The Cyrenes are delighted to welcome Christine as our new Musical Director.
Christine has been performing as a soloist and chorister for most of her life, firstly as a young child with the Australian Children’s Choir and then as a long-standing member of the Choral Institute of Melbourne. She studied classical singing with both Kevin Casey (University of Melbourne) and Bettine McCaughan (Melba Conservatory of Music) and has performed in numerous amateur stage productions including ‘Orpheus et Eurydice’ with Elder Conservatorium at the University of Adelaide and ‘The Sound of Music’ with Nova Theatre Company.
Christine completed her Bachelor of Music in 2004, majoring in both Voice and Choral Conducting and completed her Grad DipEd in 2005. In 2016 she sang the soprano solo in “Street Requiem” written and conducted by Jonathon Welch and in 2017 Christine founded The South Eastern Trill Seekers, a female acapella group who have performed locally in Melbourne at ‘Music On the Grass’ in Koo Wee Rup in 2017, Casey and Cardinia Relay for Life in 2018, and at Bunjil Place Theatre in the ‘You’re The Voice – Singing Out Against Family Violence’ Concert in 2019. More recently the Trill Seekers performed at the Murtoa Stick Shed Show in 2022 and in a combined concert with the Cyrenes at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture in Canberra in July 2023.
Christine relocated to Canberra with her family in 2019 and has been a performing member of the Cyrenes since 2020. She is looking forward to many adventures ahead as the Cyrenes’ Musical Director.
Thank you Johanna McBride
In December 2023, Johanna retired as our Musical Director. The Cyrenes thank Johanna for her fantastic musical leadership as our musical director for 10 years, from September 2013 to December 2023. She brought us the pleasure and joy of beautiful vibrant harmony and ensemble singing and also brought us lots of fun. Our repertoire under Johanna's guidance was full of powerful meaningful music, both in words and musically. She was also dedicated to the Cyrenes' underlying philosophy that singing is part of the joy and wellbeing of life.
