Our personnel
Colin Slater OAM
Founder and National Director of Sing Australia
Career History
From 1966 to 1983 Colin Slater was employed in the Commonwealth Public Service in various Departments - Department of Supply, Department of National Development, Department of Minerals and Energy, Bureau of Mineral Resources, Department of Tourism and Recreation, Department of Industry and Commerce. His duties in these Departments ranged from administrative to policy areas. During the early years in the Public Service Colin completed a Certificate of Public Administration at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (Vic).
While working in full time employment Colin began his career in music as an opera singer in 1972. He has performed around 40 major roles including many of the great baritone roles in the operatic repertoire as well as leading roles in many musicals. He received national critical acclaim for performing the role of ‘Pilgrim’ in the Australian premiere of the Vaughan Williams opera ‘The Pilgrims Progress’ for Canberra Opera in the presence of Ursula Vaughan Williams in 1980.
In 1983 Colin was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study opera singing with leading teachers in Europe including the great Italian baritone Tito Gobbi.
From 1984 to 1992 he was employed as Office Manager of the architectural firm, Bryan R Dowling and Associates. Some of the projects completed by the firm in that period included many major commercial projects such as hotels, offices and school buildings.
In 1986 he formed a group called Austral Skies with distinguished Australian trumpeter, Paul Plunkett to promote the performance of Australian songs and over the ensuing three years performed throughout the eastern part of Australia - on some occasions with Musica Viva.
From 1992 to 1993 Colin was employed as Private Secretary to Mr Lou Westende, MLA, a newly elected member of the Legislative Assembly of the Australian Capital Territory.
From 1994 to the present time Colin Slater has been running his own company, Sing Australia Pty Ltd, which was established in 1985 to promote Australian artists, Australian music and to encourage Australians to sing.
Through Sing Australia Colin has produced a wide range of events from concerts to festivals, corporate functions, and entertainment at major sporting events. Highlights included producing the RAAF 75th Anniversary Concert in Melbourne Park in 1996, the Inter-Parliamentary Union concert in 1995, several annual Discovery Concerts at the Cassegrain Winery, Port Macquarie and the inaugural National Opera Festival in 1997 which he devised and produced. This event contained a program of events over a period of nine weeks. Colin has also been the event manager and ACT Executive Director for the Australia Day celebrations in Canberra from 1989 to 2005.
In 1996 Colin began to focus the Company’s attention on fulfilling his vision to encourage Australians to sing. He established the Australian Rugby Choir based on his earlier experience working with The Royals Rugby Choir in Canberra and then two years later he established the Colours ladies choir in Canberra. Having set The Australian Rugby Choir on a path that served the interests of Rugby fans only, he established a further choir for men called ‘Blokes’ to make it possible for more men to become involved in singing. The first Sing Australia Choir outside of Canberra was established in Griffith in 1998. Further choirs, some 145 choirs, have now been established throughout New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland. Workshops will be held in the Northern Territory in August 2010 to start Sing Australia groups in the North.
Sing Australia choirs, which we prefer to call singing groups, are meeting the needs of people who have not had the chance to sing in more formal choirs and they are providing a great avenue for friendship and support. Each of these singing groups are also performing in their communities and from time to time many of them combine for special occasions. This has had the effect of bringing Australians together in a very positive way. Many members now plan their travels to coincide with group rehearsals. As the network has a common repertoire it is very easy for members to visit other groups.
Sing Australia holds an Annual National Gathering. The first was held in Canberra in 2001, the second in Broken Hill, and the third in Echuca. During 2004 we held a series of State Gatherings (Horsham, Port Macquarie, Hobart, Port Augusta) The fourth National Gathering was held in Hobart in 2005.
In 2006 it was held in Adelaide; 2007 was in the Sunshine Coast,; 2008 was in Dubbo and Canberra; 2009 was in Perth; 2010 National Gathering will be in held in Melbourne with an expected attendance of well over 1000 members.
In 2002 Colin led a group of 45 members on a tour of Italy, which included a visit to Asolo, where he studied with Tito Gobbi, and where he thought of the concept of Sing Australia. This was the beginning of annual Sing Australia tours overseas. In September it will be the fifth tour to Italy and it will mark the 17th overseas tour for Sing Australia. Colin has led tours to Turkey that have included participation in the commemorative services at Gallipoli on Anzac day for the past 6 years. Other tours have been to Canada, USA, Thailand , Vietnam, France, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, New Zealand.
The tour to France in 2008 included singing for the 90th commemorations at Fromelle in France.
In June 2006 he led a Sing Australia tour to Canada that included singing at the Opening Ceremony of the World Peace Forum in Vancouver.
Colin Slater ran a singing teaching studio for many years for the benefit of Sing Australia members in Canberra. The singing abilities of the students varied from beginners to advanced.
Colin also encourages young people to get involved in singing and he has taken every opportunity, when establishing singing groups around Australia, to give singing workshops at both primary and secondary schools. A proposal to start family singing groups throughout Australia is about to be launched with several pilot studies.
Since the establishment of Sing Australia Colin has extended his singing teaching skills to incorporate motivational work for Human Resource Development programs for the corporate sector. His clients have included the Royal Australian Navy, Telstra Senior Managers, the Telstra Board, ANZ Bank Senior Managers, HOTONDO, and the Australian Livestock and Transport Association. These presentations have been very effective as ice breakers to a conference or as part of a corporate training package. They have produced surprising results in terms of encouraging executives to relax, to think creatively, to appreciate the value of teamwork, to unlock emotional inhibitions and to be sensitive to the emotions of others. To build self esteem in self expression.
