Music Faculty
Dr Heva Chan
Head of the School
CertEEIII, CertMusGraph, DipElectMus, DipMus(Hons), DipComp, ATCL, LTCLTeach, LTCLPerf, MFAMusicology, MAComp, PhD
Composer, Performer, Musicologist, Music Educator
Heva Chan was born in Hong Kong and had her first performance on piano at the age of four. She lived in Vienna, and was awarded Austrian citizenship for her success in her field of music. During her studies, Heva had the chance to travel to 33 countries for research and was awarded numerous scholarships and prizes. For the distinguished talent in her field, she was also awarded the permanent residency from the Australian government. Her music has been performed in numerous concerts, international seminars, symposiums, conferences and music festivals in Asia, Europe, America, Canada and Australia. Her passion is to share Christ’s love, her musical knowledge and experience with others.
David Holmes
B.Mus , Ass. Dip Perf Arts Jazz , Creative Arts Dip. in Ministry
Producer, Arranger , Session musician ,Songwriter , Lecturer
David Holmes has been a professional musician for over 25 years. He has performed for a vast array of musical events including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Blues Festivals, Parachute Music Festivals, AGMF, Joyce Meyer Conferences, Hillsong Conferences as well as performing as guest musician and lecturer for many local church events. David has recorded 3 solo albums; ‘Taking Ground’, ‘Edge Of Blue’ and ‘Champion Steps’. He is also the Producer for Grove Studios, and has worked as producer/arranger for over 30 album projects, and performed on over 400 album projects including Steve Grace, Darlene Zschech, Youth Alive, CCC and Hillsong albums. David Holmes was the founding member of Prayerworks ensemble and Youth Alive band, then went on to become Music Director for Christian City Church from 1993 – 2000 and Music Director for Darlene Zschech from 2003 – 2005. David has performed and ministered throughout the U.S.A., Europe, Asia, India and the South Pacific. Amidst his busy schedule, David is currently lecturing at Wesley Institute.
Gordon Rytmeister
Ass. Dip Jazz
Performer, Recording Artist, Teacher
Gordon Rytmeister is one of Australia's most in-demand drummers with an extraordinary ability to cross every conceivable stylistic boundary. He studied at the NSW Conservatorium of Music and quickly went on to establish himself as an international performing and recording artist, touring internationally and performing with an extraordinarily diverse range of people, including the cream of Australia's Jazz, Pop, Rock and Country artists and many international acts. These include; James Morrison, Tom Jones, The Commodores, Nat Adderley, Glenn Shorrock (from Little River Band), Tina Arena, The Sydney All Star Big Band, Bobby Shew, Anthony Warlow, Eartha Kitt, Jimmy Barnes, Anthony Callea, Guy Sebastian, Kate Cebrano and many more.
He is the resident drummer on TV's highly successful Australian Idol, as well as playing five nights a week nationally on Tonight Live with Steve Vizard in the early 1990s. Gordon spends a large amount of time freelancing in various recording studios and can be heard on many movie soundtracks, albums, and television themes. He recorded Anthony Callea's 'The Prayer', the highest-ever selling single in Australia by a local artist.
Voted "Pop and Rock Drummer of the Year" by Skin Full reader’s poll in 1995, he has also featured as the cover story of Drumscene magazine, to which he is also a regular contributor. From 1996 through 2002 Gordon taught in the Jazz Course at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He has conducted many educational clinics, workshops and master classes throughout the world and endorses Beyerdynamic microphones, Vic Firth drum sticks, Remo drum heads, Sabian cymbals and Yamaha drums.
Art Phillips
MMus
Award-winning Composer, Performer, Musical Director
Coordinator, Music and Media Strand, Master of Music
Art Phillips, two-time EMMY Award winner for 'Outstanding Music Direction & Composition in a Drama Series' for a US television drama, wrote the score for 'Pirate Islands: The Lost Treasure of Fiji' which recently aired on NETWORK TEN and is currently airing on the Disney Channel.
Art Phillips has been working in film and television for over 30 years. Since 2001 he has been the President of The Australian Guild of Screen Composers and was the Vice-President of the organization from 1992-2000. Art has written numerous subjects and delivered lectures in screen music composition, orchestration and conducting for Griffith University, Central Queensland Conservatorium of Music, The Australian Institute of Music and The Queensland Conservatorium of Music.
Art Phillips coordinates the Music and Media strand of the Wesley Institute Master of Music. Students are privileged to work with Art in his Balmain studios.
Greg Whateley
CertIV, DipTeach, BEdMus, GradDipEdAdmin, MEdMus PhD
Dr Greg Whateley began his teaching career in the area of music and arts education at both primary and secondary level. He has taught at every level of formal education and has either taught and/or researched in four States and four Countries.
He commenced his work in the tertiary sector at the University of Tasmania as a Lecturer in Music Education and then at Griffith University, where he became Senior Lecturer and Academic Manager of the Professional Initiatives Unit. He was Associate Professor and Director of the Central Queensland Conservatorium of Music (2000-2003) where he co-founded Australia’s first ‘Virtual Conservatorium’. He took the position of General Manager and Professorial Head of School at the Australian Institute of Music (2004 –2005) before moving on to become the Education and Quality Manager at the National Centre for Language Training (mid 2005 – 2007) established as a Centre of Excellence by the Australian Government legislation and based at the University of New South Wales. He is also the Senior Visiting Fellow at the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales (2006 - 2008).
Dr Whateley is currently the Principal of the Australian International Conservatorium of Music where he teaches, researches and writes in the areas of arts management and music history. He is author of more than 170 external publications and advises in the areas of accreditation, quality assurance, government reporting and eLearning, mLearning and bLearning.
