The VEV team

Colin Arthur

Chairperson of Vocal Ensemble Voiceworks INC. (VEV) and fundraising director for VoiceworksPLUS

Colin is a retired geologist with career highlights including public company senior management and consulting roles in exploration, mining, and geoscientific software development.  A downturn in the mining industry in his early career led to high school teaching qualifications and teaching experience in London and in Perth. This experience included specialist classes for deaf children and for refugees.

 Active in community service, Colin was Rotary West Perth club President in 2015 _16 and is a Rotary Paul Harris fellow. He remains active in a Rotary project which is recycling used medical equipment to overseas countries, and has been fundraising director since 2019 of VoiceworksPLUS (VW+)

He is married to Tina, who is also active in Rotary and a VEV member. He has one adult son who lives in Perth.

Birute Greenhalgh

VEV Board Member and Secretary

Birute retired from a 20 year career in senior management roles in not for profit organisations in Perth where she developed skills in strategic development, operational planning, marketing and fundraising.  A highlight was achieving a Masters in Futures degree from Curtin University Business School which enabled her to advance her career. Since retirement she has supported the Citizens Advice Bureau in Perth as Admin Volunteer. Apart from her art practice Birute has always loved singing and theatre and previously been involved in choirs in the UK and Perth. She joined Voiceworks in 2018 and became a Board Member in 2021.

Phil Sykes

VEV General Board Member, Show coordinator, Information Technology and Membership

Phil is a retired Human Resources professional who held management roles in various public sector agencies for more than 20 years. His areas of special interest included learning and organisational development, information technology, workforce planning and policy development.

Phil started singing with Voiceworks in 2019 and joined the VEV Board in 2020.

Kristin Monaghan

VEV Board member and Treasurer

Kristin is a proud  parent of one of the VoiceworksPlus participants, Elizabeth.  Having volunteered for the VoiceworksPLUS shows since her daughter joined VoiceworksPLUS, Kristin was requested in 2022 to join the Board to give VoiceworkPLUS representation on the Board, and subsequently took on the Role as Treasurer.

An accomplished and energetic professional with experience in Cost Control, Accounting, Financial Management, Office Management, and Administration gained from more than thirty years of professional experience in the Oil & Gas, Recruitment, Manufacturing & Hospitality sectors.

Whist Kristin can not sing or dance, she does enjoy volunteering for VoiceworkPLUS.

 Elisabeth Gerber

VEV General Board Member - Media/Communications Officer

Elisabeth has had a long career in Language teaching and Management as Head of Languages in both public and private sector Education. During this time, she volunteered her time to developing young athletes through Little Athletics coaching as well as taking large groups of students on overseas exchanges during school holidays. In 2020, Elisabeth decided to find new challenges and is working towards accreditation as a freelance translator and interpreter for French and German through NAATI. Elisabeth joined VEV 2 years ago, because she enjoys the benefits derived from singing.  Elisabeth now also volunteers as a Crisis Supporter for Lifeline WA.

 

Tina Arthur

VEV General Board Member,  City of Subiaco Liaison Officer

Tina is a former architect, recently retired after 40 years in both the private and public sector.  She volunteers for the Town of Cottesloe in design reviews and is the coordinator for Work Women Wisdom, a group which supports female architects.  Active in community service, Tina was Rotary West Perth club President in 2009-10 and is the coordinator for their ongoing medical equipment recycling project.  She enjoys jazz ballet, running, singing and playing with her grandchildren.

Jackson Griggs

Musical Director of Voiceworks

Contact: admin@jacksonharpergriggs.com

Jackson Griggs is a Perth-based composer and music director, specialising in musical theatre and choral music. He graduated from WAAPA in 2015 with a Bachelor of Music (Composition and Music Technology) and Certificate II in Musical Theatre. He is currently under the employ of St Hilda's Anglican School for Girls and John Curtin College of the Arts as their production musical director, and directs and accompanies a number of high school and community choirs. He was the assistant music director for The Boy From Oz (Crown Perth 2021), and was recently employed as a keyboardist for Legally Blonde (Crown Perth 2021) and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (Crown Perth 2022). As a composer, he has scored several short films and original musicals, including Time Capsule (2022), One Heart, One Voice (2019), Fairybread (2017), Viva La Restoration (2016) and How We Ruined MacArthur's Markers (2015).