Community Work
Colin has been involved in community work for the past 38 years, performing for fund-raising activities and community occasions. He has been involved with some of these activities in Canberra for many years, in particular, Carols by Candlelight for almost 30 years as a soloist and compere; the annual Canberra Rotary Club Senior’s Concert for 16 years as producer, the annual Canberra Legacy ANZAC Concert for 12 years as producer, the Lanyon Carols by Candlelight for 21 years as Musical Director. Colin was the Conductor for the annual Y Gymanfa Ganu (Welsh Singing Festival) Canberra for around 8 years and he has been the Conductor for the Bible Society Hymnfest for the past 11 years. As the conductor of two Sing Australia groups in Canberra for many years he conducted around 100 different gigs in the community each year.
Colin was a member of the ACT Regional Selection Committee for the Churchill Memorial Trust for 20 years. He is also a member of the ACT Churchill Fellows Association.
Colin was a member of the Rotary Club of Canberra for 15 years. In that time he received two International Rotary Awards - The Paul Harris Fellowship and the Vocational Excellence Award. Five years ago the Rotary Club of Canberra made Colin an honorary life member.
He was for several years a member of the Foundation of the University of Canberra.
On Australia Day 2000 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the community particularly in promoting Australian music and artists and singing in the Canberra Region.
Margaret Davies
Executive Assistant to the National Director
Assistant Director, Events, Tours and Public Relations
Margaret brings a strong background in business management to Sing Australia.
She joined Sing Australia in April 2009 following a long and successful career as Area Manager ACT/Southern NSW for NNT Corporate Uniform.
This was an executive role within the company and in April 2006 Margaret was responsible for the re-establishment of the New Zealand operation, employment and management of support staff required to successfully re-build the business in New Zealand. Margaret has successfully built strong business links with both the private and public sectors and has won and managed a number of major national accounts.
Apart from assisting the National Director, Margaret manages the Head Office in the absence of the National Director.
Margaret also assists the National Director with event organisation and tours.
Kate Gilbert BA (ANU)
Assistant Director Finance and Research
Kate joined Sing Australia in 2000 following a 35 year career in the Public Service. Kate organised high level ministerial conferences and advisory groups, and worked closely with several of the Commonwealth Health Ministers' offices liaising with the Cabinet Office and the Senate Estimates Committee secretariat. Kate has always been interested in music and dance, and in years past has taught ballet for one of Australia's foremost ballet schools and has stage-managed many ballet seasons in the Canberra Theatre Centre. She joined the Colours group in 1998 and took up singing lessons to hone her skills in her new found passion.
Since joining Sing Australia Kate has been responsible for producing all the Sing Australia songbooks and the members handbook. This keeps her constantly in contact with publishing companies and on top of copyright requirements. Kate is involved in Government liaison and the administration of the 'Connecting Australians in singing project'. Kate is also involved in the day to day financial running of Sing Australia and assists with event management of large scale events such as the annual Legacy Concert in Canberra and the National Gatherings.
Margaret Nicolson (Dip. Teach, Grad. Dip. Ed – Tch. Librarian)
Assistant Director Network Development
Marg’s involvement with Sing Australia began in April 2002 when she met Colin Slater at a Dubbo workshop. She has been the Leader and Conductor of Sing Australia Dubbo ever since then. Marg has nurtured the Dubbo group through to its strong position today of 70 members, having outgrown 2 venues. They are a high profile group in their community and region, performing at up to 50 gigs a year over recent times.
From 2007 until recently Marg also held the position of Regional Coordinator for 14 Sing Australia groups in Central West NSW.
Marg’s background is in Education, having spent 30 years as both Primary and Secondary teacher and Teacher librarian in Sydney and in Western NSW schools. She has wide experience in Teaching music classes and as a choral director for school and regional choirs. She has trained primary school choirs to participate in Opera House Choral Festivals and has conducted large regional combined choirs in country NSW. Marg has produced and directed many school musical productions during the last 10 years.
In May 2008 Marg was appointed as Assistant Director Network Development for Sing Australia. This position involves assisting the National Director in implementing his 'Connecting Australians in Singing' project to establish new Sing Australia groups across Australia. Marg writes media releases and advertisements, organizes Colin’s hectic tour itineraries, workshops and events as well as lending support to the new leaders.
Marg coordinates and supports the National network through managing the 22 recently appointed Regional Coordinators and reporting to the National Director.
Chris McPhail (Adv Dip. Communications Management)
Assistant Director Information Management
Chris joined Sing Australia after a career in the telecommunications industry spanning the Army, Public Service and private industry over nearly 40 years. He was Verizon Australia’s Manager for Network Support Services to the Australian Taxation Office from 2005 to 2007. Chris has held various positions of IT responsibility including network planning and analysis, installation, supervisory and instructional roles.
As Assistant Director Information Management, Chris is responsible for maintenance of the very extensive Sing Australia database, and endeavours to ensure the currency and accuracy of all information held. He also manages website updates and liaises on a regular basis with group leaders to achieve this goal. Chris is a very keen member of the Sing Australia Blokes in Canberra, and has enjoyed music all his life.
Kit Jones Data Processor
Kit joined Sing Australia for the first time in 2006 during his gap between year 12 and university as the receptionist. After a period at Newcastle University studying Building & Construction Management, Kit returned to complete his degree at the University of Canberra. Kit returned to the Sing Australia head office to work as the data processor part time in early 2009.