Our Team

Executive

Dr Emma Jayakumar (Artistic Director)

Emma is an award-winning Australian composer resident in the Perth Hills. Recent orchestral works include Swim with Me (2024), Circles and Centres (2023), The Big Sea (2023) and Four Lost Songs (2022); operas Our Little Inventor (2022) and Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge (2021); and ballets Little Red (2023), Lost Little Llama (2022) and The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (2020). Emma is a celebrated academic (her PhD in composition won the 2018 WAAPA Research Medal) and strong advocate for young artists of choral music and opera. She has served on both AWESOME Arts Festival (as Chairperson) and Barking Gecko Arts boards and has significant project management experience as an independent producer of chamber music drama. She is the current Choral Director of the West Australian Opera WAO Sings! Education program in Perth outer metro primary schools.

Nesan Jayakumar (Treasurer)

Biography pending

Peta Gourlay (Secretary)

Peta brings a wealth of administrative expertise and a deep love for performance to the Arboria Chamber Music Festival. Serving as the festival’s Treasurer and grant writer, Peta has extensive experience in financial management, acquittal processes, and marketing. Her ability to navigate the complexities of arts funding is bolstered by a Diploma of Business and a decade of leadership experience in the public service. Peta’s commitment to the arts is grounded in her own background as a professional soprano and mezzo-soprano, having performed with WA Opera, the Australian Opera and other groups in Perth. This firsthand experience as a musician informs her meticulous approach to festival logistics and concert coordination. With academic foundations in Music (WAAPA) and Literature (UWA), Peta combines her creative history with practical precision to ensure the festival remains a vibrant, well-supported, and accessible experience for the entire community.

General Members

Dr Roxanne Della-Bosca (Community Music-making Lead)

Roxanne is a Perth-based composer, pianist and author. She was a finalist in the 1998 (inaugural) ABC Young Composers' Award and 1999 Young Australian of the Year Awards (WA – Arts Category). Having had several orchestral works broadcast by the ABC during her early career, and having premiered, as a pianist, numerous works by Australian composers, a 2001 APRA Professional Development Award enabled further study in Europe. She subsequently completed a Masters in composition (Sydney Conservatorium), PhD (Hackett Scholar, UWA) and Juris Doctor (medallist, UNSW). A creative hiatus for the purpose of child-rearing was broken by the publication in 2023 of a song cycle and violin sonata. She is currently in the process of publishing a short story collection and children’s book series, and developing other musical and textual works.

Melinda Forsythe (Music Director–Instrumental Music)

Melinda returned to Perth in 2012 after studying and performing as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician in the UK, Europe, Ireland and Japan. She studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, completing her Bachelor of Music (with Honours) and her Master of Music (performance). Melinda played with the Watahiki String Quartet, who were successful as finalists in the Granada Prize, winners of the Hirsch Prize for Chamber Music, and guest artists at the Alberni String Quartet Summer School in Cambridge. Melinda performs regularly in recital and as a chamber and orchestral musician, including with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Perth Symphony Orchestra, Fremantle Chamber Orchestra, West Australian Philharmonic Orchestra, Darlington String Trio, and the UWA Schubert Quartet.

Rosalie Foss (Impact Evaluation Lead)

After 20 years teaching music in the Hills, Rosalie shifted into a career in Social Impact evaluation. She is passionate about demonstrating the value of engagement with the arts on individuals and communities, and using impact evaluation to guide and inform decision-making. Rosalie has qualifications ranging from mathematics and project management to library studies and social impact, and experience in local government strategic and community development.

Margaret-Anne Millington (Volunteers Lead)

Biography pending

Tommaso Pollio (Music Director–Opera)

Tommaso graduated with honours in Piano Performance from the University of Western Australia’s School of Music before continuing his studies in the United States. His extensive performance career has taken him to London, Singapore, Malaysia, Italy, and the USA. He has been closely involved with the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and has recorded numerous recitals—both as soloist and accompanist—for the ABC’s Young Australia and Sunday Live programs. Tommaso is in demand as a repetiteur, having worked with the Lucca Opera Festival, Opera Australia, and the West Australian Opera. He is also a highly regarded cabaret pianist, performing regularly at Fringe festivals worldwide. In addition to his performance career, Tommaso has co-founded several ensembles and projects, including Lark Chamber Opera with composer Emma Jayakumar, Musicbook Stories, and the Chimera Ensemble. He currently serves as Music Director of Freeze Frame Opera.

Andries Weidemann (Family Repertoire Lead)

Andries is an ex-principal ballet dancer, currently lecturing in classical ballet at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) at Edith Cowan University. Holding a Masters in Education (Research), his research interests include vocational dance education and choreography for young audiences. He has created ballets for children for the South African Ballet Theatre, West Australian Ballet, the Awesome Festival and, more recently for Big Little Ballet, of which he is a founding member. Works include Peter and the Wolf, The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, The Lost Little Llama and Little Red Riding Hood. He has also created movement and/or directed opera for children, most notably Beyond the Wall and Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge. For the inaugural Arboria Chamber Music Festival, he has choreographed excerpts from Pamela Allen’s Mr Mcgee, with original music composed by Emma Jayakumar.