
VETERAN PERFORMING ARTIST SHOWCASE
6.30 for 7pm, Saturday 21 March 2026
Primrose Potter Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre
The Veteran Performing Artist Showcase is the launch event for FOVA26: a powerful, inspiring evening celebrating the depth and breath of creative talents of Australia’s Veteran Community.
Hosted in the Primrose Potter Salon at the iconic Melbourne Recital Centre, this unmissable event brings together a dynamic lineup of current and former serving ADF members and families of veterans. Audiences can expect an extraordinary range of performances across contemporary and classical music, spoken word, theatrical monologues, soundscape and experimental performance, indie-folk ensembles and more.
Across two acts, the Showcase highlights the depth, diversity and artistry of Veteran Performing Artists, offering audiences a rare opportunity to experience voices and stories not often seen on Australia’s major stages.
Tickets now on sale through the Melbourne Recital Centre website.
Meet the Artists

Terry Sing Lee is a veteran, executive, and amateur musician. Terry’s connection to the veteran community is via the Royal Australian Air Force, having served as an aeronautical engineering officer from 2000 to 2014.
Highlights include having served in Afghanistan and as the Aide-de-Camp to the Minister for Defence Science & Personnel/Minister for Veterans Affairs.
As an amateur musician, Terry is a classically trained pianist and violinist, having attained the diploma of Associate in Music, Australia (AMusA). Terry was an active amateur musician in his childhood, having participated in several youth orchestras and remained active throughout his working life with several community orchestras and playing the occasional gig. Terry has had the privilege of performing at the Sydney Opera House and internationally.
Today, Terry works at an Australian private equity fund where he serves as board director to several companies. He also serves on the board of directors of ANVAM.

CJ Bowerbird (Chris Huet) is a spoken word artist, physical performer and 2012 Australian Poetry Slam Champion.
He has been a featured performer at festivals across Australia, Indonesia, China and the US, and is a two-time TEDx Canberra presenter.
CJ’s practice ranges from solo shows to interdisciplinary collaborations. He performed his one-poet show “Meta” at the Bookworm International Literary Festival in China and “Razing a Man”, a performance combining spoken work, music and dance, at the You Are Here Festival in Canberra.
In 2018, he released Beyond This Blue, a recording of the show he created with the Downfall Choir for the 2017 National Folk Festival. He is currently writing a play with the support of the Street Theatre in Canberra.
CJ served twenty years in the Air Force as an F/A-18 Hornet pilot. After a break of 18 years, he rejoined as an Air Force reservist in 2024.

“Sonically rich… with Anning’s guitar nudging post-rock territory… ‘Yellow Brick Veneer’ is the sound of an artist stretching their wings, concocting a blend of folk jazz hinged upon melodic contours, searing beauty, and spirited guitar” - Des Cowley
An established voice in Melbourne’s vibrant jazz scene and a highly sought-after session musician, Stella Anning has performed alongside an impressive range of artists including Guy Sebastian, Thndo, C.W. Stoneking, Sarah Blasko, Kylie Auldist, Nina Ferro, and Clare Bowditch. Known for her musical sensitivity and versatility, she moves effortlessly between genres while maintaining a distinctive personal voice.
As a bandleader and composer, Stella has released two instrumental albums, Paper Planes and STAT, both recorded while serving full-time in the Australian Defence Force — a testament to her discipline and dedication to craft. Her latest project under her own name, Yellow Brick Veneer, marks a significant artistic shift and the full emergence of Stella as a singer-songwriter. This deeply personal body of work explores motherhood, mental health, identity, and the complexities of family and connection.
Grounded in jazz yet driven by lyrical storytelling, Stella weaves voice and guitar into intimate, emotionally resonant soundscapes.
Follow: https://www.facebook.com/StellaAnningMusic/
Www.instagram.com/stellaanningguitar

