
Sandra Milliken – Choir Conductor
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 and 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 conductor of the Blackstone-Ipswich Cambrian Choir and from 2017 to 2019 I worked with the the Sunshine Coast Oriana Choir. I am currently the musical director of the Bayside Divas women’s choir.
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.

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 potent 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, and A Cambrian Collection – an eclectic collection of repertoire from around the world.
The complete collection of recordings that I have produced and/or appears below. Most of these CDs were recorded and edited at Ghostgum Audio, a modern recording studio established at Cannon Hill Anglican College.

THE BILBIES’ LAMENT
Queensland Youth Choir

HAYDN SUNRISE
Sunshine Coast Oriana Choir