Canto Coro employed many soloists over the years including Gioconda Vatcky, Manuel Castillo, Jeannie Marsh, Achilles Yiangoulli, Naomi Gilson, Heidi Claus, Bill Martin, Kyprianos Nerouppos, Hernan Flores, Shaun Murphy, Jeannie Van De Velde, and Angelo Delsante. 

Composers whose works the choir performed include Mikis Theodorakis, Pablo Neruda, Victor Jara, Luis Advis, Irine Vela, Peter Mousaferiadis, Achilles Yiangoulli, George Seferis, and Ariel Ramirez.

Soloist: Manuel Castillo

Manuel has worked as a secondary school teacher in Fine Arts.  He sang in The Universidad Technical Del Establo Choir, Chile and was a member of the Teachers Choir Laura Reyes of Coquimbo for 12 years.  Manuel has also sung for the choir at St Francis Church and the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir. 

Manuel joined Canto Coro in 1993. He was a soloist in the 1997 premiere performance of Achilles Yiangoulli’s Mia Foni and in the 1998 production of Teatro  which was commissioned for the Melbourne Arts Festival. He was also a soloist in Canto General, Canto Para una Semilla, Cantata Santa Maria de Iquique, and the 2010 concert.

Soloist: Gioconda Vatcky

Gioconda, a founding member of Canto Coro, was born in Santiago, Chile where she studied classical singing. In Australia she is an ambassador of the folkloric music of Chile and Latin America. For Canto Coro she sang solo in works such as Canto General (Neruda/Theodorakis) and Canto para una Semilla (the Life of Violetta Parra in poems and songs by Luis Advis).

She performs regularly both with her husband and solo, within and outside of the Chilean community, in concerts, festivals and poetic recitals. In 2000, she performed Cambio Todo Cambia backed by the Melbourne Millennium Chorus at Hamer Hall and at the opening of the Melbourne Museum. She also performed in Lest We Forget, a music theatre work based on the Gallipoli ANZAC story.

In the premier season of ‘1975: A Populist Opera’, Gioconda stopped the show every night with her performance of Gracias a la Vida, “…Gioconda…sings a song that puts the Buena Vista Social club to shame…” Michael Magnusson, Joy FM.

In 2004, Gioconda performed at festivities for the centenary of the birth of the poet Pablo Neruda, a recital at Victoria University, at the launch of the Melbourne International Festival and in the sold out At Table program in the Famous Spiegeltent.

Soloist - Jeannie Marsh

Jeannie graduated from Melbourne University and the Victorian College of the Arts in 1981. Grants enabled her to continue her studies in Italy and Britain. Listeners to ABC radio will hear her regularly as she performs twentieth century vocal music and she has sung extensively with the Victorian State Opera and Chamber Made Opera.

Jeannie has sung in the Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney Festivals, toured Japan with Theatreworks, sung new operas at Covent Garden in London, toured Vietnam and Eastern Europe with the Eureka Ensemble and run classes in music theatre at universities around Australia.

Since its inception in 1993, Jeannie was involved in every project of Canto Coro. She was the Assistant Music Director up until 2001. She continues to find the choir one of the most exciting and fulfilling projects of her career.

Her first CD is Madrugada with guitarist Ken Murray

Soloist - Achilles Yiangoulli

Achilles was born in Melbourne and majored in Music History and Composition (with Lawrence Whiffen) and Music Technology (with Jim Sosnin) at La Trobe University. He studied classical guitar (with Roger Glanville-Hicks).

Achilles performs regularly both as a vocalist and musician with bands including The Ilios Trio and Rembetiki Compania at Melbourne's Greek venues, including those specialising in Rembetika music. When he’s not performing, he keeps busy with teaching, arranging and producing recordings within the community.

Achilles was a soloist in Canto Coro’s production of the epic oratorio Axion Esti (by Theodorakis Elytis). He also composed the choral work One Voice for the choir.

Soloist - Shaun Murphy

Shaun Murphy has extensive music theatre credits including The Secret Garden, Kismet, Mack & Mabel, The Phantom of the Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar. He appeared in the Melbourne Theatre Company's acclaimed production of A Little Night Music.

For the Victoria State Opera he appeared in The Magic Flute, Kismet, Rigoletto and Manon Lescaut. For the West Australian Opera he played Fenton in Falstaf. Shaun sings regularly with the Queensland, Sydney and Melbourne Symphony orchestras.

Soloist - Jeannie Van De Velde

Jeannie holds a Diploma in Music from the Victorian College of the Arts and she completed two year at the VCA Opera Studio. Jeannie sings with the acapella trio Three of Hearts, and she has performed with The Song Company as well as numerous others operatic roles and recordings.

Angelo, a founding member of Canto Coro (as well as the Bass Tutor) has sung in Melbourne choirs for over 25 years. He began, as a student, with The Melbourne University Choral Society, then The Melbourne Chorale, The Tudor Choristers and Gloriana.

Composer – Irine Vela

Irine has worked as a composer, musician and musical director since 1987. She has worked on many productions with The Melbourne Workers Theatre including 1975, Black Cargo (with John Romeril) and their first production, State of Defence (with Andrew Bovell). She has also worked for Arena, Circus Oz, IRAA, Eureka Ensemble, Canto Coro, Lenko and the singing group, The haBiBis, who perform intoxicating music from Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Composer – Peter Mousaferiadis

Founding Director - Mark Dunbar

Mark is the Artistic Director of Canto Coro Brisbane. He also directed Canto Coro Melbourne between 1992 and 2000. Mark has had a long-standing interest in both Greek folk music and the contemporary traditions that draw upon those folk traditions. He studied conducting and musical direction at the Victorian College of the Arts (with John Hopkins and Robert Rosen) and holds an MA in Ethnomusicology from Monash University.