ joined 1985
Researching family history, I discovered my grandfather was the Choral Conductor of St George’s in Worthing in Sussex. Growing up in a small WA country town, we continued this tradition of singing. Early memories are of the family gathered around the piano singing from Community Song Books and Musicals as my mother was the Repertory pianist. At 13, I was given my grandmother’s Wesley Hymn book in order to learn the hymns I played on the pedal organ for the three-weekly church service. I still have her Handel’s Messiah and Mendelssohn’s St Paul’s scores.
From choir at Teacher’s College, to a change of direction in life in 1985, led me to join UWACS in response to an advertisement in the Subiaco Post. This decision changed my life. Not only did I meet my husband, but I’ve experienced joy in so many ways, from collectively performing beautiful music ending with an adrenaline rush, from valued friendships and collegiate support, and from overseas travel with the bonus of a Bach tour visiting places of significance to his life and his music. Who can forget having gladioli thrown onto the stage in St Petersburg at the end of a performance of 220 voices singing Verdi Requiem or becoming engaged in New York after singing Elijah in Carnegie Hall.
After eight years as Choir Archivist, I have finally achieved my aim of locating and preserving all our known history. My address and the video shown at the Cocktail Party in November 2021 to mark the choir’s 90th year was the beginning. For UWA to recognize our choir as a significant aspect of the cultural history of the University, is one of my proudest moments of belonging to this great choir.
Robert Barrett-Lennard ~ joined 1990
As a child my mother wanted me to learn to play piano at the local convent, but I resisted unfortunately and she didn’t insist. However, my mother did take my sisters and me to ballet performances in His Majesty’s where I was enthralled by the orchestra in the ‘Pit’ leading to a life-long love of classical music.
At boarding school, I was selected for the Chapel Choir, two years as a treble and two years as a tenor with a year off in between! At Saint George’s College I took part in minor singing events, organised the chapel music in my final year and sang in the choir at St Margaret’s Church in Nedlands. While farming in York I joined a musical theatre group. One skit caused great embarrassment to my eldest daughter who continues to remind me!
After moving to Perth, I joined UWACS in 1990, finding myself in a section of twenty-five male tenors rehearsing for the Messiah. Had I not passed the traditional UWACS vocal test audition I would have missed out on finding Megan and 35 wonderful years of singing and camaraderie. I would also have missed the memorable experience of singing in Carnegie Hall, The Royal Albert Hall, Vienna, Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Malta, China, six performances with Chorus Oz in the Sydney Opera House and, best of all, three performances of the Verdi Requiem with Luciano Pavarotti as the soloist in 1994.
I have put my heart and soul into supporting UWACS, especially as a committee member for at least twenty years, including Acting President, Vice President, Treasurer for several terms, Registrar and Publicity Manager. Then followed some years as the Tenor Choral Steward. Over the past eight years I could claim to have been Honorary Assistant Archivist!
Long Live UWACS.
Liz Carrel ~ joined 1972
As a child my mother wanted me to learn to play piano at the local convent, but I resisted unfortunately and she didn’t insist. However, my mother did take my sisters and me to ballet performances in His Majesty’s where I was enthralled by the orchestra in the ‘Pit’ leading to a life-long love of classical music.
I was in born into a musical family in the UK. My mother was a fine pianist and my father had been a windplayer in all the major London orchestras under the batons of Sir Adrian Boult, Sir John Barborolli, Sir Malcolm Sergeant and others. Consequently I was taught piano and clarinet at a young age. Later, in my 20s, I played the organ; much later, when I was 67, I took up the cello! As a schoolgirl I sang with a boys’ choir at the Charterhouse school as that was where my father taught music.
I arrived in Australia in January 1970, and immediately looked for a choir to join. For a while I sang with the Bach choir, which at that time rehearsed at Hale School. Then in 1972 I discovered UWACS which was to become my home for a number of years. In those days, Prof Calloway was our conductor and his wife Kathleen was our accompanist. As there was no WASO chorus, we regularly sang with the WASO orchestra in the concert hall under many visiting conductors, including Georg Tintner and Tibor Paul.
I remember that we sang the Brahms Requiem with Tibor Paul, and as my parents had recently arrived in Perth, my father, George Draper, undertook the preparation of the choir for that particular performance. I can’t actually remember how that came about though! Possibly a connection through Prof. David Tunley.
A memorable experience was singing in a people’s Messiah at the Lincoln Centre in New York. It’s hard to choose my favourite work. It would have to be between Verdi’s Requiem and the Brahms’ Requiem. Clearly I am heavily into Requiems!
I left the choir for a few years as life took over, but I rejoined in 2013 and have been happily ensconced back in the 2nd altos which is where I started my UWACS journey all those years ago.
