The Choir
Our Story
The Melbourne Bach Choir (MBC) was formed in 2005 to perform an Easter 2006 concert of JS Bach’s magnificent St Matthew Passion.
Bach’s music has remained at the core of the choir’s repertoire along with other significant choral works. Artistic Director, Rick Prakhoff, is one of Australia’s most experienced conductors.
The Melbourne Bach Choir marked its tenth anniversary in 2016 with the formation of the Melbourne Bach Chamber Choir.
What We Do
The MBC draws on singers from Melbourne’s extensive choral community. The choir is committed to the pursuit of excellence in choral performance, to supporting music education and to donating to community aid and charity organisations.
Scholarship Programme
A scholarship programme for young choristers commenced in 2016.
Rick Prakhoff
Artistic Director and Principal Conductor
Based in Melbourne for over 30 years, Rick Prakhoff grew up in Perth, where he began a career as a professional classical guitarist. After an extended period in London studying guitar and immersing himself in London’s diverse classical music culture, he returned to Perth after realising that his future lay in conducting.
Following his BMus in Perth at WAAPA, majoring in conducting, and two years as a voice major, Rick’s training continued in Melbourne when he was selected for Symphony Australia’s Young Conductor programme, working for five years in intensive extended workshops with renowned conducting teachers Jorma Panula, Gustav Meier, Noam Sherif, Vernon Handley and Johannes Fritzsch, with the state orchestras WASO, OV, QSO, ASO and the AOBO.
As a freelance conductor Rick has performed with orchestras, choirs and opera companies in Sydney, Canberra, Perth and Melbourne and has been the Artistic Director of the Melbourne Bach Choir since its inception in 2005 and Zelman Symphony since 2018.
Rick is committed to passing on his skills and the advanced conducting training that he was fortunate to receive to his many conducting students at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. He has also created a conducting assistantship programme with both the MBC and Zelman Symphony to give opportunities where possible to emerging conducting talent.
Kathryn Pisani
Associate Artist
Kathryn Pisani is a Melbourne-based pianist known for her work as an accompanist and choral repetiteur.
She began her musical studies at an early age, learning piano from her mother for over ten years before further studies with Robert Chamberlain, Mack Jost and Roger Heagney. Kathryn graduated from the Australian Catholic University with a Bachelor of Music (honours) degree, majoring in piano performance, and specialising in accompanying and ensemble playing.
Since that time, Kathryn has had considerable experience accompanying singers and instrumentalists in a repertoire ranging from medieval to contemporary, has performed for the University of Melbourne, Monash University and Australian Catholic University, worked as a repetiteur in opera and musical theatre productions and taught at a number of leading Melbourne schools.
Kathryn’s love of choirs began at school where she both sang in and accompanied the school choir. She has had many years experience as a chorister herself, singing in the Choir of St. Francis Church, then Ensemble Gombert. Kathryn has a long history of working with choirs as a repetiteur, most notably with the Australian Youth Choir, with whom she toured internationally three times, including performances at Carnegie Hall. She is currently working with the Melbourne Bach Choir and the Heidelberg Choral Society with whom she toured China in 2017.
Kathryn also works as a freelance accompanist alongside her choral work.