Leisha (aka Aleisha Croxford) has been up on a stage since she can remember, starting dance and voice lessons at age 5. She started performing in musical theatre productions at age 6, as well as competing in numerous dancing and singing eisteddfods across Victoria. She started singing in bands as a teenager, including as a backing singer for the all-female professional school band “The Sweethearts”, playing at festivals across Australia and Europe, including the Porretta Soul Musical Festival in Italy and the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.
After an unintended hiatus from music and arts during her military career, a few years ago Aleisha reconnected with her creative self, and ventured back into singing, dancing and performing in her local Canberra community musical theatre productions.
After a chance meeting with some old friends, she was curious to see if she could start songwriting and performance as a means to further find her creative self and express her emotions. Aleisha’s original song ‘Light’ was released on all streaming platforms in 2024 under her stage name Leisha, and she continues to write, albeit slowly, today.
Aleisha has recently medically transitioned from the RAAF after close to 18 years of Service. She is a big supporter of Veteran Arts, and is extremely passionate about mental health education and advocacy, in particular serving as a board member of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – Western Australia.
Follow: @leishamusic1989

Kat Baldwin has walked the tightrope between the Arts and the Australian Defence Force (ADF) for more than twenty years, maintaining balance long enough to fit in multiple deployments and representational roles; several small businesses; stints across hospitality, fitness and consulting; theatre seasons, television roles and writing competitions; volunteering in animal rescue; and more than a few foster kittens. All while keeping her sense of humour intact!
A performer since childhood, from dance showcases to drama classes to school musicals, Kat nonetheless joined the Navy straight out of high school rather than attending drama school, quickly discovering there is, in fact, plenty of drama in Defence.
Having forged a sustainable rhythm between service and creativity, Kat now serves part-time as a Navy Leadership Coach while acting and directing for stage and screen and writing her debut novel. She is also living her dream role as Director (CEO) of the Australian National Veterans Arts Museum (ANVAM), where her ADF and Arts worlds converge in service of the Veteran community.
Recent theatre credits include 'Hamlet', 'Clue', 'Love, Loss and What I Wore' and 'A Happy and Holy Occasion'. Screen appearances include 'Wentworth' (Season 8), 'Halifax: Retribution', 'The Secrets She Keeps' (Season 2), and the 2019 and 2026 RSL Queensland ANZAC Day campaigns.
Kat describes her Navy uniform as armour and her art as exposure: one grounded in hierarchy, protocol and tradition; the other demanding innovation, vulnerability and truth.
She is proud to serve Australia and the Veteran community both in uniform and through art.
Follow: @thekatbaldwin

Melbourne-based soprano Belinda Dalton hails from the small town of Berry on the South Coast of NSW, and holds a BMus Hons (2011) and a Masters (2013) in classical voice performance from the University of Melbourne.
If her surname sounds familiar to Navy folks, that’s because it is. As the eldest daughter of retired Rear Admiral Tony Dalton, the smell of helicopter fuel is deeply embedded in her childhood memories.
Belinda is known as a flexible and versatile performer, having performed with a variety of companies and theatres including Opera Australia, Victorian Opera, Forest Collective, Melbourne Opera, BK Opera, Lyric Opera Black Hole Theatre, and XL Arts.
Recent roles include Jeannie (Fat Pig); Mimi (La Boheme); Cardano’s Mother (Biographica); and Frau Fluth (The Merry Wives of Windsor).

Vicki Hallett enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force in 1992 and served until 2005 as a Musician in the RAAF Central Band at RAAF Base Williams. Prior to joining the RAAF, Vicki graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Arts in Music and the University of Melbourne with a Graduate Diploma in Education.
Projects include collaborating with Cornell University’s Elephant Listening Project and installations and performances at conferences and galleries such as Caboolture Gallery, McClelland Gallery, Parliament House (Melb) and Royal Society of Victoria.
Vicki recorded stories of the Wadawurrung people and incorporated environmental recordings for the Journey on Wadawurrung Country installation. She has received commissions from the National Wool Museum and is published by Oxford University Press.
Vicki travels the world recording nature’s sounds, including sneezing seals in Antarctica, as well as performing in acoustically interesting environments such as Mabolel Rock (South Africa) with a pod of Hippopotami or the deep Amazon jungle.
In 2024 Vicki attended an Arts Residency at La Macina di San Cresci (Italy). She received a Highly Commended in the 2023 Sound of the Year Award.
Vicki has recently finished a commission from the 2025 Soundstream New Music Emerging Composers’ Forum (ECF).
Vicki is an acoustic ecologist, sound artist, composer, musician, educator and music practitioner. She seeks spaces with limited anthropogenic sounds including infrasound interactions. Her focus is to record, compose with, and feature the ever-diminishing habitats and species of our planet. Highlighting unique sounds from the micro to the macro, Vicki utilises sounds we rarely or can not hear. She has composed, produced and performed in live concerts, international conferences, solo recordings and videos ranging from chamber music to exploratory work with sound art.
With an ongoing quest for sonic immersion and creative compositional devices with authenticity and inspiration she delves into an organic landscape of sound. Vicki records sounds and create works which open the senses to rarely heard sounds existing within the environment and explores the spaces between hearing music and sound as a cultural experience and the aural vibration, not only within the being but beyond. She is fascinated by questions such as: How do our sounds impact our own beings and how do they impact ecosystems? How does another being perceive but a human may not? Can we attempt to hear the world as it is experienced by a particular organism? How do different animals in the same ecosystem tune into different environmental signals and how are these signals fundamental to their communication and signification?
Vicki urges all to listen to the shifting harmonies of subterranean, aquatic and atmospheric sounds which reveal a wondrous world existing beyond our limited senses.
In 2026, Vicki will be taking part in Labsonora in the Brazilian Amazon, she has been selected to join The Arctic Circle art/science/education residency and is invited to be Artist-in-Residence at Tsenpo Museum on the Tibetan Plateau.
Follow:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hallettvicki/
Instagram: @vicki.hallett
Bandcamp: https://vickihallett.bandcamp.com/

