Sue Hackett - General Manager

Sue joined the Festival in February 2011. Born in Dublin and raised in Adelaide she worked as a professional musician for many years, principally in Adelaide and in France. In 1988 she made the move to arts administration and worked for ten years as Artists' Department Manager for Opera Australia. In 1999 she returned to Europe where she edited publications and managed the press office for Wexford Festival Opera in Ireland for three years finally settling again in Bologna in Italy where she set up Canvas Management, a successful international agency managing a list of directors and designers working in theatre and opera. In 2007 she returned to Sydney and in 2009 took up the position of General Manager of Pacific Opera. Returning to chamber music and AFCM's unique combination of setting and programming lured her to the tropics.

Sheridan Helft - Marketing Manager

Sheridan Helft has returned to the AFCM as Marketing Manager, based in Melbourne. Sheridan has worked in marketing management for many years and for several large companies including Diners Club, Citibank and Fairfax Media. She and her young family took a seachange last year to spend 12 months in Townsville, which is when we nabbed her to look after Sponsorship and Development, and some marketing too. Sheridan left us in January 2012 to move back to Melbourne and corporate life, but saw the light and returned in October to very happily be our Marketing Manager.

Amy Zaghini - Marketing & Events Executive

Amy graduated with Distinction from the Queensland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Creative Industries - Interdisciplinary, majoring in Creative Industries Management, Music Studies and Performance Studies. Throughout her study, Amy worked closely with the Brisbane Festival, Youth Arts Queensland, the 2High Festival, Vena Cava's Fusion Festival and was appointed Events Coordinator for the Queensland Academy for Creative Industries. 2013 will be Amy's fourth Australian Festival of Chamber Music. Amy loves to sing, dance, act, compose music and has recently recorded her debut EP. Future ambitions include living in Italy and writing a Broadway musical.

Sophia Elliott - Development Manager

Sophia has recently returned from the UK where she was the Regional Programme Manager for a leading Scottish social enterprise and community arts organisation.  She has spent much of the past twelve years working in policy and campaigning roles within Government in Queensland and more recently in Scotland and London. With a degree in Visual Arts and MBA, her passion has always been the arts and she is a recent but enthusiastic student of the Scottish Clarsach. She is delighted to be back, with her Scottish husband, to spend more time with family as they start their own and enjoy the laid back lifestyle that Townsville has to offer.

Rebecca Alferez - Artistic Administrator

Rebecca joins the team following six and half years as Program Coordinator for the highly successful Events Queensland Regional Development team. In this role Rebecca worked with a broad range of events across regional Queensland and is now looking forward to concentrating her energy into the AFCM. Rebecca has a degree in Journalism and public relations and has held government and non-government roles both in Brisbane and Townsville.

Jenny Sebba - Finance Officer

Jenny moved from Melbourne to Townsville at the end of 2002 and brings her wide experience in bookkeeping to the Festival's administration. She was drawn north by the warm weather and relaxed lifestyle and wonders why she didn't do it earlier.