Kristin Browne

Kristin Browne has been working in the preschool sector as an early childhood music specialist since 2006. Her classes are Orff and Kodály based, and cater for babies through to new entrants. She also writes and records music for the children she works with. Kristin is passionate about the importance of music for pre-schoolers and strongly believes that music for this age group should be both accessible and fun.

Melanie Calvesbert

Mel was born, grew up and lives in Te Whanganui a Tara (Wellington). She is Pākehā and in October 2022, made the leap to self-employment. The primary focus of her work is being alongside communities and organisations as they seek to both respond well and prevent all forms of sexual harm including sexual harassment in workplaces and child sexual abuse. More recently, Mel became the Sexual Harm Prevention & Response Advisor (SHAPRA) with SoundCheck Aotearoa. Mel worked at the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) up until October 2022. Initially this was as one of their team of regionally based Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Advisors (SAPRAs) and then as the Manager for the team. Prior to the NZDF Mel worked for the most part in NGOs who have a focus on the response to sexual harm, including WellStop and the Wellington Sexual Abuse HELP Foundation. She enjoys being able to take prior learning and adapt that in order to be able to support organisations and industries who are creating safer and respectful environments.

Belinda Carey

Belinda Carey- I am an Arts native. I literally grew up in a theatre in Dunedin. I have studied, taught, practiced, directed and extolled Performing Arts ever since, working both in NZ and Australia. I am a bassoonist and still play regularly in orchestras from Nelson to Palmerston North. I have been HOD Drama, Nayland College, HOD Music Wairarapa College, HOF Arts Wellington High and Makoura College, National Music Advisor, I am member of the Curriculum Refresh Arts team and am presently Kaiako Matua, Puoro at Te Kura- The Correspondence School. My passion is challenges, community and equity. After many years of balancing study and teaching I recently completed a master’s in education with a focus on using the best possible pedagogy to engage learners in a culturally inclusive environment.

Dr. Anita Collins

Dr Anita Collins is an award-winning educator, author and researcher in music education and brain development. She has interviewed over 100 neuromusical researchers in Canada, USA, Scandinavia and Europe, she is a TEDx speaker and TED-Ed writer and author of The Music Advantage. Anita is probably best known for her role as onscreen expert in the ABC’s successful documentary Don’t Stop the Music.

Website: Better Bigger Brains

Martin Emo

Martin Emo is the Ministry of Education Learning Area Lead (Dance, Drama, Music), based in sunny Whakatū (Nelson). Martin brings extensive experience in curriculum, assessment, pedagogy and digital technology in the Performing Arts. He has over 10 years of classroom experience as a secondary school music teacher, with his final position as HOD Performing Arts at Waimea College. In 2018 Martin received a PPTA scholarship to complete a Masters, which was followed with a Chancellor’s Scholarship from Victoria University to undertake a PHD. Martin has a comprehensive knowledge of many aspects of NCEA and the NZC. This includes teaching music in the classroom, drafting and revising NCEA Unit and Achievement standards, scholarship, creating resources for TKI, being a panel leader for external exams, moderation of internal standards and being on the L1 Music SEG. He was also the TKI Musicnet Facilitator for eight years. Currently, he is on the board of the Australia New Zealand Association for Research in Music Education (ANZARME) and previously held a number of roles over six years on the MENZA board. This has provided access to valuable knowledge in how best to support Kaiako with the NCEA review. Additionally, over the last year five years, he delivered over 70 workshops and lectures for music and performing arts teachers in New Zealand and overseas. This has ranged from providing one-on-one mentoring and keynote addresses to webinars during lockdown and lecturing at Victoria University, Melbourne University and Glasgow University. His masters and doctoral research has been published internationally including at over 15 international conferences since 2018. Drawing on a range of perspectives and opportunities, he developed and led education strategy for the music technology companies Melodics, Serato and Ableton. He has performed as DJ Tunesifter for 25 years, and has listened to his entire vinyl collection over the last 5 years.

