2022 Massed Choir

Prue Ashurst Biography

Prue is a graduate from the University of Western Australia with a Masters in Music Performance (Choral Conducting) and Bachelor degrees of Music Education and Performance.  Having taught at a number of Government and Independent schools, Prue’s school choirs have sung in Geneva, London, Singapore and Wales.  She is now in demand as a choral conductor, educator, adjudicator and guest speaker.  She has conducted for the Perth International Arts Festival, WASO, WA Opera, the Gilbert & Sullivan Society, UWA Choral Society, WASO Chorus, PUCS and the Gondwana Choirs.

In 2006 Prue trained 120 Penrhos College girls who appeared with Hugh Jackman in The Boy from Oz.  She was Director of Music at Penrhos for seven years and in 2008 conducted the Penrhos Chorale to 4^th place at the prestigious Llangollen International Music Eisteddfod in Wales.  In 2009 and 2010 she was employed as a part-time lecturer at the School of Music UWA before returning to WASO as their Education Manager for two years.  In 2011 she trained the 120-voiced Youth Choir for the Opening Ceremony of CHOGM and in 2014 conducted 600 choristers for WASO’s The Big Sing.

For 14 years Prue has been a regular music presenter on ABC 720 with the late Eoin Cameron.  In 2013 the Rotary Foundation named her a Paul Harris Fellow for her lifetime work in music education.  In 2016 she co-commissioned RIFT by the acclaimed British composer Anna Clyne for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California and in 2018 was a guest pre-rehearsal speaker for this festival.  In 2019 Prue returned to ABC Perth radio as a regular guest with Gillian O’Shaughnessy and was Commissioning Patron of Paul Stanhope’s award winning I Am Martuwarra for Gondwana Choirs World Choral Festival at the Sydney Opera House.  In 2021 Prue continued her passion for contemporary orchestral works with a WASO commission of Stratus by Olivia Davies and in 2022 with Olivia’s new work, In Waves.