“ I feel really lucky to be the Executive Director of the Conservatorium. Music has been part of my life ever since I was a little girl. My earliest memories are standing in church beside my grandfather singing hymns. He had this amazing basso kind of voice, deep and rumbling and I don’t know whether he was in tune or not, I just loved it and loved being beside him when he was singing. He sang loudly and I got right into the hymns. Then Abba, you know being a child of the 70’s.
I’m so fortunate with the music teacher I had in Primary school and then on into high school, she had equal measures of heart and incredible musicality and it was in the days when you could still smack a kid in school. She could kind of play the piano, peel and orange and smack a kid all at the same time without missing a beat. She was so encouraging! Just in my primary school year we had one of the Umbilical brothers and another guy who ended up on Broadway, also a professional guitarist who’s living in Japan and I’m here at the Conservatorium so I feel like every day when I come to work I’m honouring Wendy’s Petersons legacy. I get to see kids growing up. Little ones that came through as babies and now they’re playing guitar or violin and adults who were really scared and now they are performing so it’s a very special place.
I love the fact that its a community organisation as well, we’re here to serve the community, it’s really inclusive. Some people think that the word conservatorium means that it’s exclusive and a bit posh but being a regional con we’re here for all ages and all abilities. Lots of unlikely friendships are formed where people come together through music and I feel really lucky that this is the type of work I get to do. I also have a small teaching studio which is a favourite part of my week working with teenagers teaching voice.
Some great talents have come through here. Natalie from Blue King Brown went to the con, Tom Avery aka Blackboi as well, Shelly Hughes, Lou Van Stone, a band of school leavers from Mullum high who were early school leavers and were called Alice Blue back in the day, they came through here and now are called Tora. They just got back from a massive tour in America and parts of Europe. Our diploma auditions are on the 2nd of December which is exciting so we’re looking forward to meeting the next crop.”