In his sessions Chris will focus on the mechanics of the voice change, drawing on the work of John Cooksey.  He will also talk about how to work with voice classification in the choral context to help boys through the adjustment period, as well as choosing appropriate repertoire.  

Curtis Bayliss

Curtis teaches vocal studies in the Music Theatre course at the Victorian College of Arts and is currently the Director of Choral Music at Melbourne High School. Curtis is responsible for the massed singing program at Melbourne High School and coaches boys for solo and ensemble performances, musical theatre, rock band singing and cadet yelling. Curtis is in demand nationally as an adjudicator and presenter of choral and vocal training. As well, he regularly works as a music theatre and voice clinician for Melbourne Youth Music and Youth Music Australia. In 2007 he was a guest clinician for the inaugural Australian National Association of Teachers of Singing Music Theatre Voice conference and intern program.
His private voice practice, Voicematters, is largely dedicated to tertiary and semi-professional music theatre practioners. He sings tenor with the vocal jazz quartet BOPeRA.

Christopher Shepard, Conductor

Foundation conductor of the Sydneian Bach Choir, Christopher Shepard is Director of Music at Sydney Grammar School, and holds degrees in Music Education (piano) and Choral Conducting from the Hartt School of Music and Yale University.  He has studied conducting with Marguerite Brooks, James Jordan and Helmuth Rilling, and Baroque performance practice with Jaap Schroeder, Paul Brainard and Rosalyn Tureck.
Before moving to Sydney in 1996, Chris was Head of Fine and Performing Arts at the Taft School (USA).  While teaching at Taft, he also conducted many choirs and orchestras in the greater New York metropolitan area.  In Sydney, Chris served as music director of the Georgian Singers and chorusmaster for the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, in addition to conducting the Senior Choir at Ascham School.  He has conducted the SBS Youth Orchestra on several occasions, including performances of the Brahms German Requiem, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and excerpts from Tippett’s A Child of Our Time.  He has conducted several major works with the Sydney Grammar School choirs and orchestra, including Orff’s Carmina Burana, the Haydn Lord Nelson Mass, Britten’s Saint Nicolas and the Bach Magnificat.  Chris has presented two nationally televised programmes for SBS: a documentary about Leonard Bernstein and From Mozart to Morrison with jazz artist James Morrison.  With the Sydneian Bach Choir, he has conducted Bach’s St John Passion, B Minor Mass and Christmas Oratorio, as well as the Mozart Mass in C Minor and Monteverdi’s Vespers.  In February 2005, he began BACH 2010, a six-year project to perform all of Bach’s choral cantatas with the Sydneian Bach Choir and Orchestra.  Chris conducted Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra in 2006, and has conducted two productions with Midsummer Opera: Love’s Lessons Learned in 2006 and Bizet’s Carmen in 2007. 
Chris is Music Director of the Hotchkiss Summer Chamber Music Program, an intensive chamber music program for advanced young players and singers from around the world, held each July in America’s Berkshire Mountains.  As Director of the program, he conducts the chamber orchestra and teaches alongside several guest musicians, including the Tokyo String Quartet, the Shanghai Quartet and the Philadelphia Singers.