Christopher Latham, OAM
DIRECTOR
Canberra-based musician Christopher Latham, OAM trained as a violinist in the U.S. for a decade before touring with the ACO for seven seasons, including six concerts in Wigmore and Carnegie Halls. He then became editor for Peter Sculthorpe, Ross Edwards, Elena Kats-Chernin and many other leading Australian composers, while overseeing the Australian publishing operations of Boosey and Hawkes (1998-2013).
He directed the Four Winds Festival (2004-08), the Australian Festival of Chamber Music (2006-2007) and the Canberra International Music Festival (2009-2014). He was Canberra’s ‘Artist of the Year’ during its 2013 centenary. He was the music director of the DVA’s Gallipoli Symphony (2005-2015) and currently directs the Flowers of Peace, which measures the cultural cost of war in music and painting. Cultural recovery activities also produced the first recordings of the Australian composer Frederick Septimus Kelly, including the lost ‘Gallipoli Sonata’, the manuscript of which he recovered in Florence.
In 2015 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Canberra for this work. In 2016 he was made Knight in the order of Arts and Letters by the French Government, and in 2017 he was appointed Artist in Residence at the Australian War Memorial, their first musician in that role, until 2025. In 2018 he directed the Diggers’ Requiem which premiered in France and Australia in 2018, telling through music, the story of the Australian soldiers on the Western Front. In 2021, Vietnam Requiem , in 2022, the POW Requiem and in 2024, Kaddish: The Holocaust Memorial. All these concerts will comprise a free set of national commemorative music. He received the Order of Australia medal in 2022.
Joanne Fisher
CEO
Joanne has worked as a General Manager of small to medium not-for-profit and charitable arts organisations for 20 years. She supports the artistic vision by managing the administration, contracts, finances, stakeholder relations, marketing and veteran engagement. She has an impeccable record of managing millions of dollars of government grants and philanthropic donations and holds a degree in Policy Analysis. Joanne was the GM and Producer of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Dancenorth, Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival, Canberra International Music Festival, Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and now devotes her passion and energy to this project and its subtle ability to help heal and educate those who wish to think differently about the cost of war. She is determined to translate the music and images into digitised educational resources that will provide a legacy for future.
The Performance Team
Every concert requires story telling ability and contains different subject matter. Each concert has to be independently financed by Chris and Joanne and often is made on a very small budget considering its impact and the calibre of performers and production staff. Most are intimate occasions apart from the epic Requiems.
We have contracted hundreds of independent artists (mopst of whom are in the expanded team list), however, there are several soloists and ensembles who have graced our stages over many years and believed in our project by giving us support and assistance and who share our core values. We wish to make a special mention to:
Late Paul Goodchild
Australian Defence Force Bands
Alice Giles AM
Christina Wilson
Alan Hicks
Edward Neeman
William Barton
Bill Risby
Andrew Goodwin
Graeme Morton AM and the Brisbane Chamber Choir
Musica da Camera
Tobias Cole
Beverley Payne
Dr Kim Cunio
Alex Sloan AM, Master of Ceremonies and compere of the ‘Making of Series’
And to the composers who have written many works throughout the years and who continue to astound and delight our audiences:
Christopher Latham OAM
Elena Kats-Chernin AO
Ross Edwards AM
Andrew Schultz
Graeme Koehne AO
And our production team whose professionalism and dedication to excellence we could not do without:
Peggy Polias
Bob Scott
Craig Greening
Thomas Fisher
Capt (ret) Dan Sloss
David Whitney
Deanna Riddell
Craig Alexander
Peter Hislop