Nicole Alexander
Sue Anderson has 25 yrs experience as a music educator, teaching children from 2 yrs – 18 yrs. Sue is the Director of Belle Music Studios (Sydney), which offers classes for pre-school children, piano and movement classes for school-age children and private piano lessons.
Mary Brake began working in special education over a decade ago and since has worked in the UK with individuals with special needs where she designed and implemented accredited programs. More recently she has worked at Giant Steps, Education Department Support Services and Special Schools.
Julia Brennan is a highly regarded music educator from Musica Viva In Schools. In combination with the renowned percussionist Jess Ciampa, their skills and knowledge of teaching percussion music in the classroom are well-accomplished.
Sarah Brooke works as a Creative Arts Educator in a variety of settings including preschools, schools, workshops, training courses and tertiary institutions. She has completed her Orff levels training, attended the Laban International Course in England, and completed stage 1 of the Margaret Morris Movement training. Sarah has conducted many workshops and training courses in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, U.S.A., Hong Kong, Singapore and China.
Lynne Burt was introduced to the "Orff Approach" when she majored in music during her teacher training. Beginning her teaching life in the classroom, she returned to a Music Specialist role after family leave, and was able to take advantage of lots of "Orff" Professional Development.
Lorraine Charters is an early childhood teacher with over 20 years’ experience in the care and education of children aged 0–12 years and the training of Children’s Services students in TAFE NSW.
Robyn Crowe is a vivacious and innovative educator with an amazing zest for life and is the creator of the franchise Creative Capers. A qualified teacher whose background includes many years teaching physical education, craft, gymnastics, dance and movement, she now specialises in early childhood movement and music.
Susie Davies-Splitter is a music and movement educator, Orff practitioner, musician, award winning composer and past president of the Victorian Orff Schulwerk Association. Phil Splitter is an award winning composer, writer, performer and presenter as well as a talented musician and entertainer.
Susie and Phil have spent more than 15 years developing the popular ‘Welcome to Music’ series of CD’s and books, musicals and choral range for all ages. They have conducted professional development workshops throughout Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Spain, Malaysia and Singapore, as well as the Orff Institute in Salzburg, Austria.
Melissa Dods lectures part time in music education at Melbourne University. She was a music specialist for thirteen years at Melbourne Grammar Junior School – Grimwade House and is currently teaching music part time at St Catherine's in Melbourne.
Ruth Friend is an experienced facilitator in teacher training, having presented at music education conferences throughout Australia and Asia. She is the co-author of ‘Take Note Music’ books and resources for the primary music classroom. Ruth is presenting with Davina McClure, who is an experienced music educator, having taught Kindergarten to Year 12. She has presented at Kodaly and Orff conferences, has a special interest in children’s choirs and is the co-author of ‘Take Note Music’.
Richard & Glenys Gijsbers
Sara Glenie is a musician and teacher presently teaching music full time at Grimwade House, Melbourne Grammar School. Sara has Grad Dip (Prim) and Grad Dip (Arts Ed) She has completed the Special Course at the Orff Institute, Salzburg and she has worked as a music educator throughout Australia, Taiwan and Vietnam. She has taught in the Orff Schulwerk Level Courses, at music conferences, kindergartens, schools and tertiary institutions.
Hilary Henshaw is an early childhood music specialist and professional singer/actor and speaker. Her current schedule includes working with early childhood and early intervention professionals, speech pathologists and allied health care professionals nationally and internationally and touring as a professional singer around Australia.
Denise Hollingworth is a music specialist with extensive experience and training in both Early Childhood Education and Music Education.
Denise graduated with a Masters degree in Music Education from the VanderCook College of Music in Chicago, Illinois. She has completed extensive studies in the area of children’s musical and vocal development, and has a special interest in the care and development of young voices. Denise incorporates Kodály and Orff methodologies in her teaching and enjoys using creative approaches in her work. Denise is presenting with Carole Searle who is a gifted singer / songwriter who, after 16 years of writing for adult audiences, discovered the joy of writing for children. Carole’s creativity and spirit of fun radiate from her music, delighting young children and adults alike. Carole is passionate about providing opportunities for children to develop their own creativity and self-expression through music.
Beverly Joffe PhD (Melb.), MSpPath (Witw.), BSpPath (Witw.), MSPAA, CPSP is a lecturer and leader in child speech and language at La Trobe University, as well as an honorary speech pathologist at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. Additionally, she has worked as an audiologist and teacher of dance.
Jacqueline Jones has always had a love of dance and music, commencing dancing at the age of four years. Jacqueline had a successful competitive dancing career, winning many major championship titles, throughout New Zealand. In 1983 Jacqueline received her Diploma from the New Zealand Academy of Highland and National Dancing (N.Z.A.H.N.D), enabling her to become a teacher and adjudicator, however Jacqueline had been teaching several years prior to this, giving her 29 years experience.