Trevor Faville

Trevor Faville has been teaching music in High Schools since 1994, after having prior experience as an itinerant instrumental teacher in a range of local schools. He was as the Head of Department at Cambridge High School, Fairfield College, and Melville high school before coming to Te Kura as the music specialist for the Central North region. Concurrently he has also worked for many years as lecturer at the University of Waikato School of Education, teaching in the graduate programme as a secondary music specialist. Trevor is a percussionist by trade, and currently works in four bands. He writes and records original music under the name DateMonthYear, and as a player has worked with Ray Columbus, Dame Malvina Major, Kimbra, Richard O’Brien and many others.

Duncan Ferguson

Duncan Ferguson is the Head of Music at St Andrew’s College and managing director and resource writer for www.learningideas.org

He runs workshops and six-week courses for teachers helping them develop skills in sound mixing and music production. Many NZ and Australian teachers have completed these six-week courses. To find out more please visit https://www.learningideas.org/teachertrainingcourses

Megan Flint

Megan has a background in both education and music. Over her career, she has worked as a general classroom teacher and deputy principal, a choral specialist across Years 1-13, a fulltime music specialist in the primary sector and an independent music education consultant. Megan has a particular passion for working with treble choirs and is the co-author of Hear Our Voices, a handbook for leaders of children’s choirs. Megan is a past member of the New Zealand Youth Choir and currently sings with Voices New Zealand.

Megan is a current doctoral candidate in the School of Music at the University of Auckland, exploring the beliefs and understandings that primary school teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand hold regarding music in education. She is also active within Music Education New Zealand Aotearoa (MENZA) and the Association of Choral Directors (ACD) as a board member, and the New Zealand Choral Federation (NZCF) as a singing leader and conducting mentor.

Megan’s commitment to ‘music for all’ guides her passion for music education. Her teaching practice is heavily influenced by the Kodály-inspired music education philosophy. This way of teaching and thinking about music has been transformative for Megan, both personally as a musician and professionally as an educator. She is committed to ensuring that all teachers and students can access and acquire knowledge and experiences that enable them to engage with music knowledgeably: as performers, creators, listeners and innovators.

Suzanne Franken

Suzanne is the extreme Ballet enthusiast behind Ballet.Culture.

At the age of 4, Suzanne attended her first Ballet lesson. This was where her dream of becoming a Ballet Teacher began.

In July 2019, Suzanne founded Ballet.Culture. Her aim was to create an environment that welcomes people from all backgrounds to learn thewonderful benefits of Ballet, in an empowering and fun way.

Suzanne is a qualified Ballet teacher with The Imperial Classical Ballet (ISTD), but also has a working knowledge of the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) syllabus and is a registered teacher with BBO (British Ballet Organization). She uses her experience to create and choreograph classes that reflect technique, poise and passion. Suzanne’s qualifications go beyond Ballet, as she is also a qualified Early Childhood Teacher. This provides her with the knowledge to guide her students and encourage movements beneficial for their development.

Priya Gain

Priya Gain is a primary music, dance, and drama educator based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She has worked in early childhood and primary settings as an Orff inspired music teacher and more recently has been working as a researcher and lecturer in initial teacher education at Victoria University. She has recently served on the MENZA board and has led a number of Networks of Expertise projects for MENZA. including bicultural music, movement, and play based resources for primary schools: ‘Chase Across the Waves’ and ‘Te Koha a Tāne’. ‘He Waiata Whakatuakī’, a creative collaboration with songwriter and composer Sean O’connor (Ngāti Porou), is her third MENZA NeX resource. Priya is currently completing doctoral research through Te Puna Wānanga (School of Māori and Indigenous Education) at the University of Auckland. This research has a focus on relational engagement between mainstream arts-based education and ngā toi Māori, including engagement with taonga puoro marae wānanga in the Far North region of Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Mary Gentle

Mary was the head of music at Te Puke High school for 30 years. Previous to that she taught at Dargaville High School and Pahiatua College. During that time, she wrote lots of resources tailor-made to the needs of the students she was teaching. One of the areas that have interested her was trying to find relevant and more interesting ways to teach students music notation skills. (how to read music) The main philosophy to her teaching was an integrated approach that involved listening, composing, playing and using music technology to learn the skills needed.

