Denise Shepherd

French vocal coach Denise Shepherd was born Denise Schubenel in Paris on 8 December 1927. She studied French history at the Sorbonne and singing with Pierre Bernac at the Paris Conservatoire, and sang solos at Strasbourg Opera.

At twenty-six she moved to Australia, initially to Sydney, but soon settled in Melbourne, teaching French when her sons were at school, and becoming a brilliant and demanding teacher of French language, culture and music to many singers at the Victorian Opera, Opera Australia, the Lieder Society of Australia, the Australian National Academy of Music, the Melba Foundation and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

She died in Melbourne on 30 May 2014, aged eighty-six.