Our Musical Team

Musical Director Lyn Henshall

A graduate of Melbourne University and RMIT, Lyn is a psychologist and teacher and works as the Director of Student Wellbeing in a school. Lyn plays the piano and the cello but her great love is choral music. She has conducted school and community children's choirs for 25 years and regularly attends choral conducting courses in order to keep abreast of new repertoire and to learn from talented conductors with local, national and international reputations. Repertoire is very important to her and she spends a considerable amount of time seeking out appropriate music.

Accompanist: Dr. John Atwell

The Maroondah Singers is delighted to welcome Dr. John Atwell back as accompanist and associate guest artist for 2010. John accompanied the choir for seventeen years from 1980 to 1997, before leaving due to increasing work and other musical commitments. The Choir is looking forward to working with John once again.

John has had extensive experience in choral accompaniment with other Melbourne Choirs as well as working with Maroondah Singers from 1980-1997. He has worked with such choirs as The Melbourne Singers, the Ashton Smith Singers, the Lierdertafel Arion, the Gregorius Dutch Male Choir, and the Massed choirs of the Male Choirs Association Concerts.

John studied the organ under Rolland May at Scots Church, Adelaide in the late 1960's, and is a registered player of the organs in the Melbourne Town Hall and The Melbourne Concert Hall.

He has performed concerts on the theatre pipe organ in many venues in the USA, the UK, Canada, New Zealand and all the states of Australia. He also took part in the two concerts celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the organ in the Sydney Opera House in September 2004. He has presented a number of concerts over the years in the Melbourne Town Hall, the most recent being April 2008.

John will travel to Seattle, USA, in 2010, to open the two week organ festival program. He will perform with another well known Australian, Tony Fenelon. Not only is John a distinguished theatre organist, he is a highly accomplished accompanist, who can play a variety of styles and genres, arrange existing music for choral performance and performs in his own right as a guest artist on piano or electronic keyboard.