A FIST FULL OF WITS is a new and exciting vocal ensemble bringing a different and stimulating approach to the presentation of contemporary choral music in Tasmania.

Led by Creative Director June Tyzack, A Fist Full of Wits is an ensemble of no more than 20 singers that promises to engage its audience through innovative manipulation of the five inner wits of Common Sense, Imagination, Fantasy, Instinct, and Memory, along with the five outer senses of Sight, Touch, Taste, Smell, and Hearing.

Sung from memory and driven by text, A Fist Full of Wits Happenings will invariably confront and comfort, be interactive or detached experiences, always have a twist that will stay long in your memory. All music is respected, everything is real, challenging to perform, and stimulating to hear.

Born in Burnie, Tasmania, June started piano lessons at age 10 and later studied with Beryl Sedivka at the Hobart Conservatorium of Music. She was awarded a scholarship to study with Joseph Weingarten at Trinity College of Music, London, and despite a huge trove of chamber music under her fingers, it was here that she developed a love of Opera and the human voice.

June returned to Australia in 1980 and took up a position as Chief Vocal Coach, accompanist and repetiteur for the Opera Studio of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She worked with Opera Australia, played harpsichord with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, was involved in the Sydney Music Theatre scene and engaged as a pit orchestra keyboardist.

In 1999, June came home with her husband Gary and daughter Emma to take up residence at The Grange in Campbell Town, essentially to grow a hedge maze, but in 2001 the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra invited her to be Guest Chorus Master for an Opera Gala. Two decades later she happily resigned knowing that she had crafted a group of casual singers into a symphonic chorus respected both nationally and internationally, and one that also embraced the weird and wonderful world of Mona, Mona Foma, Ballet Lab, Dark Mofo, Spiegeltent and others.

In the four years as Creative Director of the TSO’s Obscura series, she created some of the best contemporary music concerts ever presented in Hobart.

She now brings all that knowledge and experience into this next chapter 

Born in Perth, Western Australia, Gary moved to the “Eastern States” in 1969 to follow the sun, surf, and carefree lifestyle. After a few years, he found himself back in Perth, married, and with two gorgeous girls. Gary relocated to Sydney in 1978 to work for the ABC and its then subsidiary, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, in the Box Office and in what is now called Artist Liaison roles. In 1981 he secured a similar role with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and moved to Brisbane.

Then Gary met June, and in 1986 he returned to Sydney, working again for the ABC for a brief time.  He soon set up an independent production company and the first job was taking I Solisti Veneti on a national tour. In the following years he was contacted for production work with the SSO, ACO, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Sydney Festival and numerous other groups including being Operations Manager for the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra from 1989-1999.

Amidst all the musical commitments, Gary earnt a living in Corporate Theatre, Exhibitions, and Events, along with real theatre work for Her Majesty’s Theatre in Sydney.

He moved to Tasmania in 1999 with June and Emma and has enjoyed a silent background role assisting June create musical magic. Gary was the initial Chorus Co-ordinator for the TSO Chorus. His non-musical life included building and operating The Grange Meeting & Function Centre in Campbell Town and since retiring to Hobart in 2019 has, in his idle moments, built a couple of houses in Orford where they now reside