She officially retired nearly three years ago but has continued to be involved with the teaching.  She has loved teaching music (most of the time) and has gained a real sense of satisfaction seeing students achieve, especially those who have never had the opportunity to learn music. This year she is doing some day relief, itinerant work and some accompanying work. As well, with the extra time, she has started to seriously write resources.

Leon Gray

Leon Gray’s professional piano performance and musical direction career began as a teenager, professionally working in Taranaki as such from the age of 15. Since then he has worked on approximately 70 musicals in and around Auckland, Glasgow, Taranaki and the Bay of Plenty. Highlights have included Jesus Christ Superstar, Oliver, Les Miserables, Into The Woods, The Sound of Music, The Producers and Phantom of the Opera.

Leon holds Master of Music and Master of Education degrees, as well as postgraduate diplomas in education research, business and teaching. He is in high demand in the Bay of Plenty as an accompanist, expert theory teacher, piano instructor, musical director and composer. He has worked as the official accompanist for the Tauranga Performing Arts Competitions, the Rotorua Aria and a range of singing and musical theatre classes at both the University of Auckland and Unitec. He presently accompanies Tauranga Civic Choir, as well as a range of school choirs in Tauranga, has led Vocal Chords, the Tauranga Healthcare Workers choir, and has been affiliated with arts development programmes at the University of Waikato, Toi Ohomai and the Tauranga Opera Forum. He led Stratford Singers and Taranaki Male Choir for a number of years, and featured as guest conductor for the St Peter’s Chamber Music series and Scholars Pro Musica.

Leon has enjoyed professional careers in journalism and as a professional designer of both online, and book-based instructional material for private clients, both large and small. He has published a game-based instructional programme for the teaching of music theory. He has also received scholarships from the University of Auckland and University of Waikato for the development of materials to teach school students composition.

Karen Grylls

Karen Grylls CNZM is an Honorary Associate Professor in Choral Conducting at the University of Auckland. She conducted the New Zealand Youth Choir from 1989 to 2011, founded Voices NZ in 1998 and is currently Artistic Director of three internationally acclaimed national choirs: these two and the NZ Secondary Student’s choir. From 2011 to 2013, Karen was also Artistic Director of Toronto’s Exultate Chamber Choir.

She received an Auckland University Distinguished Teaching Award in Music (1996), an Officer of the NZ Order of Merit (ONZM 1999) and a Companion of the NZ Order of Merit (CNZM 2023) for her services to choral music. She is also the recipient of two national citations for services to New Zealand music.

At the University of Auckland, Karen has established a postgraduate pathway in Conducting at the Masters and Doctoral level. Students from the university are regularly accepted into overseas courses of study and have successfully taken on high-level conducting positions specifically with the national choirs in New Zealand. Many prize-winning conductors from The Big Sing have studied with her.

Karen is much in demand as an adjudicator for competitions and festivals worldwide, most recently in Tokyo, Bali and Taipei, the 48th International competition in Tolosa, and the Marktoberdorf International Chamber Choir Competition, Bavaria. She is sought internationally as a choral clinician and regularly conducts masterclasses and workshops in Wales, England, North America, Canada, Singapore and Australia. Since the outbreak of the pandemic online lecture appearances have included the Sydney International Series (Gondwana), Toronto, Los Angeles, Boston and Montreal. In July 2022 Karen adjudicated in Tokyo for the International Chamber Choir Competition. She was also regional presenter at the online World Choir Council meeting in March and recently appointed to the NZ Choral Federation Governance Board.

Rachel Harrison

Experienced in sexual harm prevention, Rachel has worked with SoundCheck Aotearoa since 2019, following her work with the screen sector and a number of public and private sector organisations. Rachel developed the Professional Respect Training course and co-authored SCA’s independent report ‘Creating Culture Change around Sexual Harm in the Music Community in Aotearoa’ (2021) along with many of the resources available on SoundCheck Aotearoa’s website. Rachel continues to co-present Professional Respect Training with Melanie Calvesbert, and provides independent advice to the music community regarding prevention measures.

