Church Street Studios is proud to celebrate these awesome creatives on this year's International Women's Day 2024.
Jenna Cave
Jenna Cave is a composer, arranger and bandleader. She has directed the 19-piece Divergence Jazz Orchestra since 2012, producing their three critically acclaimed albums Shadows and Light (2023), Fake it Until You Make It (2016) and The Opening Statement (2013). She has a new album of songs featuring Kristin Berardi due for release in 2024, which has beenproduced and commissioned by ABC jazz. Cave has a BMus (jazz) Hons1 from the ANU, and a Master of Music (composition) from the Sydney Con. Awarded full composer representation with the Australian Music Centre in 2015, she was also nominated for the Freedman Jazz Fellowship in 2019.
Caitlin Yeo
Past President of the Australian Guild of Screen composers and a graduate of Screen Composition at AFTRS, Caitlin Yeo has composed the music for many film and TV projects including critically acclaimed feature film The Rocket, Priscilla Cameron’s The Butterfly Tree, channel 7 Tele-movie The Killing Field, the TV themes, Tashi and Compass, and The House With Annabel Crabb. Caitlin's musical style comes from a fascination with music from different cultures, 20th century composition and a deep love of telling stories with music. Caitlin has received a swathe of accolades including APRA screen music awards; Feature Score of the Year for The Rocket (2013), Best Music for a documentary for Getting Frank Gehry (2016), and Bomb Harvest (2007), an OzFlix award for After The Apology, and been nominated twice for an AACTA award. The feature Danger Close is her most recent score.
Dyagula
Dyagula is a Wiradjuri | Ngambri | Ngunawal Songwoman based on Gadigal land. A powerful and delicate multi-genre vocalist, composer, artist, music director, poet, creator and language revivalist. Her debut performing on NITV 10 year anniversary concert where she was also co-music director. The 2023 recipient of NATSIMO Screen Composer Insentive and chosen many times for APRA Songhubs, she has Composed major works for The Sydney Opera House, Apple, Sydney Modern Art Gallery, ABC TV and FIFA Women’s World Cup to name a few. Dyagula has toured extensively as a backing vocalist for major Artists and is a member of Contemporary FN electro-soul trio Bow and Arrow. Described by ABC radio as “an esoteric experience not to be missed”
Ann Chesterman
Ann Chesterman is the GM at Deadset Studios – Australia’s premier podcasting company. They are global leaders in audio strategy, podcast production, and branded storytelling with a track record creating multiple award-winning shows and expertise in building creative teams. Ann is a highly experienced communications and media strategist with over 20 years’ experience leading the creation of innovative programs and campaigns at triple j and ABC and more recently for brands such as Sydney Opera House, Japan National Tourism Organisation, NDIS and Dept Education Skills and Employment.
Sarah Elise Thompson
Sarah Elise Thompson is a composer and pianist based in Sydney. A composer in high demand in Australia, the US, and Europe, Sarah has received commissions from The Choir of Trinity College, Melbourne, Australian Youth Orchestra, Ensemble Offspring, PLEXUS, and Deborah Cheetham Frailon AO. Her works have premiered at the Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Recital Centre, and Carnegie Hall, ranging from solo, chamber, choral, and orchestral. Sarah studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and is an associate artist with the Australian Music Centre. She released her debut album, "self centre," in 2021 and is currently working on new music.
Greta Gertler Gold
Greta Gertler Gold, a composer, lyricist, performer, and producer, splits her time between NYC and Sydney. She's a 2022 Yaddo Fellow, Jonathan Larson Grant and NY Women's Fund finalist. Greta is currently composing music for a stage adaptation of PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK directed by Tony Award-nominated Jo Bonney. She has collaborated on productions at Sydney Opera House, Arts Centre Melbourne, and more. In the US, her work has been featured at various venues. Greta has also released albums as a solo artist and with her bands, and co-penned popular songs. Currently, she's composing for Dr. Seuss characters for Tonies (US) toy company.
