We Can All Make Music.

Who's who?

CMV Catalysts and Network Activists

CMV’s team of volunteer catalysts are deeply committed to the development of group music-making in their areas. They are closely involved with the independent music making networks that have emerged, and can assist newcomers to make useful connections. If you have queries about connecting with a regional network or setting up an initiative, these are the people who can offer you advice, and can help you find the information you’ll need. You can contact them via email at cmv@netspace.net.au or by phone on 03 9662 1162.

South East Victoria

Jenny Candy (East Gippsland)

Betty McLaughlin (Central and South Gippsland)

Sue Kirkpatrick (Mornington Peninsula)

South West Victoria

Belinda McArdle (Geelong)

Metropolitan Melbourne

Lyndal Chambers

Jane Coker

Phil Heuzenroeder

Richard Lawton

Heather McLaughlin

North East Victoria

Karen Roben (Wodonga)

Suzann Frisk (Dandenong Ranges)

Di Mackrell (Euroa)

Central and North West Victoria

Jane Thompson (Central Goldfields)

Polly Christie (Macedon Ranges)

Independent Catalysts and Networks

There are hundreds of other dedicated individuals all across Victoria busy helping the people around them to make music together. Many of them we know, many we don't; many use our services, but many still don't know CMV exists.

A key function of CMV is to discover, honour, engage with and support these individuals and networks. Perhaps the most significant outcome of the work of CMV Catalysts has been the development of these independent regional groupings of community music activists with the passion and expertise to imagine and express a future for group music-making in their region.

Part-time staff

Jane Coker (Volunteer Co-ordinator)

Recruits and trains volunteers. Contact Jane.

John Howard (Administration Co-ordinator)

Produces and distributes Shout! and e-SHOUT!, maintains the CMV books, manages CMV database content, responds to enquiries from the public, the network and CMV team members, Administers CMV events. Contact John.

Sing It!

Jane Becktel and the Sing It! Team

Compilation and edition of Sing it!.

Sing It! is our quarterly periodical through which the stories of group singing across Victoria are told.

Board Members

The eleven members (elected at the AGM in May 2009) meet every two months, usually at Ross House. The Board takes ultimate responsibility for the direction of CMV.

The CMV Board currently consists:

Lyndal Chambers

Jane Coker

Paula Curotte

Chris Falk

Belinda Glass

Emily Hayes

John Howard

Richard Lawton

Betty McLaughlin

Heather McLaughlin

Brian Strating

Resident Researcher

Carol Dore is completing a PhD in the School of Social Work and Social Policy at La Trobe University, Bendigo campus. Her research topic is community singing. She is exploring the lived experience of community singing; how people experience it, what they draw from this activity and how they feel it has affected them. She is interested to know whether singers and leaders believe that joining with others in singing is different to getting together for other activities such as sports, or other arts and cultural activities, and if so, how and why it is different. She will be using interviews and focus groups with singers and leaders to gather this information in order to produce new understandings of the experience. Singing with others is health-enhancing, as well as a way for people to be engaged as part of a community, and she feels there is a great opportunity for social workers to be implementing group and community singing as part of their work with individuals, groups and communities. There are social workers using singing in their practice, but this is not reflected in social work literature. Therefore, her research will also involve developing a model of practice for social workers and organisations to be used by social workers who implement community singing in the course of their work.

Pocket Bio’s

Jane Becktel

Bio coming soon!

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Polly Christie

Singing Workshop Facilitator, Choir Conductor, Vocalist.

An established conductor and vocalist, over the past ten years Polly has led many choirs and has facilitated workshops at music festivals across Australia. These include the Boite Singers Festival (VIC), Centenary of Federation Celebrations (400 singers, VIC), National Folk Festival (ACT) and the Perigian Beach Music Festival (QLD). Renowned for inspiring and energising her singers, Polly draws on music from around the world, including songs she collected in Africa and India. She also incorporates her own compositions and arrangements into her teaching program. Polly creates a warm environment where singers of any age and experience can develop their skills. Through playful improvisation and vocal exercises participants are given the opportunity to extend their range and harmonise with other singers. Using conducting skills taught by Prof. Rodney Eichenburger (USA), as well as techniques such as voice matching, she can turn any workshop group into a band of angels! Polly now resides in the Macedon Ranges of Victoria.

