Choral Conductor and Director - Brisbane

Sandra Milliken is a highly qualified and well-regarded free-lance choral conductor and director based in Brisbane, Australia. She has had a long involvement with choral music dating from her time as a singer and accompanist with the award-winning Cairns Choral Society, where she was also musical director for several of their stage musicals. Since coming to Brisbane in 1994, she has conducted a number of children’s, youth and adult choirs; has produced several choral music CD recordings; and has been the recipient of a Churchill Fellowship that focused on the art and role of the choir conductor.

Coming to Choral Conducting

My association with choral music began in the late 1970s and has encompassed roles as singer, accompanist and conductor. As a choir conductor I have been actively involved with a number of community choirs in and around Brisbane, along with education institutions including Trinity Bay High School (Cairns); Clayfield College, Stuartholme School and Cannon Hill Anglican College (Brisbane); and the University of Queensland.

My formal qualifications include a Masters degree in Choral Conducting and Methodology from the University of Queensland where I studied with Dr Ed Bolkovac, who is currently Professor of Choral Music at the Hartt School, part of the University of Hartford in Connecticut.

I also hold a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New England where I majored in musicology and ethnomusicology. Following the completion of my Masters degree I was contracted as a part-time lecturer at the University of Queensland, where I conducted Concentus, the University’s premier choir.

In 1995 I joined the staff of the Queensland Youth Choir (now the Queensland Show Choir), conducting several of their ensembles up until 2008. In 1998 I was appointed musical director of their senior ensemble VoiceWorks and in 2006 became the Choir’s inaugural Artistic Director.

From 2007 to 2016 I was music director of the Blackstone-Ipswich Cambrian Choir and from 2017 to 2019 I worked with the the Sunshine Coast Oriana Choir. I am currently music director of the Bayside Divas women’s choir and conductor of the College Choir at Cannon Hill Anglican College.

In 2001, I was privileged to be awarded a prestigious Churchill Fellowship that enabled me to spend four months visiting world-renowned choirs in England, Sweden, Finland, Canada and the USA, working with and observing many internationally acclaimed choral music experts.

Choral Conductor Services

Please contact Sandra to discuss her availability if you are a choir seeking the services of a guest or permanent choral conductor.

Bayside Divas

Bayside Divas is a Brisbane-based women’s choir performing mainly contemporary music in and around the bayside area of Sandgate. The choir is committed to making beautiful music and to providing an opportunity for women of all backgrounds to participate in the joy of singing and performing. The choir inspires and enriches its audiences in the Bayside area through its concerts, recordings and its appearances at community events.

Sunshine Coast Oriana Choir

Founded by Daniel Calder, the Sunshine Coast Oriana Choir presented their debut concert in April 2006. Since then the choir has performed at the Queensland Eisteddfod, winning the title of Champion Choir on five occasions. The Choir has undertaken a variety of challenging works and productions in its annual concert performances and received high acclaim for their first performance of Handel’s Messiah in November 2008. The choir has toured to Europe where it performed at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod in Wales and other prestigious venues across the continent.

Blackstone-Ipswich Cambrian Choir

Established in 1886, the Blackstone-Ipswich Cambrian Choir is reputedly Queensland’s longest continuously-performing choir with a long and proud history. From Elizabethan madrigals and classical oratorio, through gospel and jazz, to contemporary modern and the vitality of new Australian works, the Blackstone-Ipswich Cambrian Choir delights its audiences with passionate and inspiring performances of some of the best of the world’s choral music repertoire.

CD Recordings

As a choral director I am constantly looking for ways to keep the experience of singing in a choir something that is interesting, rewarding, friendly and challenging for each of the members. Whilst there are a multitude of things that can be done to try to achieve these goals, something that has worked well for me is the production of CD recordings. It is certainly a challenging process for those new to it. The experience is different to singing at a concert, but it has the potential to produce a reward that will live on through the years.

I have, since 2004, produced a number of what have come to be highly acclaimed choral recordings including the premiere Australian recordings of the Ramirez Misa Criolla and Navidad Nuestra; a collection of new Australian music titled New Leaves; A Cambrian Collection – an eclectic collection of repertoire from around the world; and Haydn Sunrise featuring selected works of Michael Haydn and the Sunrise Mass of Ola Gjeilo.

The complete collection of recordings that I have produced and/or conducted appears below. Most of these CDs were recorded and edited at Ghostgum Audio, a modern recording studio established at Cannon Hill Anglican College.