Michelle Barry
Michelle Barry is a professional producer/sound engineer from Sydney. With a great love for music, she started engineering at Paradise Studio in 1990. This gave her the opportunity to work with many independent Australian musicians of the time before refining her craft in studios at home, London and NYC. Highlights along the way included US indie artists Jessie Murphy In The Woods, Julian Verlard, The Pierces. UK funk from RnB Junior and G-Nation, and Sydney Hip Hop artists Maya Jupiter, Ebony Williams. 2018, included recording and mixing for folk group The Charm, singer/guitarist Max Gencher, her own initiative Noisygirls, as well as skill sharing through teaching at SAE.
Romy Healey
Romy Healey is a recording and mixing engineer based in Sydney. A graduate from JMC Academy for Audio Engineering and Sound Production, she had followed her career by interning at Studios 301. Since then Romy has been recording and mixing artists, assisting award winning engineers, and working in other sound design areas like film and live performance venues.
Romy joins Church Street, developing her craft while assisting various in-house engineers and helping taking care of the day to day studio needs.
Eleanor Summers
Ellie Summers is a professional music producer and audio engineer who has worked with prominent bands and artists, both locally and internationally, including Gus & Iggy & Gen Bryant. Throughout the producing process, she highly values creative input from her artists and encourages a collaborative vision for each individual and unique project. Ellie’s musicianship is evident in the breadth and the depth of her technical capabilities as a producer and she is highly skilled in the genres of Indie/Folk, Country/Americana, Pop and Rock.
Julia Goyen
Julia is a recording and mixing engineer and producer. Her engineering credits include Sarah Blasko, Patrick Stump (Fall Out Boy), iOTA and Katie Noonan, and assistant engineer for Halsey, Angus and Julia Stone, Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), The Jezabels, Birds of Tokyo and Ian Moss (Cold Chisel). She recently completed a Mix With the Masters seminar with Michael Brauer at Studios La Fabrique in the south of France, and also dabbles in tech- in 2018 becoming the first female member of the technical department at Studios 301.
Jacqui O'Reilly
Jacqui O’Reilly is a pākehā artist, researcher and musician from Aotearoa New Zealand, now based on Gadigal land in Sydney, Australia. Jacqui works within an experimental context to explore new understandings of media arts practice through deep listening, live performance, moving image and electroacoustic composition. Jacqui gained first class Honours from UNSW Art & Design for her research and installation work Into the River - Te Awa Kairangi (2021). The roar of this river was the first sound Jacqui heard every morning, the last sound every night, throughout her growing up. This sonic impact continues to shape her interests. These include the more-than-human world as well as relations between people, place, media and perception. Her work aims to question what draws us closer or further apart from our social, cultural and environmental ecologies. Jacqui is consolidating and extending many years of this type of research to release a premiere edition of electroacoustic compositions in parallel with her evolving live performance works.
Bonnie Green
Bonnie Green is a Sydney based composer from Toowoomba, Queensland. Her composing debut was in 2013 where while completing her Bachelor of Creative Arts at the University of Southern Queensland, she composed for the USQ Theatre Department’s production of Skeeter’s School for Successful Superheroes. Since then, Bonnie has continued to compose and perform a wide variety of music, including a commission from the Movement Day Australia conference. When performing her original works, she goes by the stage name Bonnie Blue. Whilst trained as a classical and jazz pianist, Bonnie’s work often blurs these genres. Her compositions frequently feature piano while also delving into orchestral arrangements and covers a wide variety of tones, textures and genre. Bonnie completed her Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Southern Queensland in 2021, specialising in musical creativity. During her research, she was an author for the Piano Teacher Magazine.
Jessica Arlo Irish
After receiving much acclaim within the world of Classical music, including 2 music scholarships for violin performance, Jessica Arlo Irish decided to pursue her passion for music production, composition and songwriting. With her unique talent to play a number of instruments (specialising in violin and viola) combined with her natural gift for improvisation and composition, she has gone on to release internationally acclaimed and award winning solo projects as well as working for professional labels, bands and solo artists from both Australia and abroad. Jessica specialises in work with strings across all genres, stretching traditional boundaries into a new, fractured hybridity with her unique electro-acoustic combinations. Whilst pursuing her passion for composing for film, television and games, Jessica completed her Doctor of Creative Arts in 2020 and her Advance-HE Fellowship in 2021, and works as a part time Lecturer/Tutor at Western Sydney University.