Joanna Worthington

Artistic Director of VoiceworksPLUS

Joanna Worthington has clocked up 30 years as a professional fairy (children’s entertainer), performer, Mistress of Ceremonies, Stand-up Comedian and community artist and is a strong advocate for Healing with Humour. Joanna has also dabbled in journalism, politics and hospitality. After working for 10 years as a Peer Support Worker and Peer Mentor in mental health recovery and Lived Experience Coordinator for Suicide Prevention, Joanna created Fairy Inspirational. Joanna utilises her expertise and engaging manner as a performer, to deliver creative interactive workshops with a Mental Vitality and Suicide Prevention focus.
Back in the eighties, Joanna successfully auditioned for specialist theatre arts and dance at (what was then known as) John Curtin Senior High School (now College of the Arts). This high school experience ignited Joanna’s love of all thing’s performance, and her passion for artistic endeavours carried through in many and varied productions over a 30 years period. Joanna’s highlights include playing Tzeital in Fiddler on the Roof, Pippa in Hotel Sorrento, The Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz and producing, writing, directing and performing in multiple original works of her own.
Joanna identifies as Community Cultural Development Artist and, as such, works collaboratively with communities for the purpose of social change/empowerment through art and culture. These communities have included:  culturally and linguistically diverse, indigenous, seniors, youth at risk, people with disabilities and people with mental illness.
Joanna is very excited to work with VoiceworksPLUS and debuted with A Rainbow of Emotions in June 2023.

Marie O’Dwyer

Musical Director of VoiceworksPLUS

 Marie O’Dwyer is a music teacher and composer/ performer located in WA. 

Marie is a singer, songwriter, composer and musician who has been teaching music for over 25 years. A music specialist across the curriculum in Primary, High School and Tafe, her current position is in a Montessori program. A lifelong learner, Marie has qualifications in Jazz and Contemporary music, Sound Engineering, Sound Painting and is currently studying a Counselling degree. A ballroom dance teacher in her early career and Music Theatre enthusiast she has gathered songs and dances from many music traditions in her world travels.
Living, working and performing in WA, Melbourne and the south of France her career highlights include; live band performances at festivals and venues including Perth Concert Hall to the Ellington, recording music in fabulous studios, leading community choirs and every student she has guided to learn or write and perform a new song.  

 

Kim Addison

Choreographer VEV

Kim joined VEV in 2006 and has been the choreographer for the last 17 years. She started dance lessons at three and a half and has studied and performed a range of styles including highland, theatrical, tap, jazz, ballet and ballroom. Kim regularly did competitions and was a State Highland Dance Champion. She studied Music Theatre at WAAPA, and had over 20 years of vocal tuition from the late Gloria Wilson, competing in eisteddfods and winning several sections at the North of Perth Music Festival. Kim now has over forty years’ experience with a wide variety of theatre companies and vocal groups. Favourites of Kim’s many roles include; Mavis from ‘Stepping Out’ and the title role of ‘Iolanthe’ for G & S. She has performed, as both a singer and dancer, in a range of musicals including ‘Guys and Dolls’, ‘Cabaret’ and ‘Oklahoma’. Kim has also choreographed and co-directed for different productions, such as Heritage Theatre’s ‘Pirates of Penzance’ and ‘The Mikado’, where she also played the role of Pitti-Sing.

Kim currently works at a Primary School, teaching a range of subjects, including music. Over the years, she has choreographed several school productions including some she has written and directed. Kim is also a Feldenkrais Practitioner with a strong interest in how to improve self-use in ‘The Arts’.

Amanda Hannington

Program Coordinator, Voiceworks Plus

Amanda recently completed a Graduate Diploma of Broadcasting at ECU, and has experience as a volunteer radio presenter at RTRFM. She also has 23 years of experience as a parent and homemaker.
She was previously a partner in her family farming business, for which she managed the bookkeeping duties, and was also Secretary for her local Heritage Group, which successfully campaigned to prevent the demolition of a local historic building. She has also taken on many other roles over the years, from being a volunteer at the Perth Festival in 2020, to being the School Uniform Coordinator at her daughter’s school for six years. Additionally, she has worked in primary schools as an Education Assistant and recently worked as a Production Assistant for an American reality TV show.

She has a great love of the Arts, especially music and dance, and has been a dedicated “dance mum” for 19 years.

Elfrida Rossi

Volunteer VoiceworkPLUS

Elfrida has always loved singing in choirs. In Rome she belonged to the Church Choir of Santa Susanna and sang for Pope John Paul II on the reopening of the church after extensive renovations. She worked in the Special Ed Department of Christ Church Grammar School 2000 and 2001.  During that time, she obtained a TAFE Certificate III TA course for Children with Special Needs. Elfrida is active in the Italian community of Perth and enjoys cooking Italian food.

Elfrida joined Voiceworks in 2000 and Voiceworks Plus as a volunteer in 2022, both choirs bring her much satisfaction and enjoyment.

Nathan Newman

Volunteer and member VoiceworksPLUS

Nathan grew up in South Africa, surrounded by wonderful music. He loves all types of music, especially jazz, blues and pop music. His favourite artists are Stevie Wonder and The Beatles. 

Nathan is another wonderful VWPLUS bus driver who decided to stay and sing. We love having him as our Tom Jones impersonator, keeping the lads in tune. 

Yvonne Bost

VEV General Board Member, Membership Coordinator for Voiceworks

Having trained as an operating room assistant, both surgical and in anaesthesia, taking it to management level, I decided to be a full time mum once the children came into my life. In later years I trained as a Resonance Repatterning therapist, which I still practice.

I joined VEV in May 2018 and have enjoyed being a member ever since.