Our Story
Continuo Community was founded in 2021 by Justin Beere and Helen Vorrath. We wanted to support Victoria’s flourishing chamber music ecosystem by providing a single website that told you everything about the chamber music scene, every concert, every ensemble, and every composer. Our other major aim was to support the commissioning of new chamber music works by Victorian composers.
Since its inception, Continuo has promoted thousands of chamber music concerts (about one thousand each year in Victoria), and added dozens of ensembles and composers to our database, accessed via our Who’s Who pages.
Our annual Continuo Commissioning Circle is a unique composer-led commissioning project, where composers are invited to submit an application describing what they want to write, and for whom. The only constraint is that it must be a classical chamber work from a Victoria-based composer, for a Victoria-based ensemble. A new work has been commissioned each year since 2022. Commission funding is raised by inviting people to join a Commissioning Circle, where each donor contributes an equal amount.
In our strategic planning for 2025, we decided to expand our activities. We established a new Founders’ Fund, a fundraising exercise with the flexibility to support a wider range of projects. Promotion of recordings by Victoria-based composers and ensembles was added to the website. We began looking for opportunities to act as an auspicor to organisations or groups who do not have DGR status (Continuo Community Inc is a Registered Charity).
We plan to continue our role of being a key contributor to the chamber music world for many years to come.
Our Board and organisation
Continuo Community Inc is incorporated under the Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012 (Victoria), ABN 78988291684, and is a Registered Charity. It is an organisation entirely run by volunteers, with a seven-member Board.
Justin Beere
Justin currently serves as the Associate Principal Clarinet of Orchestra Victoria and the founding Artistic Director of the Melbourne Chamber Players.
His career has led him to perform as guest Principal Clarinet and E-flat Clarinet with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and The Australian World Orchestra as well as chamber music festivals across Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
In the realm of chamber music, Justin has collaborated with renowned ensembles including the Flinders Quartet and Arcadia Winds. He has also had the pleasure of performing at most of Australia’s chamber music festivals.
Stuart Hamilton AO
Stuart Hamilton is a retired Australian senior public servant known for holding top executive roles in federal and state government departments focused on health, environment, education, and administration. His career included serving as Secretary to the federal Department of Health, Housing and Community Services, where he issued regulatory orders under therapeutic goods legislation, and as Secretary of the Department of Community Services and Health. He also served as Secretary to the federal Department of Environment and Deputy Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Department, alongside state-level leadership as Secretary of the Victorian Department of Education and Training. In the higher education sector, Hamilton served as Executive Director of Universities Australia and later as CEO of Open Universities Australia from 2003 to 2012. Hamilton received the Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in recognition of his contributions to public administration and sector reform.
Stuart is a long-time supporter of chamber music organisations, and an amateur singer, flautist and cellist.
Adele Schonhardt OAM
Dr Peter Thorne AM
Peter Thorne is a former senior academic at the University of Melbourne, where he was a Head of Department, Deputy Dean and chaired a number of university-wide committees. He has experience in education policy formation, and has conducted reviews of courses at academic institutions in Australia and overseas.
He has acted as an advisor to Federal and State governments and private organisations and as an expert witness in numerous IT litigations.
Peter is a former Vice-President of the Royal Society of Victoria, and is Chair of the Heritage Committee of the Pearcey Foundation.
Helen Vorrath
