Musical Staff

The Musical Geniuses behind SCUNA

Musical Director / Principal Conductor

Veronica Thwaites-Brown

Veronica is a classically-trained singer, pianist, conductor and music educator, and a graduate of Sydney University and the University of Canberra. She also studied German, English and philosophy in her undergraduate degree. Veronica holds a Masters in Education and is currently the Executive Teacher of Performing Arts at Hawker College. Amongst other musical endeavours in schools, she founded the Hawker Harmonists Primary choir and during her time as Assistant Dean of Music conducted the Canberra Girls' Grammar choirs. She was the Musical Director of The Cyrenes Women's Choir over many years and guest conductor for Canberra Opera's Christmas concert in 2019.

Veronica's musical life was enriched early on by travel to Europe which gave her the opportunity to play chamber music and study music at the Albert Ludwigs Universität in Freiburg. During her time at Sydney University, Veronica studied piano performance under Philip Shovk and was popular as a co-performer, accompanist and repetiteur amongst musical peers and performers. Veronica's first singing teacher was Reginald Byers, former dramatic tenor for the Australian Opera. Since moving to Canberra, Veronica has conducted several community and school choirs and received vocal coaching from Christina Wilson, Erin Helyard, Alan Hicks, Maree Ryan, Naomi Eyres and Simon Kenway.

Since developing her profile as a vocalist, Veronica has performed as a mezzo soprano soloist for many of Canberra's choirs. Highlights include Handel's Messiah and Vivaldi's Gloria for the Canberra Choral Society, a variety of works for Coro Chamber Music, Saint-Saens' Oratorio de Noel for the Llewellyn Choir, Mozart's Requiem, and Haydn's Nelson Mass for both the Maruki Orchestra and Igitur Nos. Most recently she sang the alto arias from Israel in Egypt for Igitur Nos. Theatrical roles have included: 'Buttercup' in HMS Pinafore with Queanbeyan Players; 'Lola' in Cavalieri Rusticana with Canberra Opera; the 'Baker's Wife' in Into the Woods, with Dramatic Productions in association with ANU; 'La Speranza' in the ANU production of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, conducted by Peter Tregear, alongside tenor Nicolas Mulroy; 'Maria' in The Sound of Music with Queanbeyan Players; 'Caroline Neville' in Titanic with Supa Productions; featured soloist in Esther and Alexander Balus with Handel in the Theatre; 'Tessa' in The Gondoliers; and in the chorus of Carmen with Melbourne Opera. Other recitals and productions have included 'Opera Lunchbox' with Louise Keast and David Smyth, in which she directed Menotti's The Telephone, and Schumann's song cycle Frauenliebe und Leben at Wesley Music Centre with award-winning Canberra pianist, Aaron Chew.

Veronica's son has taken the liberty of leaving a note. "My mum is so cool. She is a good teacher.💪😎"

Répétiteur

Anthony Smith

Anthony Smith is a Canberra-based pianist, musicologist, composer and arranger. As a pianist, he has performed in Australia, England, Germany, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden and the USA. He has a particular interest in the works of Constant Lambert, the subject of his PhD thesis, completed at ANU in 2017.

Anthony worked as an accompanist for the ANU School of Music for many years, performing hundreds of assessable recitals with undergraduate and postgraduate students, and is currently répétiteur to SCUNA, as well as two other large Canberra choirs: Canberra Choral Society and The Llewellyn Choir.