Ray and Mei Sisters are an indie-folk, harmony-obsessed trio. Their primary instruments are voice and guitar, for both originals and covers. Their music explores sisterhood, heartbreak, nature, and the simple magic of the everyday.
Molly Mei is the daughter of a Vietnam veteran; she is a singer-songwriter who released her first EP online in 2024, and is currently working on her debut album. She performed at the Shrine of Remembrance for FOVA in 2024 with her duo partner Ray. They have composed film scores and usually play at local markets and Melbourne university events. Now they are joined by Ray’s sister Sonia, weaving further intimacy into their harmonies.
Their soothing folk tales of old and new are deeply entangled within the communion and healing of storytelling.
Follow the Trio:
Instagram and YouTube: @ray_and_mei
Instagram: @mollylief
Spotify: @Molly Mei
Soundcloud: @Molly Mei

Steve Cotterill is the inaugural Poet Laureate for the Australian Veteran & Veteran Family Community.
He is a creative with a love of words, be they written, spoken or sung, and a love of photography & his growing photography/videography business.
He draws inspiration from the natural and animate world all around us, and his creativity feels like a conduit through which the essence of this world can flow through.
Steve served in the Army as a cavalryman for 14 years and has been connected with ANVAM since late 2021.
Follow: @lensoforion

Ben McNeil is an Australian songwriter, performer, and producer whose work is grounded in honesty, intensity, and lived experience.
Best known as the frontman of grunge-revival trio 'Hello Enemy', his artistic practice blends heavy, guitar-driven songwriting with reflective lyricism that explores identity, resilience, and the pressures of modern life.
Drawing on the raw traditions of Singer/Songwriters of the 60's/70's & 90s alternative music, Ben balances aggression with melody and emotional clarity, creating music that resonates across generations.
As a Navy veteran and creative, Ben's hopes to inspire the Veteran Community, using music as a tool for expression, connection, and wellbeing. His practice is informed by an understanding of service, transition, and the importance of community support, values that underpin both his songwriting and outreach.
In recent years, Ben McNeil has released multiple nationally and internationally recognised recordings, toured independently, and built sustained community & college radio rotation, while continuing to develop projects that align his artistic vision.
Follow: @benmcneilmusic

Formed in 2012, The Australian Military Wives Choir (AMWChoir) is a no-audition, no-experience-required choir for women and girls to sing from their hearts and make lasting and meaningful connections with others connected to the Australian Defence Force.
We consist of serving members, wives, girlfriends and partners, daughters, mothers, sisters and more. We sing from our hearts first, valuing the connection, support and comfort that comes from singing with others.
Our repertoire is shared nationwide, allowing our singers to feel at home with an instant community as soon as they arrive in a new location, and consists of everything from contemporary pop to old favourites, show tunes, ceremonial songs and originals written by our amazing members.
From our first rehearsal of just four women, we now have singers in 14 locations across Australia, including our Online Choir. To find out more and to get in contact, visit our website.