Mark Leehy & Kevin O’Mara are directors of Bushfire Press. They have also been classroom teachers, music teachers, music consultants and advisers (Music Branch & PDMP), and professional song & dance men (Paradiddle Band). They have been writer/consultants to Upbeat and the ABC, as well as creating many children’s musicals, editing the successful Cool Cats recorder and theory series and creating the ground-breaking integrated Arts program Cool Cats Cross Arts Adventures, the new classroom music program Music Room and, with Barbara Snook, the new classroom dance program Dance Room.
Clare McCormack is a music educator in Auckland, NZ. She is active teaching Orff, Marimba, Ukulele, Recorder etc in local schools, as well as running a private Suzuki piano studio. Clare is co-ordinator of ONZA (Orff NZ Aotearoa), runs the annual Marimba Festival and marimba camps and has presented workshops around NZ and Australia.
Anna Mlynek-Kalman has taught and directed music programs with children from K-12 for 20 years at many schools both in Australia and abroad. During this time she has presented lectures, papers and workshops at universities, schools and preschools to both staff and students. She completed a Masters Degree in Music Education with a Kodaly emphasis, in the United States.
Heather Monro is the Australian Director of Kids Music Company. She is a kindergarten teacher who has been working with children and music for over 25 years. Heather completed her Post Grad Certificate in Orff Music, and now runs music workshops around Australia for teachers of young children. She also runs a music school in Melbourne for young children.
Matthew Perry has been teaching music to children and adults of all ages for over 25 years and has many compositions and music resources that are performed through-out Australia. He currently teaches at Cranbrook School, Sydney specialising in early childhood music where his responsibilities include preschool, infants and primary teaching.
With 20 years of teaching experience in Secondary, Primary, choral and instrumental and studio music, Jayne Plumridge now teaches exclusively in Primary Schools for Education Queensland. Her special interests are in incorporating world music, hand percussion and song writing. As an educator Jayne advocates for flexible, inclusive and dynamic music programs, brimming with creativity and diverse experiences.
Susan Searle is a classroom music teacher now at Firbank Grammar teaching ELC (3 yr old) to year six. She loves finding new ways to practice those important music skills.
Sue Southey is co-director, and PrePrep teacher in a C&K community kindergarten in Springwood, Queensland. Sue is also an early childhood music consultant and trainer for several music organizations in Queensland. She is a regular presenter of music workshops at seminars, conferences and teacher’s meetings in Brisbane, and regional areas of Queensland.
Marion Stafford is a highly respected Kodaly Music educator who has taught throughout all levels - from Preschool to Tertiary. She is a graduate of Melbourne University and the prestigious Holy Names Summer Institute in Oakland California.
Jennifer Stevens-Ballenger is a research student at Australian Catholic University. After completing a Bachelor of Arts (Music/Education), she went on to explore the Orff approach with Christoph Maubach, obtaining a Graduate certificate in Orff Music and Movement Education. She has since completed a Master of Education degree, where she undertook several large-scale research projects in the field of early childhood music education.
Debbie Tait is a full-time art and music specialist at Fairhills Primary School in Melbourne’s outer east and has completed levels 1, 2 and 3 of the Orff Level Training courses. She has a special interest in folk and world music and performed with ‘Skips’ folkloric dance group and ‘Kavalcade’, a band specialising in Balkan music throughout the 90s. Debbie has led folkdance sessions at various folk festivals and continues to lead dance sessions at community camps and festivals.
Katie Wardrobe studied music education at the University of Melbourne where she completed a Bachelor of Music (Hons). She worked in the music retail environment for a number of years, before moving into arts management. Katie held the position of Community Program Manager at Orchestra Victoria where she implemented the mOVe! orchestral education program and project-managed around 75 performances and workshops annually throughout the state of Victoria. She has worked as a freelance copyist, music arranger and transcriber for more than 15 years and is a member of the Music Arrangers Guild of Australia.
Julie Wylie B.A. B.Mus. (Hons. 1st class) A.T.C.L. Dip. Tchg. is senior paediatric music specialist at the Champion Centre, Burwood Hospital, Christchurch and founder and patron of the New Zealand Musical Parenting Association. She is an author and composer of a wide range of original music for early childhood, and winner of the 2005 international children’s Music Web Award for her CD “Bean Bag Bop”. Julie is presenting with Louise Shand who is a jazz musician currently completing her psychology degree from University of Canterbury.
Please note: More presenter information will be added here as it becomes available.
