About us
Choir Cecilia is a not-for-profit incorporated body of 40-45 singers who live throughout the Adelaide Hills and surrounding Adelaide areas.
We continue to pride ourselves on the professional standard of our performances.
We enjoy sharing the joy of music with our audiences while belonging to a warm and friendly community of singers.
Our objectives are:
- To further the love of choral singing and to promote, foster and practise the art of choral music and kindred arts
- To promote goodwill and fellowship
- To pursue a standard of excellence in respect of all activities of the Choir
- To support local communities in our musical endeavours and to foster young talent
You can see information on our current Musical Director, current Accompanist, and our wonderful Choir Cecilia Patrons below.
OUR Musical Director
Jeremy Tatchell
Our Musical Director is Jeremy Tatchell, a New Zealand-born baritone who first began singing in choirs at the age of nine. In 1995, he joined the National Youth Choir of Australia for its inaugural season and continued to perform and tour with the choir until 2001.
Jeremy studied viola, voice, and choral and orchestral conducting at the ANU School of Music before joining Co-Opera in 2003, touring in major roles throughout Australia, Asia and Europe.
Since moving to Adelaide in 2011, Jeremy has sung numerous roles for State Opera South Australia and is much sought after as a concert, recital and National Anthem performing artist throughout Adelaide and Australia.
Jeremy teaches voice at a number of schools around Adelaide and is passionate about encouraging a love of singing across all generations.
Choir Cecilia is honoured to have Jeremy as our musical director.
OUR Accompanist
Damien Mansfield
Damien studied piano with esteemed English pianist Lance Dossor in Adelaide while also studying medicine, and performed with many leading Australian musicians of his generation in chamber music concerts at National Music Camps.
While working in community child health in inner London, 1973-81, he made time alongside for further training and experience in chamber music, accompaniment and vocal repertoire in master classes and studios with several noted musicians, including Sandor Vegh, Szymon Goldberg, Nathan Millstein, Arthur Hammond and most significantly Geoffrey Parsons.
Damien also worked as a repetiteur and coach with the Else Mayer-Lismann Opera Workshop for five years, accompanying their annual performances on London’s South Bank.
As a collaborative pianist, Damien has appeared in Australia, the USA, England, the Netherlands and Canada, receiving special praise from New York Times critic Robert Sherman for his “expressive intensity”.
Damien resumed active musical work in 2013 after 40 years of medical practice in child health and was soon reestablished as one of Adelaide’s most sought-after musicians. In these years he has worked and performed regularly as pianist and organist with renowned singer Robert Dawe. He has appeared in chamber music for the Friends of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and in Victoria with the Aequales Ensemble.
He is on the Council of the Accompanists’ Guild of South Australia and has presented several programs for them, through 5MBS broadcast, on the Art of the Collaborative Pianist.
Choir Cecilia is honoured to have Damien as our current accompanist.
Our patrons
Choir Cecilia is privileged to have the patronage of four of Australia’s highly esteemed musicians.
Elizabeth Campbell
Elizabeth Campbell appeared regularly as a guest with Opera Australia at the Sydney Opera House, and with all the state opera companies and symphony orchestras.
Her opera roles include Azucena, Sesto, Carmen, Xerxes, Clairon, Fricka and Suzuki.
For her performances in State Opera’s productions of Dead Man Walking and Aida, she won Helpmann Awards for best supporting female performer.
Thomas Edmonds AM
Thomas Edmonds AM established himself as one of Australia’s leading lyric tenors.
His early training was with Arnold Matters at the Elder Conservatorium in SA. He performed some fifty operatic roles, as well as being a leading concert and recording artist.
In the 1982 Australia Day Honours he was awarded the Order of Australia medal for his contribution to music in the country. In 1991 he was honoured by South Australia with an SA Great award.
Peter Webb OAM
Peter Webb was the Musical Director of Choir Cecilia from 1997 until his retirement in 2022.
In his professional life he was an oboe and cor anglais player, playing on contract with the Australian Opera Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, until his appointment to the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, where he played from 1975 to 1995.
He has maintained his involvement in community music making throughout his life, and has been the Conductor of the Unley Symphony Orchestra in Adelaide from 1983 until 2026.
Peter was on the Council of the Young Adelaide Voices from 2004 to 2008, and was Director of South Australian State Music Camp from 2008 until 2016.
He is also a composer, with works performed locally, overseas, and on Classic FM. His Songs for Cecilia were written for Choir Cecilia in 2002, and the choir performed many other works and arrangements of his over the years.
A player of the didjeridu, he used to start every Choir Cecilia concert with a short solo, as a way of honouring Australia's First Nations people.
In 1997, he was awarded an Order of Australia Medal as a "musician, conductor, composer, and teacher".
Julienne Webb
Julienne played regularly as a violist with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and has also played with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra in Sydney, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Chamber Orchestra and many other orchestras and chamber groups.
For many years she adjudicated strings and piano sections at the Adelaide, Strathalbyn and Balaklava Eisteddfods and tutored viola students at SA State Music Camp.
She taught violin, viola and piano in schools and privately and also worked as an accompanist.
She sang in Choir Cecilia for many years and occasionally stood in as rehearsal accompanist, as well as producing digital print copies and recordings of compositions and arrangements for the choir by her husband, Peter.
