ABOUT US
The Tudor Choristers
Carlos del Cueto, music director
The Tudor Choristers was founded in Melbourne in 1962 by David Carolane OAM and has been directed by Carlos del Cueto since 2024.
Specialising in unaccompanied music, The Tudor Choristers has performed for most of Australia's leading concert organisations, including the ABC, Musica Viva, the Victorian Arts Centre, and the Victorian Arts Council.
The choir has made radio broadcasts, appeared on national television, and in feature film. Performances under such notable guest conductors as Sir David Willcocks and Philip Ledger, and tours of New Zealand and North America, have confirmed The Tudor Choristers' ranking as one of Australia's pre-eminent choral ensembles.
Recent achievements include winning the A Cappella Choirs section of the Boroondara Eisteddfod (2020), producing a Christmas CD: Sing Nowell! (2021) and touring to New South Wales in 2022.
The Tudor Choristers Inc is an incorporated asssociation under the Victorian Associations Incorporations Act 1981 and is governed by a committee according to its Rules. The choir is a member of the Australian National Choral Association.
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Carlos Del Cueto
Music Director - January 2024 - Present
Originally from Mexico, Carlos was formerly Junior Fellow in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music, as well as assistant conductor and Head of Music Staff at English Touring Opera and a BBC Performing Arts Fund Music Fellow. Before conducting was his main focus, Carlos completed a PhD in Music at Clare College, Cambridge, that focused on historical aspects of nineteenth-century Italian opera. He later had the opportunity to work with, and be mentored by, conductors such as Sir Mark Elder, Sir Roger Norrington, Paavo Järvi, Juanjo Mena, and George Benjamin.
Carlos’ conducting activities span across numerous genres and time periods. He was principal conductor of the Cambridge University Symphony Orchestra, and later worked with orchestras such as The Hallé, the Manchester Camerata. and the London Sinfonietta. In terms of contemporary music, Carlos led the UK premiere of works by Hans Abrahamsen and Simon Steen Andersen, as well as a number of chamber operas.
Much of Carlos’ work with singers has been with opera from all time periods, including productions of Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Handel’s Serse, Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, and several contemporary works at various UK festivals. Before moving to Melbourne in 2023, Carlos served full-time as the music director of a global not-for-profit organisation based in New York, where he worked regularly with musicians from diverse backgrounds and traditions. Carlos has keen interest in classical Indian music, and has traveled to India to train groups of young musicians in various forms of devotional music and Vedic recitation. In addition to conducting, Carlos is a certified organisational coach and a leadership consultant.
Carlos adores the choral music of the Renaissance and is looking forward to conducting the Tudor Choristers and sharing this magical repertoire with the people of Melbourne.
Recent Music Directors
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Dr KATHLEEN McGUIRE
Music Director - 2017 to 2023
Kathleen conducted the Tudor Choristers between 2017 and 2023.
Born in Melbourne and with a stellar career spanning more than three decades in seven countries, Kathleen has directed choral and instrumental ensembles on international stages including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and Sydney Opera House. She earned her doctorate in conducting at the University of Colorado, Boulder (USA), Master of Music with Distinction at University of Surrey (UK) as a Rotary Ambassadorial Fellow, Graduate Diploma in Education at Monash University, Graduate Diploma in conducting at the Victorian College of the Arts and BMus in composition at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. She studied conducting with Robert Rosen, Nicholas Braithwaite, Theodore Kuchar, Dr Joan Catoni Conlon, Dr Owen Rees, Nicholas Conran and Robert Spillman, and received mentoring from Simone Young AO, Marin Alsop, Christopher Martin, Sian Edwards and David Carolane OAM. Kathleen lived in the USA for almost two decades, including a decade as Artistic Director and Conductor of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus and eight years as the Principal Conductor of the Community Women's Orchestra. In San Francisco, “Kathleen McGuire Day” was designated on two occasions by mayors of San Francisco. She was named “Local Hero” by ABC-TV, and The American Prize awarded her work several times in the Professional Composer Division. Her compositions and arrangements are published by Wirripang, Shawnee Press and Hal Leonard Music. She is a Board Director of the international Women's Philharmonic Advocacy, a member of American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the Music Arrangers Guild of Australia (MAGA) and the Honors Society of Pi Kappa Lamba. Kathleen returned to Australia in 2013. In additional to freelance conducting and composing, she is a Lecturer in Education (Music) at the Faculty of Education and Arts, Australian Catholic University.