About

Christopher is an experienced singer, performing as a soloist with leading choral organisations such as Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, with Opera Australia as Chorus member and understudy, with the Song Company as their baritone and as a guest artist and with local groups such as Echology and Newcastle University Choir.  With his friends Jennifer Barnes, Rosemary Saunders and Paul Bevan, Christopher has sung in the group Waxing Lyrical in concerts throughout the Hunter Valley as well as interstate.  He has presented recitals of art songs including Lieder and English Art Song with such distinguished pianists as Nigel Butterley, Ann O’Hearn, Catherine Davis and Erin Sweetman. Performances include at the Museum of Modern Art (Sydney), The National Library (Canberra) and locally for the Newcastle Music Festival and the Newcastle Conservatorium.

Chris originally trained at Newcastle Conservatorium of Music with the late William Coombes and Marjorie Shires, later working with great teachers such as Grant Dickson (Sydney), John Carol Case (London), Nigel Wickens (Cambridge) and Ghillian Sullivan (Newcastle).  In addition he has worked with the distinguished teacher Janice Chapman in London.

In his continuing efforts to improve his own knowledge and breadth of experience he was awarded his PhD in 2011 in Vocal Pedagogy for his dissertation entitled ‘Exploring the Value of Aural and Kinaesthetic Feedback using Speech Quality as a Catalyst for Vocal Develpment in the Training of Tertiary Voice Students‘.  The insights gained in researching this area, as well as gleaned from teaching for many years, watching and talking with other voice teachers and attending and participating in conferences in the UK, Asia and Australia have given Chris a wide and varied background which he brings to his teaching.

He believes in a holistic approach to voice training, looking at the whole person and integrating vocal techniques with good functional use of the body and the use of positive psychology and imagination to bring about a full and rounded performance.  Chris is interested in somatic learning – particularly the Feldenkrais Method and its effect on the use of the body for physical pursuits such as singing.  (For more information please see http://www.movetovitality.com.au ).  In February 2019, Chris began training as a Feldenkrais Practitioner and will graduate as a Practitioner in July 2022. A four year process, the training delves deeply into our own experience of the body and the methodologies of the Method’s founder, Dr Moshe Feldenkrais.

In addition, Chris is a Choral Director currently directing the Newcastle University Choir  (www.newcastleuniversitychoir.org) where he has directed performances of many works of the standard Choral repertoire (e.g. Bach St Matthew Passion, Magnificat, Mozart Requiem and Vespers, Haydn Mass in the Time of War, Rutter Requiem, Handel Messiah to name a few) as well as concerts of Jazz with local Jazz pianist and arranger Terence Koo, Gospel with acclaimed Gospel singer Francine Bell and recent music for choir A Cappella.  In addition, Chris enjoys presenting vocal and choral workshops in Sydney, Newcastle, Far North Queensland and Victoria. He recently presented two sessions (Breathing and Resonance) and a Masterclass at the National ANCA conference in Perth, WA.

As well as being a vocal specialist, Chris is also an accomplished pianist.  He is seen regularly as an accompanist and enjoys sharing the stage with singers and instrumental colleagues. He has appeared with many singers including his daughter (Soprano Miriam Allan), flautist Sally Walker (in her series Twilight Musical Dialogues) and other instrumentalists.

Chris is also a ‘morning’ photographer – taking shots of the dawn while either riding or walking.  The images you see on these pages are his.