WASO Chorus Sings: Sacred

Hugh Lydon
Chorus Director

Hugh Lydon is a teacher, singer and conductor who is passionate about all aspects of choral music. This love was developed by his training as a chorister in Westminster Cathedral from 1992-1997. Hugh moved to Perth in 2010, having previously studied Music Education at Trinity College Dublin.

Whilst living in WA, he has immersed himself in the choral scene, both as a performer and a teacher. Hugh currently holds the role of Director of the Aquinas College Schola Cantorum, a choral scholarship program unique within WA where choristers receive nine hours of musical training each week. He is also the founder of the Perth Choral Institute and has been the Children's Chorus Master for West Australian Opera for the past three years. Other conducting opportunities have included the WASO Chorus, The Giovanni Consort, Opus WA, Winthrop Singers and St George’s Cathedral Consort.

Hugh was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2022 to create tertiary pathways for choral musicians in Western Australia.

WASO Chorus

The WASO Chorus was formed in 1988 and consists of over 100 volunteer choristers who represent the finest form of community music making, bringing together singers from all walks of life. They regularly feature in the WASO annual concert season and are directed by Hugh Lydon.

The Chorus has built an international reputation for its high standards and diverse range of repertoire. While its main role is to perform with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, the Chorus also maintains a profile of solo concerts, tours and community engagements.

The Chorus sings with the finest conductors and soloists including Asher Fisch, Simone Young, Stephen Layton and Paul Daniel. Recent highlights have included Mahler’s Symphony No.8 and Britten’s War Requiem. In 2019, the Chorus performed at the Denmark Festival of Voice and in 2018 toured China with performances of Orff’s Carmina burana.

In 2020, they performed two Gala events on the Kalbarri Skywalk. In 2023, the Chorus was invited to Hobart to perform Brahms’ German Requiem with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO), the TSO Chorus, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and members of the public, conducted by Simon Halsey. Last year, the WASO Chorus performed with members of the WA Opera Chorus, the UWA Symphonic Chorus, Voyces and Aquinas College’s Schola Cantorum in WASO’s presentation of Mahler’s Symphony No.8.

Hugh Lydon Chorus Director
Gladys Chua Répétiteur

Jonathan Bradley
Organ

Jonathan Bradley is renowned for his performances of Classical and Romantic piano repertoire, as well as for his own virtuosic piano transcriptions of epic orchestral scores and film music.

Jonathan has performed as a soloist in Australia, New Zealand, Russia, the UK, Germany, Austria, Eastern Europe, South East Asia, the USA and other countries. During a tour of China, he performed a Chopin recital in some of the country’s finest concert halls. He also gave a recital of Scriabin’s late piano music at the museum-home of the composer in Moscow.

Jonathan has appeared with some of Australia’s finest orchestras in concertos by Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Bach and others. On tour in China, he was the featured soloist in Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra, which included a performance in the Great Hall of the Forbidden City, Beijing. An earlier performance of Saint-Saëns’ Second Piano Concerto was televised live on Vietnamese Television from the Hanoi Opera House. In 2016, he performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue at the Perth Town Hall with the Oz Big Band, in its original band arrangement – including banjo!

As the solo pianist for the Fever Candlelight Concerts in Perth, Jonathan presented piano recitals dedicated to individual composers, including Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart and Rachmaninoff, as well as a “Movie Classics” program. During the Mozart program, he gave the Australian premiere of the Allegro in D major, K.626b, the manuscript of which was only discovered a few months earlier. This piece had not been heard since 1773!

Jonathan now appears regularly for the Australian-based Illuminated Classics. In 2023, he gave an all-Rachmaninoff recital on the 150^th anniversary of the composer’s birth, and an all-Chopin recital featuring his 160-year-old restored Erard. He regularly performs and makes YouTube recordings on this and other period pianos, giving audiences the opportunity to hear authentic instruments from the “Golden Age” of the piano.

Stewart Smith
Organ

Stewart Smith is one of the most active organists and harpsichordists in Australia. He has performed at international festivals and in venues throughout the Southern Hemisphere and in Europe, and in the recent past has performed with the Hilliard Ensemble, I Fagiolini, the Orchestra of the Antipodes, Pinchgut Opera, Ensemble Arcangelo, Ensemble Batistin, The West Australian Symphony Orchestra, The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Festival Baroque, The Australian Haydn Ensemble and the St. George’s Cathedral Consort, and is the organist of Christ Church Claremont. A five-CD set of French Baroque music on the ABC Classics label has recently been re-released internationally, and has won plaudits from the international press.

Stewart studied performance and musicology at the Royal Academy of Music and at London University, and graduated with first-class honours, a Master’s degree, two performance diplomas and many prizes. He has recorded fifteen CDs and has performed many times for ABC radio and television. Stewart is a Senior Lecturer in Classical Music at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.