On the importance of Geography & Music
Click here for a more formal &
printable
one
page resumé
The More Extended, Relaxed
and
Prosaic Version
I love music. I love community and nature - which is
essentially
geography. All have
played a vital part in
bringing me to what I do today.
Growing up in Merewether (Newcastle NSW) I was lucky enough
in the
early 1980s to be
caught up in one of Newcastle's creative fervours, The
Castanet
Club (preceded by the Musical
Flags). Others went on to greater fame
and glory.
Instead
of
this
path,
I
chose
to
play
more
music,
conduct
a
Trade
Union
Choir
(the
Newcastle
People's
Chorus), finish an Honours Degree in Geography at
Newcastle Uni and
lobby
for public transport improvements. In 1993 I moved, with my
young
family, to Bendigo,
Central Victoria.
For a decade or more I learned, enjoyed and experienced a lot
in the
lovely Bendigo community. During that time I:
- Helped raise two gorgeous daughters
- Didn't finish a PhD in Geography (researching LETS)
- Had a wow of a time with 3 other blokes in acapella / folk
/ pop
band voicepopfoible, playing at Folk
Festivals and
pubs across Australia.
- Started the Bendigo Folk Club (bend it your way)
- Taught music at the Bendigo Prison and Bendigo TAFE
- Worked in Psychiatric Disability Rehabilitation and Support (PDRS)(yes...what a mouthful) at St Luke's Anglicare.
- Worked as Victoria's Policy Officer for the PDRS sector.
My time in Victoria really affirmed for me the value of
community and
how music is an important glue in helping us to create and
express
community.
I returned to Newcastle in 2006 to manage a local mental health NGO and
to
see what life would bring for me in my hometown. As much as I
loved
Victoria, it is sooo good to be back where it rains and where
I can
swim in the ocean daily!
I have now finally (and gratefully) bitten the bullet of
becoming a
professional community musician. The
Sum of the Parts name expresses some of my values and
skills as
a musical 'bringing together facilitator'. Some of it will
involve gigs
(nothing new there!), some of it will involve individual
teaching. All
of it involves being focussed on life in and with a community.
Ta da!