My mother was a frustrated opera singer, so she always wanted to sing. My parents sang in choirs and played a lot of classical music at home – all the choral repertoire, whether that was Handel or Bach, the St Matthew Passion, Messiah and so on. My mother was always singing along to the radio in the kitchen. We had a record player, and I remember we got a CD player very early.

Peter Evans

Peter Evans. Photo © Richard Hedger.

My brother Richard [the Managing Director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra] was a very good singer; he could have pursued it, I reckon. He was always in choirs, and he sang with Teddy [Tahu] Rhodes; they were at school together and both had the same singing teacher.

I played the flute from a young age, and played it pretty well. I got my LCTL [equivalent to a Graduate Diploma] when I was about 16. I was doing 90 minutes of flute practice a day from the age of six or seven, so it was very important to me and I loved it, until...