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Paula Curotte

Paula worked as a speech pathologist for nearly thirty years in public, private and university settings. A particular interest of hers was the area of voice, and professional voice users. Paula has sung in various amateur choirs over the years, and has developed a keen interest in the health and wellness aspects of singing. In 2006, Paula formed The Soufflé Sisters Community Choir, incorporating her skills as a manager, engaging and experienced choir leader, and talented accompanist, to jointly run the group. This group is open to all women who share a love of singing in a community setting. Personal highlights have included performing at the Festival of Voices in 2008 and 2009, and jointly with Emily Hayes, organizing the recent Bushfire Benefit Concert at the Clocktower Centre in Moonee Ponds (VIC). Paula is looking forward to her role as a member of the 2009 Board of CMV.

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Lyndal Chambers

Lyndal is a singer and musician from Gippsland, now resident in Melbourne, with 15 years experience in creating environments in which people feel relaxed, and are able to sing, play and create. In Traralgon she ran Vocal Noshes as well as singers' sessions for the Gippsland Acoustic Music Club (of which she was a founding member). She directs the Gippsland A Cappella Festival and currently leads two sing-for-fun groups in Melbourne. Professionally trained as a music teacher and a veteran of varied folk ensembles, Lyndal has a keen understanding of the power of music to transform lives and communities.

Contact Lyndal

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Jane Coker

Jane has a lifetime of experience getting people to make music together. In the early 1980's she first experienced Frankie Armstrong's approach to freeing up the natural voice and aural learning, and has been leading singing sessions and voice workshops along these lines ever since, becoming a relentless initiator of community singing and instrumental projects aimed at enabling people with little or no experience to sing and play together. She is also an experienced trainer and facilitator of groups, and an expert event organiser. Jane currently plays sax with a Melbourne street band “Havana Palava”, sings and plays mandolin with the bluegrass trio “The Tipsy Hicks”, as well as the country music band “The Cascades”. Jane has been a member of CMV's Board of Management since 2002.

Contact Jane

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Carol Dore

Carol is our Resident Researcher. Her personal involvement with singing began in the mid-1990's in Bendigo, Central Victoria. Considering herself a “non-singer”, she decided to start learning about singing by having a few singing lessons with a friend. This eventuated in her joining the Central Victorian Women's Choir (Women of Note) as a founding member, and later, small community singing groups such as “Mamas' Chocolate Box” and “Three Abreast”, as well as a couple of stints with The Melbourne Millenium Chorus. She is a member of the Committee of Management for the Gorgeous Voices Festival which takes place in Bendigo. Carol doesn't read music or play an instrument, but singing has allowed her to become musical, and to share and make music with others - a life-enhancing development.

Contact Carol

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Chris Falk

Chris has been a singer, guitarist and songwriter for 25 years. Although a city-dweller now, for most of her life she has lived in small country towns throughout Victoria. She has written songs for Art and Working Life Projects with workers and Trade Unions in the La Trobe Valley, Victoria. She has been the artist in residence for drama programs in secondary schools and has composed songs for the Victorian Aids Council, Victorian Government employment programs and many choirs. Chris has recorded five albums of her own songs, and has won a national song-writing competition. She now works as an Alexander Technique teacher, specialising in working with singers and instrumentalists. She also teaches singing and guitar. Chris is passionately committed to the notion that everyone is born to sing, and leads a small singing group called "Just For Fun" in Northcote, Victoria.

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Suzann Frisk

Suzann Frisk considers herself a Swedish-born musical nuisance - “I sang and danced in the cot!” After completing a four year music degree in Sweden, Suzann moved to Australia in 1990 and has worked with vocal groups of all levels and styles ever since. A keen composer and arranger, she also works as a singer, specializing in jazz and improvisation. Suzann currently runs a bi-monthly Vocal Nosh in Emerald (VIC), a fortnightly vocal group, and teaches singing and piano from home. Suzann is an enthusiastic, fun-loving teacher who strives to make everyone shine through their singing.

