PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE THROUGH PASSION,
COMMITMENT & COMMUNITY
The Oriana Management Team
Oriana Arts is a community-based, not-for-profit incorporated association. It is governed by a management team, with elections for all positions on the management team held each year at the association's Annual General Meeting.
From time to time, the Management Committee may extend the honour of Life Membership to people who have been members of the organisation and who have provided outstanding services or assistance in the advancement of the Choir.
Oriana's Life Members include:
Fay Baker, awarded in 2016
Joachim Rother, awarded in 2018
Kendall Snowden, awarded in 2018
Melissa Innes, awarded in 2019
Sharon Fitness, awarded in 2023
Meet The Team
Melissa Innes
President
Melissa has administratively led Oriana since its inception in 2005.
An Associate Lecturer in Management and Human Resource Management at University of the Sunshine Coast, and proud mother of four boys, Melissa feels honoured to be President of the choir she considers to be her 'extended family'.
Singing soprano in the choir, Melissa toured internationally with Oriana in 2012 and 2016; and with her fellow choristers, has defended their Queensland Champion Choir title at the Heritage Queensland Eisteddfod on many an occasion.
Melissa takes great joy from working with a dedicated and passionate committee to develop opportunities for choristers to deliver quality choral performances to Oriana's valued patrons of the Sunshine Coast and beyond.
Ange Tully
Vice President
Ange’s love of music began at an early age when she was first introduced to classical music. She started playing the violin at the age of 8 and by 12 was invited to join the district youth orchestra. Ange studied history and composition of music during her high school years and enjoyed participating in large orchestral and choral groups until her mid-twenties when career, and then parenthood, became her primary focus.
In 2005 Ange moved from South Wales, UK to the Sunshine Coast and, in search of some musical connection, found her way to Oriana in 2010. In the 14 years since, she has enjoyed a number of Oriana’s Eisteddfod successes, and also joined the touring choir to Europe on 2 occasions. Ange says she has countless wonderful memories to look back on, but a particular highlight was the opportunity to sing “The Armed Man” – a highly emotional and diverse work written by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins – “just spine tingling”!!!
Ange is an Occupational Therapist and for the last 10 years has worked for our local health service as an Allied Health Manager. With retirement on the horizon, she looks forward to spending more time with her two grandchildren and in playing a more active organisational role as Oriana’s Vice President.
Terry Frankling
Treasurer
Terry joined Oriana in 2017 after having sung in other choral groups on and off throughout her life. She loves the variety of music performed by Oriana, the wonderful people, and the high standards always maintained by the choir. The highlight of her time with Oriana so far was the tour to Italy in 2019.
Terry is an accountant and has worked for SDE Accountants on the Sunshine Coast since 2011. She gladly shares her accounting qualifications and expertise with Oriana in her role as Treasurer.
Ruth Rix
Membership
Ruth joined Oriana in 2007 and is a passionate member of the choir.
She is proud to have carried out the role of Secretary for 10 years before taking a short break from administrative duties. She now enjoys her role as the choir’s Membership Co-ordinator. Among many highlights has been participating in Oriana’s three international tours.
Ruth loves the varied repertoire of each season, the many different experiences which are offered to members, and the great camaraderie which exists in our Oriana family.
Ruth has also performed in numerous musical theatre productions over the years and can still be seen treading the boards now and again in local productions.
Mark Deal
Marketing
Mark joined Oriana in 2014 for a brief period and thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie of the members and the professionalism of the choir. He departed to the Central Coast of NSW for 3 years, where he sang with 3 highly experienced choirs during this time. Nothing compared to Oriana.
After returning to Queensland in 2018 Mark re-joined Oriana and feels like he has returned home. Mark works as a Chiropractor, Osteopath and Acupuncturist in Noosa. He provides support to Oriana through commitments to the Marketing of Oriana’s performances and presentations.
Sharon Fitness
Production Manager
Sharon works full-time as an adminstrator at subscription television channel ACCTV, as well as dabbling in design and public relations consultancy with her own business, Joyful Media.
Sharon enjoys singing, pets and cooking and is a bit of a movie buff. She is a founding member of Oriana and is responsible for creating all of our great ‘looks’ from season to season.
Sharon was made a life member of Oriana in 2023.
Secretary
Vanessa has spent the past 18 years working from her home office in Maroochydore for a global software company, providing product support, training and implementation services for their Asia Pacific customer base.
Singing and parenting two beautiful children are Vanessa's other passions and she has been singing on the Sunshine Coast with a number of community choirs before joining Oriana Choir in 2018. The Choir's tour to Italy in 2019 was a motivating factor to join and she has not looked back since, enjoying the variety of repertoire, seasonal music directors and performing opportunities on offer.
New to the committee in 2021, Vanessa is happy to lend her support to the executive team and committee in this progressive choir.
Chris Mills
Webmaster
Chris joined Oriana in 2015 and was elected to the committee the following year. Although new to Oriana at that time he brought a wealth of experience in community organisation management.
Chris has been President of two theatre companies both here and in New Zealand, been on several sports club committees, Rotary and most importantly as a Councillor where he chaired two Council sub committees.
Chris has considerable experience in marketing and integration with digital media and maintains not only our website, but all of the other "tech"that the choir uses in its day to day operation.
We have now fully integrated services like Zoom, Flock and Choraltracks among other apps we now use. "I am continually amazed with the adaptability of the people on the Committee and the membership at large who have embraced these changes and have taken on the steep learning curve with gusto!"
Vanessa Smith