Creative Team
Dr. Lynne Bradley
Co-Artistic Director
Dr Lynne Bradley has worked as a festival director, live performance director, artistic director and academic in Brisbane and abroad for the past 30 years. From 2019 to 2021 Lynne was the Artistic Director of the Horizon Festival on the Sunshine Coast, before taking on her current role as the Artistic Director of the Sunshine Coast Chamber Music Festival. Prior to this, Lynne designed and ran the Performing Arts Masters program at USC from 2016 to 2019. She is also a renowned innovator, having co-founded one of Australia’s first physical theatre companies in 1992 (Zen Zen Zo). Lynne’s specialty areas as a director include music-theatre, large-scale physical and visual theatre, as well as immersive, site-specific, and transcultural performance work. Over the past decade Lynne has been involved in several major intercultural exchanges, with a particular focus on Hong Kong and Japan. As a director, choreographer and performer, Lynne has won a number of awards, including Matilda Awards for Cabaret (Best Musical) and The Tempest (Best Independent Production). Zeitgeist was also short-listed for a prestigious Total Theatre Award at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2009. In 2016 she won the national Philip Parson’s Prize for In the Company of Shadows, an Intimate and Immersive Theatre work presented in collaboration with Dairakudakan and the Deep Blue Orchestra. In 2017 she directed Alchemy for the Commonwealth Games Festival in south-east Queensland. Lynne travels regularly to direct and teach nationally and internationally, mentoring emerging and mid-career artists, and speaking at conferences. She is a passionate lover of classical music.
Photo Credit: Simon Woods
Aunty Helena Gulash
Festival Elder
Helena is a Kabi Kabi (Gubbi Gubbi) woman whose extensive career in First Nations Affairs spans almost 40 years. Currently Helena works as a Consultant in Indigenous Arts and Cultural Management through her own business - Helena Gulash Consulting Helena has provided strategic leadership in the various senior positions, within federal and state Government agencies. She worked as the Director of the Queensland Indigenous Arts and Marketing and Export Agency (QIAMEA) within the Queensland Government, National Aboriginal Education Committee (NAEC) and Assistant Director, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Queensland, - Federal Government, before moving to the Sunshine Coast. Helena is passionate about the potential of the First Nations Arts and Cultural industry to effect positive change for Indigenous peoples in Australia. She currently serves as a member of the inaugural Indigenous Advisory Committee to the Queensland Art Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA and is a member of the Sunshine Coast Arts Advisory Board and of the Vice-Chancellors Arts Acquisition Advisory Committee University of the Sunshine Coast. (USC). Helena has been involved in the establishment of several Indigenous community cultural organisations and has had a long involvement in Native Title research and in Kabi Kabi Native Title claim processes. She has been engaged in several key Arts & Cultural projects in the Sunshine Coast region.
Photo Credit: Simon Woods
Simon Woods
Senior Producer
As a theatre maker Simon was Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre Company (founded 1992) presenting productions in Kyoto, Japan, several Brisbane Festivals, and teaching classes internationally. He directed many of the company’s signature works including Macbeth: As Told by the Weird Sisters, The Cult of Dionysus, Sub-Con Warrior 2.0 and The Odyssey. In 2011 Simon joined the Queensland Performing Arts Centre as a Producer working across all art forms, and then in 2014 took a producing contract at the Brisbane Powerhouse. In 2018 Simon was the Senior Producer at the World Science Festival looking after the “Signature Events” and the live presentation of Close Encounters of the Third Kind with the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra at the QPAC Concert Hall. In 2022 he was the Senior Producer at the Sunshine Coast Chamber Music Festival, and has just recently returned to QPAC part-time as the Producer of Digital Content in addition to running his own film production business.
Danielle Aquilina
Marketing Manager
Danielle Aquilina is a multi-talented professional performing artist and emerging playwright who has been making waves in the creative industry for years. With a passion for theatre and the arts from a young age, Danielle has always been committed to bringing creativity and joy to people's lives. After completing a Bachelor's Degree in Creative Arts, with a major in Performance and a minor in Graphic Design, Danielle continued to hone her craft by teaching theatre to children and young people, while also creating new works for them to perform. In addition, she has worked as an improvisational performer and trainer with her company, Zesty Productions. Danielle came on board as Marketing Manager for the Sunshine Coast Chamber Music Festival in 2022 and immediately fell in love with the team and the work they do. She is passionate about promoting the importance of music for everyone and is thrilled to be a part of an organization that shares her values. Through her work with the SCCMF team, Danielle has brought her expertise in creative marketing to help grow the festival's audience and impact. Her commitment to the arts and her love of music make her an invaluable asset to the team, and she looks forward to continuing to promote the power of music and the arts to everyone she meets.
Photo Credit: Stevie Hall (North Australia Media)
James Lees
Co-Artistic Director
James is an event and festival producer, musician and generally a creative facilitator and agitator. In some or all of these roles, he has delivered a highly diverse range of acclaimed events and performances including the concert events Ziggy Stardust (Brisbane Powerhouse/Melbourne Cabaret Festival, 2016), Transformer: The Album In Concert (QPAC/Brisbane Powerhouse, 2015-16), In The Warm Room: The Music Of Kate Bush (Brisbane Powerhouse, 2017) and Fire Walk With Us: The Music Of Twin Peaks (The Junk Bar/Melbourne Cabaret Festival/Brisbane Powerhouse, 2017-19). In 2018, he musically directed and co-produced the Matilda Award winning stage work The Sound Of A Finished Kiss (Brisbane Powerhouse) which featured the music of Brisbane music legends The Go-Betweens. He has also produced for World Science Festival Brisbane (2017-18) and was the Festival Director for MELT: A Festival Of Queer Arts & Culture (Brisbane Powerhouse 2015, 2017-18). He has also produced a diverse range of projects for Griffith University and Queensland Conservatorium including Crossbows: A Festival Of Small Ensembles (2012 and 2014), Encounters: India (2013), World Forum On Music (2013), Floods Opera (2014) and the university's major ideas festival Integrity20 (2016-2019).
Photo Credit: Morgan Roberts