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Belinda Glass

Belinda is a Melbourne-based singer, pianist, flautist, music teacher, choir leader, composer, and arranger. A musician her whole life, she is particularly passionate about sharing the joys of music-making with others, and is an ardent believer in the power of music as a means of bringing joy and vitality into people’s lives. She currently leads “Musique Unique”, a community choir based in Greensborough (VIC), two sing-for-fun groups in Carnegie and Murrumbeena, and a chorus of children and parents at her kids' playgroup!

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Emily Hayes

Emily is a singer, singing teacher, choir leader and group singing facilitator. In 1999 she graduated from LaTrobe University with a Bachelor of Music. She sings with the successful Australian folk band Milk. The band have released five CDs, toured extensively, and performed at many folk festivals. She leads two Melbourne community choirs called “The Rogues' Choir” in Brunswick, formerly the “Brunswick Neighbourhood Choir”, and “The Errol's Angels of North Melbourne”. These groups meet to share a love of singing (no experience is needed) and they sing a wide range of a cappella music. Emily also works with groups at the Brunswick and Carlton Neighbourhood Houses, Club Wild and for The Melbourne Mental Health Music Network. These groups offer access to people who have a wide range of abilities, ages, and experience. Emily's philosophy is to promote well-being through voice work and singing.

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Phil Heuzenroeder

Phil has been singing and playing publicly since he joined the grade 4 school choir. Way back in 1985, he was the South Australian busking champion. He currently sings and plays in a wide range of musical ventures, including the a cappella quartet “Naked”, and the original blues band “Urban Sprawl”. Phil’s creative music work takes him into a range of community settings to bring alive the joy of music making. He specialises in working with people with disabilities, and the use of digital music technologies, to facilitate access to music and musical expression. Phil plays in and directs the “Bipolar Bears Band” for people living with mental illness. He directs and produces the “Club Wild” events, a disability-friendly nightclub and cabaret show. Phil also directs the 80-voice Melbourne Mass Gospel Choir.

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John Howard

John was brought-up singing with his large family, studied classical singing, sang with the state opera chorus and solo with smaller companies, participated in and led various a cappella groups, taught voice-based performance projects with young people at TAFE and Victoria University, and has taught voice work and singing to all ages from primary school children through to senior citizens. Along the way he's become adept at overtone chanting. His honors thesis in 2001 was written on the extended range of the human voice. He doesn't claim to be an expert instrumentalist but has familiar relations with the piano, french horn, guitar and drums. With his partner, Helen Sharp, John set up the Body Voice Centre in Footscray in 1994. He has just graduated as a fully qualified practitioner of Middendorf Breathwork and is finalising his PhD on this subject. He mentors the Multicultural Choir in Footscray.

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Sue Kirkpatrick

Sue Kirkpatrick has been involved in community music for over twenty years. She has written numerous three and four part songs for choirs, three of which have been published in Community Music Victoria’s songbooks. She leads several community choirs and singing groups in the Mornington Peninsula region, and produces “Sing Out Loud”, a regular news bulletin for community singers in the Mornington Peninsula. Sue facilitates a cappella workshops in a variety of settings, and is also a teaching artist in singing, percussion, and general music for the Song Room.

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Richard Lawton

Richard has been teaching for 20 years in the UK and the USA, trained as an actor and singer in England and with “Project Voice” in Wales, sung with various choirs including “Voices from the Vacant Lot”, has taught at NIDA, the VCA, the Northern Rivers Conservatorium and at Summersong music camps. He has sung in various venues, from the red light district of Amsterdam to La Mama in New York. For three years he sang bass in the vocal quartet “Velvet Groove” and for 15 years has been running courses entitled “Singing for Fun, Singing with Feeling”. He brings special know-how based on his experience working as a theatre director, and he has directed and arranged vocals for many plays and musicals, but still wishes he could play piano.

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Elizabeth McKay

Elizabeth (BSc, BSW, GradDipMus) has spent her working-life helping people find their voice. Initially this was as a social worker, but a stint at Prahran mission leading music with people with a mental illness showed her the power of singing and music to unite people and to create an instant sense of community. She developed a business teaching adults how to sing, with a special focus on people who couldn't sing. A move to Warrnambool led to a stint as a community musician creating music with children and adults with a wide range of special needs, and with a diverse collection of community groups. After many years of inspiring people to sing regardless of their experience, a trip to Ireland inspired a way to make instrumental music equally accessible. An Orchestra For Everyone combining experienced and in-experienced musicians is now one of her current projects which unites people from all sections of the community in the common cause of creating music.