Peter Day ~ joined 1966
My lifetime love affair with music and sound probably came from my father’s interest and his taking me to a performance of Barber of Seville and lots of G&S as a young, impressionable boy. There was lots of mucking around on the piano, listening to early LPs and HiFi with friends, later playing fife in the school cadet band. I joined UWACS post-Uni in 1966 (Dvorak’s Stabat Mater), started learning flute while on work transfer to Melbourne. I continued with UWACS on my return from Melbourne for a few years, but then decided raising a young family and settling into a new house in Darlington was all too hard, so left about 1975. I re-joined in 1990. So, my membership goes back to 1966 but was missing for about 17 years before 1990!
In addition to UWACS, I sang with A Kappella Munda and Tuxedo Junction for many years, and more recently Swan Harmony, providing a wonderful variety of alternative music to UWACS. From 2004 – 08, I was also a member of the Opera Studio Chorus, and sang full performances over several nights of Marriage of Figaro, Magic Flute at His Majesty’s theatre. Before that, I sang as a slave in the chorus of Aida, in the huge Edgley production at Burswood Dome, along with several other UWACS members.
At UWACS I have loved singing the great choral works of Bach, Haydn, Mozart. What I’ve enjoyed most about UWACS is the whole process of a concert cycle, topped off with the exhilaration of a well performed and appreciated production in the company of like-minded people, as well as the sometimes-underappreciated personal development and satisfaction that goes with it.
Jocelyn Everett ~ joined 1990
I have belonged to a choir of some sort for most of my life. When I was in primary school our class did the Friday morning singing broadcasts. We went into the ABC studios in St Georges Terrace on the bus. During the previous week someone (Edgar Nottage, Doris Dival, Rex Hobcroft or Erna Stratton) came to teach us the next week’s song.
At the age of 14 I was in the school choir and was chosen to be in a choir to sing for the Queen Mother when she visited Perth. A year later I joined a church choir, to which I belonged for ten years. I also belonged to the Bach Society Choir from 1966 until 1969.
When I got married I sank into oblivion for twenty years. In 1990 I saw a newspaper ad for UWACS and thought “It’s Time”. I have now been a member for 35 years. I hope to keep passing my auditions for a few years yet.
Mary Hill ~ joined 1995
Singing has been part of my life since I sang Elijah with the choir of Ilkley Grammar School when I was 16. Then at Bristol University I sang in the first production of Britten’s War Requiem after it premiered in Coventry.
After coming to live in Western Australia in the late 60s I naturally looked for the best choir I could find! After a few years with UWACS I sang with the Fremantle Choir, then a group of us moved with Pru Ashurst back to UWACS. Apart from a brief stint with the WASO chorus I have been with UWACS ever since.
I loved everything about singing with this choir. Best of all, when I retired from teaching, it gave me the opportunity to sing all over the world: Carnegie Hall New York, St Petersburg, Moscow, Albert Hall, London and of course many years of June Sydney sings with Chorus Oz.
For me the big works were always what appealed most and Verdi’s Requiem has to top that list.
Adrian Momber ~ joined 1991
My first choral experience when I joined my boarding school’s choir aged 8 and we were forced to perform a psalm every morning and an hymn every evening in the school chapel. They taught me the piano at school too but I could never quite get my hands to co-ordinate with my brain efficiently! At senior school I was warned off joining the choir (to minimise bullying) and this proved a turning point as instead I joined their choral society where we performed such works as Messiah with the local village group.
I joined UWACS in 1991, the same year that our first daughter was born and, whilst at work, I was managing Town & Country’s application for a banking licence.
The choral society means a lot to me, alongside my other passions of family, yacht racing, local church community and part-time work at Lifeline WA. It gives me the opportunity to sing glorious choral works with top conductors and orchestras. I also value my relationships with the other choristers band and seem to have become the choir’s ex-officio pub convener.
I enjoy the variety of works we perform; ones that stick most in my memory are Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Jenkins’ The Armed Man. Maybe my most memorable moment with the society though was our trip down to Leeuwin Estate where we sang Handel’s Messiah and slept in tents overnight after indulging in the winery’s complimentary cleanskins.
Ronnie Naughton ~ joined 1967
Singing with UWACS has been a central part of my life story since I was very young. I joined the choir in 1967 in my first year out of high school and have continued to the present day. Looking back, I can see that I was fortunate to grow up in a very musical family with a distinguished musical heritage: my mother was a descendent of Clara Schumann, and was immersed in the musical world of Leipzig until her migration to Australia with my father in the late 1940s. She played the piano and during my childhood in Mandurah, where my parents settled, she and my father, who was a singer, continued their deep involvement in classical music.
My first experience of exhilarating choral singing was in my final year as a boarder at Methodist Ladies College, when Sir Frank Callaway gathered together a massed girls’ choir with choristers from MLC and surrounding girls’ colleges. I loved that experience, and the next year, as a young occupational therapy student, I joined UWACS. I have very fond memories of that time: I felt very young and green, but I was warmly welcomed and was generously mentored by more experienced singers including June Bremner and Edna Bailey.
