Who we are

The Choir

Founded in 1980, The Llewellyn Choir is one of Canberra's leading and longest-running commnity-based amateu choral groups. TLC performs 3-4 times a year, in Canberra and our surrounding region and occasionally internatiionally. Under the musical direction of multiple award-winning Music Director Rowan Harvey-Martin with Répétiteur Anthony Smith, TLC draws on beautiful classical as well as exciting contemporary choral repertoire.

See our impressive performance history on our concert history page.

The Llewellyn Choir maintains a collaborative relationship with the ANU School of Music through a Memorandum of Understanding, which also promotes cooperation with the ANU Orchestra and other ANU choral and instrumental ensembles. The choir was also the founder and a long-term sponsor of the Margaret Smiles Associate Musicianship Prize for Pianists conducted by the ANU.

The Llewellyn Choir is an incorporated body in the ACT. The Committee is elected annually and takes the normal format of officers, plus committee members with a representative of each voice part also on the committee.

The Llewellyn Choir is proud to have Rowan Harvey Martin and Dr Anthony Smith as Music Director and Accompanist. Rowan is a Churchill Fellow, and has won 3 Canberra Critics Circle awards for her work in Canberra, while Anthony is a sought-after pianist as well as musicologist, composer, and arranger. Rowan and Anthony both graduated with Honors from the ANU School of Music.

Music Director - Rowan Harvey-Martin

Rowan studied violin with Janet Davies and Miwako Abe and graduated with honours from the ANU School of Music and also studied at the Eastman School of Music, New York. Coming from a famous and formidable Australian musical family, Rowan won many awards as a violinist, percussionist and jazz drummer before deciding to turn her attention to conducting. She was former Associate Concertmaster and Principal First Violin with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and has had extensive orchestral experience with the Eastman Virtuosi in New York, the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra and as Associate Concertmaster with the Australian production of Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon.

Rowan studied choral conducting with Micheal McCarthy at the Canberra School of Music and studied violin performance at the Eastman School of Music with Oleg Krysa where she also studied orchestral conducting with Donald Hunsberger.

In 2009 Rowan took part in Symphony Australia’s Conducting Development Program where she met and studied with her mentor and teacher Maestro Christopher Seaman, Arvo Volmer and Sebastien Lang-Lessing conducting the State Orchestra of Victoria, Tasmanian, Queensland, Adelaide and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras. In 2010 Rowan conducted The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in their Tea and Symphony Series and has also conducted the Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra, the Kuringai Philharmonic on numerous occasions, she has conducted at Sydney International Harp Festival where she conducted the Australian premiere of Seavaiggers: Concerto for Fiddle, Scottish Lever Harp and Strings by Sally Beamish and featuring International soloists Catriona McKay and Chris Stout.

In 2009 Rowan was awarded the Stuart and Norma Leslie Churchill Fellowship for furthering her conducting in Graz, Austria with Johannes Fritsch with the Graz Opera and with the Rochester Philharmonic New York where she studied with and was assistant to Maestro Christopher Seaman.

Rowan has a passion for working with and educating young people and community organisations. Rowan has been Chief Conductor of Canberra Youth Orchestra and Canberra Youth Singers and Artistic Director of Canberra Youth Music in it’s heyday and with CYO Rowan conducted a broad range of repertoire including an incredibly rare performance of John Antill's Corroboree with CYO and Sydney Youth Orchestra, Beethoven 4th Symphony, Debussy’s Firebird Suite, Sculthorpe’s Irkanda for Strings and Percussion, and the Australian premiere of Kevin Puts’ Night for piano and orchestra featuring the internationally acclaimed soloist Bernadette Harvey. She also took the Canberra Youth Orchestra on two tours to Sydney and also Queensland where they participated in the Australian Youth Orchestras Festival with John Curro and Johannes Fritsch.

With the Llewellyn Choir Rowan has conducted all the major repertoire, including Bach’s St Matthew Passion and St John Passion, Handel’s Messiah, Brahms' Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Fauré's Requiem, Duruflé's Requiem, Jenkin’s The Armed Man, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Tavener’s Ikon of Light, Rheinberger’s The Star of Bethlehem, Verdi’s Requiem, Ramirez' Missa Criolla, Will Todd’s Mass in Blue and Jazz Missa Brevis, Bernstein’s Mass and Chichester Psalms, Howard Goodall's Invictus, as well as introducing lesser known interesting works to Canberra audiences.

Rowan has won 3 Canberra Critics Circle awards for her work in Canberra. She currently conducts the ANU Orchestra and is Artistic Director of ANOMALY.

Répétiteur - Dr Anthony Smith

Anthony has performed in Australia, England, Germany, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, and the USA. He has worked as an accompanist for the ANU School of Music for many years, performing hundreds of assessable recitals with undergraduate and postgraduate students. He performs with many of Canberra’s choral and instrumental ensembles, most recently accompanying fellow ANU School of Music Alumna Lorina Gore and Andrew Goodwin in the highly acclaimed Art Song Canberra Concert Tea for Two.

In addition to The Llewellyn Choir, Anthony is also répétiteur to two other major Canberra choirs: SCUNA and the Canberra Choral Society.

In 2004, Anthony released a CD A Year in Paris with clarinettist Nicole Canham on the Move label. He made his concerto debut in July 2005, playing Schumann's Piano Concerto in A Minor with the National Capital Orchestra. In July 2007 Anthony gave a recital in conjunction with the National Gallery of Australia retrospective of the artist George W. Lambert, which included the piano sonata of Constant Lambert, the artist's son. Anthony's continuing interest in the life and works of Constant Lambert developed into the topic of his doctoral thesis, Constant Lambert: Dionysian Modernist.

Anthony’s compositions include The Will to Freedom, a music-theatre work he co-wrote with Maike Brill, which premièred in August 2010. For The Llewellyn Choir he composed a setting of the Prologue to the Coventry Mystery Play, which the choir premièred in 2013 and 2015.

Margaret Smiles Accompanist Competition

Margaret Smiles was for many years the accompanist for The Llewellyn Choir. After her untimely death the Choir decided to create an annual competition for accompanists in her memory.

The resultant Margaret Smiles Accompanist Competition was held annually for over 25 years at the ANU School of Music until is was phased out in 2024. It provided a forum for inspiring performances by some of the most talented and accomplished young musicians from the School.

The Llewellyn Choir sponsored the Llewellyn Prize of $500 each for the most outstanding instrumentalist and the most outstanding singer of the competition.

Read about the award and about Margaret's life in this article from The Canberra Times of 1 November 2000.

Page updated December 2025