Dr Jean Callaghan

In early October I went to the national conference of the Australian National Association of Teachers of Singing (ANATS). It was a good conference, with international keynote speakers Stephen Austin from the US and Kim Chandler from the UK. Pat Wilson and I gave a workshop on the differences between singing music theatre and classical music, which was a great success. And I was made illustrious and immortal, that is, I was made an Honorary Life Member of ANATS. As one of the people instrumental in setting up this body, I find it very gratifying that it is flourishing and doing many positive things for the teaching of singing in Australia. It was very touching to have my contribution acknowledged and to get a standing ovation!

Just before the New Zealand trip Jean gave a paper on ‘Singing Classical Music in the Age of Recording’ at the national conference of the Australian National Association of Teachers of Singing in Canberra. The paper presented the results of a preliminary study of recorded performances of classical singing to examine how singing performance has changed over the period of recorded performance and the implications of those changes for singers and their teachers today.