Among the first works I performed was Handel’s Acis and Galatea. I have loved the challenge of preparing complex works. Among my favourites are the Faure Requiem, The Armed Man, and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Peak experiences have included our UWACS trip to China in 2019, and singing Elijah at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2006 with choirs from Iceland and Canada.
I continue to love singing with UWACS and, in addition to the simple joy of singing, I am aware of its very positive health benefits, intellectually, socially, emotionally and physically.
Annie Patrick ~ joined 1991
Music has been a central part of my professional and personal life. I learned piano as a schoolgirl at MLC in Sydney, and much later, when our fourth child was in kindergarten, I learned the flute. After our family moved to Perth in the mid 60s I played flute for many years in several professional/amateur orchestras and taught flute in schools, including at MLC.
My choral singing began after I enrolled as a mature aged student at UWA to study a BA (Hons) in English and music. As students we were required to join the student chorale with Margaret Pride. This was my first sortie into sight-singing! I continued at UWA with postgraduate studies in music and wrote my Masters thesis on the opera Voss, based on Patrick White’s novel. For some decades after completing my studies I gave pre-performance talks and wrote programme notes for WA Opera. I also wrote regularly for Opera Opera, a national magazine.
I joined UWACS in 1991 and it remains an important part of my life. I especially love singing Mozart works. What I enjoy most is the companionship of other singers, many of whom have become firm friends.
Andrew Reavell ~ joined 1990
My first musical experience was as an eight-year-old when my father, himself an avid choral musician, decided I should audition for the choir of St Mary le Tower church in Ipswich, UK.
I continued singing for about 10 years, first as a treble and later as a baritone. There was a time when I sang both baritone in the school choir and treble in the church choir. The church choir master sprang me at a school’s choir festival, and after that, baritone only (and no more pay!).
During that time, I also joined the Ipswich Choral Society and sang with them for a few seasons.
After marrying my wife, Lynda, and starting a family, I occasionally performed in musicals at the new church we were attending.
In 1981, we left the UK, settled in Perth, and took a break from music for a few years, until my eldest daughter noticed an advert in the paper seeking tenors and basses to audition for UWACS. The conductor was Ian Westrip and the concert was Bach’s St Matthew Passion.
I have also sung with the WASO Chorus and the Georgian Singers and have been part of an augmenting chorus for the WA Opera Company, as well as a few musical theatre productions over the years.
Ruth Williams ~ joined 1986
The first performance of a major choral work I ever heard was with my family in our local church. I was about 10. It was Handel’s Messiah, so it came back very quickly (well, parts of it) when I joined UWACS in December 1986. Yes, in my first concert we performed Messiah!
As a child I was taught piano and the recorder and I sang with the school choir. My lifelong love of classical and choral music really started at home, listening to my parents play wonderful sounding records on their newly purchased Blaupunkt record player.
My time with UWACS has been a joy, and we have worked with many talented conductors. Whilst each concert performance brings excitement, the standout was singing in the Perth Concert Hall with Mikis Theodorakis conducting his own work Axion Esi. Another important time was being part of the planning team that prepared for the 90th celebrations of our choir. Being in the choir has enabled me to travel for performances and to meet and experience the wonder of great choral music-making. ChorusOz comes to mind. I have served on the committee at various times and carried out different tasks which I hope to continue to do.
Larraine Wroth ~ joined 1965
I was blessed with a childhood surrounded by music, whether from my father playing his extensive vinyl record collection of classics, or the sound of him singing and Mum accompanying him on the piano, as I went to sleep at night. School included lots of singing too – that’s how every day would begin! In 1962, I sang in a choir of school children at the opening of the Empire Games in Perth.
Then, as one of Professor (later Sir) Frank Callaway’s music students at UWA, I joined UWACS in 1965. The next few years with UWACS brought a rich menu of musical variety and experiences with many conductors from overseas, as we sang with WASO. Singing the Berlioz Requiem (for the 1989 bicentenary of the French Revolution) was a highlight, with Louis Fremaux conducting, after we had been prepared by the wonderful Richard Gill.
Periods of teaching and living in the country and overseas followed, jumping back into UWACS when in Perth for a time. Then I had 27 years of singing with the Festival Chorus (WASO Chorus), Collegium Symphonic Chorus, and in 2011, coming back home to UWACS, when I discovered that they were actually going to perform a work I had never sung before – the Tenebrae Responsories by Gesualdo, under the magic baton of Chris Van Tuinen.
I have always felt that singing in a choir is like meditation. For those 2 hours or so of rehearsal, the everyday world retreats, as you immerse yourself in the joys of music.