Contact Elizabeth

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Betty McLaughlin

Growing-up, Betty was always singing. After graduating in social work in the early 1970’s, she spent the next 30 years working in various organisations who were attempting to "Save the World". In the 1990’s, she decided to pursue her long held love of music. After undertaking the Music Logic and Kindermusik teacher trainings, she set up as a freelance teacher. By the time the twenty first century started rolling-in, Betty had found a way to combine her commitment to making a difference in the community with her love of music. First it was organising a Peace Concert, then becoming active in the local Arts Council, and then leading singing groups. These experiences have led her to an opportunity to take her love of community music making into the wider community as one of CMV's Regional Community Music Making Catalysts.

Contact Betty

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Heather McLaughlin

Heather has been teaching music for over thirty years, working with babies, pre-school children, primary kids, with secondary school and university students, and with other teachers and adults. Her workshops have included lots of multi-age community music sessions, and she was long-term president of Parents for Music - a Family Music Association. Many workshop tours of Australia and New Zealand and presentations at international conferences also form her experience. She has been closely involved with the Orff and Kodaly music education groups since the late seventies when she studied in Hungary and Austria for a year. In recent years she lived and taught in Japan, and currently teaches at a Melbourne primary school, as well as being involved with other freelance work. An occasional violinist, she feels that singing and recorder-playing are important both in schools and the broader community, and she is an energetic advocate for the marimba movement. Involving both children and adults in music-making is her passion.

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Karen Roben

Karen was classically trained as a young singer and has had a go at performing with rock, folk and jazz outfits, as well as in music theatre and with the a cappella groups “Paterson's Curse” and “MisBehavin’”. Her formal qualifications are in education and she has lots of experience in the health, social welfare and community cultural development sectors. She has led school choirs, youth productions and community singing sessions, has used singing as a tool in all her professional work and she now enjoys directing “The Wild Choir” through a program for people with disabilities. As project manager at Murray Arts based in Wodonga, Karen relishes the opportunity to spread the joy of music-making and promotes well-being through community activities and events.

Contact Karen

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Jane Thompson

Jane Thompson is a singer from Maldon in Central Victoria, whose voice has been communicating songs of joy, hope, social conscience and change across Victoria and further afield for several years now. She has a passion for singing, and an infectious enthusiasm, combined with a gently persuasive way of getting everyone around her to join in and experience the sheer joy which comes from singing together. She co-leads the “Chat-Warblers”, a women’s community choir in Castlemaine which meets weekly, sings a diverse repertoire of songs from the sublime to the ridiculous, and welcomes any woman who wants to sing with the group. Jane sings with the folkband “Blackwood”, who have become known for their uplifting songs with tasteful arrangements and harmonies, and who perform all over Australia. Jane has led many workshops in community singing leadership skills for Community Music Victoria.

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Brian Strating

Brian “Strat” Strating has been involved in music making and music education for more than two and a half decades. He has performed in the bands “Boola Boola”, “The Great Southern Band” and more recently “Grand Junction”, the festival street band Havana Palava, and at various festivals and venues both here and overseas. Strat believes that music making is a basic human need and one of the foundation stones of learning, and he is pleased to be a part of an organisation such as CMV which has the capacity to develop this reality at a community level. Having spent most of his life in regional Victoria, he has a great understanding of non-urban cultural development and community.

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Fay White

Fay is a singer by trade and a passionate advocate of group singing. She's doing her bit to help turn Australia into a singing culture, and one happy camper reckons her singing workshops are “energising and generous, and enable you to trust the voice you have”. Fay founded Vocal Nosh in Central Victoria, where people get together regularly to sing and eat good food in friendly company. She leads “big sings” and “small sings” with equal enjoyment, and loves to sing with children (for fun). She's written dozens of songs and recorded lots of CDs.

ContactFay

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