Neil McEwann
MMus, PhD
Neil McEwan trained as a chorister and organist at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Auckland, New Zealand under the direction of Professor Peter Godfrey. He continued his studies through the Royal Schools of Music, the Trinity College of Music, London and the University of Durham. While resident in France and Germany, he studied Gregorian chant, orchestral and advanced choral conducting techniques.
He has conducted and adjudicated across the South Pacific, Europe, England, Canada and the USA. He specialises in Gregorian chant semiology and palaeography and Early Music performance practice, and was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 1994 for further overseas study in these areas.
Neil McEwan is Director of the Sydney Conservatorium Chamber Choir, the Conservatorium Choir, and the Choir of Christ Church St. Laurence. In January 2007 he toured the Choir of Christ Church St. Laurence to England and the USA. The Choir was invited to be the resident choir at Westminster Abbey for ten days for the second time. Most recently, he has transcribed Gregorian chants from the medieval manuscript, the 1328 Rimini Antiphonale which is on exhibition at the NSW State Library, to be performed for the first time in six hundred years in concerts at the State Library in 2008.
Phil Moran
BMus
Performer, Composer, Music Educator
Philip Moran is one of this country’s finest classical guitarists. He began studying at age nine and was named Student of the Year on completion of his Bachelor of Music at the Sydney Conservatorium. He won first prize in the Australian Guitar Competition before travelling to Europe and Spain to undertake masterclasses and further study. He gave his debut solo recital at the Sydney Opera House accompanied by the Sydney Youth Orchestra and has since performed with artists such as Martin Lass, Jane Rutter and Deborah Byrne.
Philip Moran has been involved with Christian ministry as Head of Music at a Christian Arts College, as Church Music Coordinator and as a Bible teacher.
He has performed as guest soloist for numerous concertos and solo recitals, performances for Orchestras around NSW as well as performing on the soundtrack recording of the new Australian film, ‘The Bet’. Philip released his first solo CD ‘Spanish Inspiration’ in 2003, which is now regularly aired on ABC Classic FM. Currently, Philip keeps up a busy schedule lecturing in music at the Wesley Institute, teaching guitar privately and freelancing as a musician in Sydney.
Ralph Pyl
Trumpet
Ralph has performed and recorded with many artists both in Australia and overseas including international stars 'K.C and the Sunshine Band', Shirley Bassey, Ronnie Corbett, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Ralph Carmichael, Buddy Greco, The Platters, Sir George Martin, Tom Jones, Bernadette Peters, Michael Crawford, Wayne Newton, Bobby Shew, Al Jarreau, Tim Rice, Harry Connick Jnr, Glenn Close, Michael Ball and Michael Buble. National stars include James Morrison, Grace Knight, Don Burrows, Anthony Warlow, Caroline O’Connor, Marcia Hines, Frank Bennett, Tommy Tycho, Silverchair and since 1998 has been lead trumpet with Tom Burlinson's 'Frank - The Sinatra Story in Song'. For the 2002 - 2004 Sydney Festivals, Ralph assembled an Australian All Star Jazz Orchestra for world renowned US composers and arrangers Maria Schneider, Bob Florence and Rob McConnell from the Boss Brass. Ralph and his world renowned “Sydney All Star Big Band” have won 4 consecutive Australian Entertainment Mo Awards for Best Jazz Ensemble of the Year in 2002-2005. Ralph’s credits have also seen him playing in numerous musical theatre productions as well as performing on over 100 albums for vocalists, various bands and numerous Australian and International motion picture sound tracks and TV commercials.
Dr Prudence Dunstone
Mezzo-soprano, Prudence Dunstone, has performed many principal roles with opera companies including the State Opera of South Australia and the Australian Opera. Highlights have included the title role in Handel’s Ariodante, Katisha in The Mikado and Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera. Dr Dunstone has made recital broadcasts for the ABC and sung as a soloist with ABC Orchestras. She has performed as a soloist with the Adelaide Harmony Choir, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Adelaide Chamber Orchestra and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.
Prudence Dunstone studied in Adelaide at the Elder Conservatorium, later studying singing in London and New York. An Australian Postgraduate Award enabled her to undertake a PhD in musical research at the University of Newcastle. Dr Dunstone has had work published by Cambridge Scholars Press (London) and in Australian Voice.
Dr Dunstone has taught singing since 1984, preparing students for AMEB, HSC and tertiary examinations and auditions. She has also adjudicated eisteddfods and singing competitions.
Dr Dunstone lectured in Aural Perception, Harmony & Analysis and Voice at Wesley Institute from 2004–2007. She has chosen now to specialise in vocal tuition, teaching contemporary and classical students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Dave Goodman
Drummer, Recording Artist, Teacher
Dave Goodman has been performing, recording and teaching in Sydney since 1995 with the likes of James Morrison, Don Burrows, Galapagos Duck, Bernie McGann, Deni Hines, Billy Field, Roger Frampton, Julian Lee, Greg Page, Judy Bailey, Matt McMahon, Dale Barlow, Rhonda Burchmore, Richard Clapton, Joe Camilleri, Melanie Oxley, Tim Rogers (You Am I), Martin Plaza (Mental As Anything), Dave Faulkner (Hoodoo Gurus), Vince Jones, Jackie Orszaczky & Tina Harrod, Johnnie Johnson, Thelma Houston & Venetta Fields, Glen Tilbrook (UK Squeeze), John Sneider, Riza Arshad, Matt Keegan and Hakuei Kim and many more.
Dave has appeared on television many times and has recorded the soundtracks for many jingles, documentaries and film soundtracks as well as having held faculty positions at Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Australian Institute of Music. Dave has performed in USA, UK, Japan, China, Singapore, Taiwan and the Phillipines as well as extensively throughout Australia.