Annie Hill - Creative Bay of Plenty

Annie works for Creative Bay of Plenty, the arts, culture and creative umbrella organisation covering Tauranga and the Western Bay of Plenty district. In her role as Funding & Capability Advisor, she supports creative practitioners and organisations by helping them make valuable connections both within and outside the sector, identifying funding sources and assisting with funding applications, developing and delivering capability building workshops and mentoring programmes, and advocating for arts, culture and creativity in public consultations and forums.

Annie also supports the delivery of strategic projects, participates in community planning and submission processes, and delivers research outcomes to underpin programme development, investment and advocacy. Her background is in communications, project management and facilitation, where she has worked in roles in the business, not-for-profit, local government and tertiary sectors in New Zealand and overseas.

Horomona Horo

Performs and handles the full spectrum of the taonga puoro instruments with a measured skill, historical and cultural understanding as passed down to him by his mentors, first the late Dr Hirini Melbourne and since 2006, Dr Richard Nunns – two of the men credited with the revival of the art-form. His ability to perform solo as well as collaborate so broadly through and extensive musical knowledge of style and process, has led to Horo performing and presenting as a New Zealand representative in Europe, Australia, Asia and South America and becoming the international Maori face of Taonga Puoro.

Website: Horomona Horo

Hayley Hunter

Hayley is a primary trained, music specialist teacher and has been teaching classroom music for over 25 years. She is a passionate advocate for Music and Performing Arts in the classroom and believes that Arts education should be available for all students and integrated holistically into the curriculum to optimise learning.

Hayley is currently teaching Performing Arts from Kindergarten through to Year 6 students at Kristin School in Albany, Auckland. Hayley enjoys teaching music and movement in the classroom context as part of the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme at Kristin School. She also is actively involved in the co-curricular life of the school as the co-musical director of the school musical production, conductor of several instrumental groups such as the Marimba Band and the Ukulele Ensemble, conductor of the Year 5-6 Choir and accompanist for two other choirs within the Junior School.

Hayley has been a board member of MENZA since 2022 and is the current president of ONZA (Orff New Zealand Aotearoa). Hayley is a keen advocate of using the Orff Approach to music education in an inclusive and holistic way using speech, movement, singing and playing instruments as part of her teaching.

Hayley Hunter BEd, DipTchg (Primary), ATCL (Pianoforte Performance), Orff Level 3 Certification

Judy Inkster

I am at present Music Specialist at Greenpark School. I spent 20 years as a Music Adviser in Waikato and Auckland after which I was 3 years as HOD music at Gulf English School Kuwait for year 1 to 13 I have been involved with writing and implementing the Arts Curriculum in the past and now enjoy my role taking class music, productions,choirs, and orchestras.

Benjamin Lau

Ben Lau is the Chair of MENZA and the Head of Music at Newlands College in Wellington. Ben has over 15 years experience teaching at secondary school level and has been involved with MENZA since 2000. Ben has a keen interest in Taonga Puoro and has been creating his own since 2019 and applying his practice into his classroom along side Mātauranaga Māori.

Jeni Little

Rebel. Maverick. Ethnomusicologist. Composer. Arranger. Musician. Textile Artist. Mother. Experimenter. Teacher. Writer. Friend. Lover. Wild Woman. Compulsive creative. Learner. Mentor. Musical Director. Band manager. Sound engineer. 36 years a teacher Jeni Little lives with her partner of 41 years in Auckland, New Zealand and is the mother of two adults. Jeni is currently the Learning Area Leader for Performing Arts and Music Specialist at Hobsonville Point Secondary School. She completed a Master of Music degree (Hons) in ethnomusicology and composition at Auckland University. Her thesis embodied the research about traditional music she undertook while living for six months on the islands of Atiu, Mauke and Mitiaro in the Cook Islands (1988). Jeni is committed to creating Safer Spaces in Music Education.

Warren Maxwell

Warren Maxwell has been a professional working musician/composer for the better part of two decades (Southside of Bombay, Trinity Roots, Little Bushman & ex. Fat Freddys Drop). 

Warren is a kaiako o te reo Māori at Kuranui College in the Wairarapa. But prior to 2023, held the position of Associate Professor at Massey University’s College of Creative Arts. Maxwell has also composed for film and television, performed at numerous Festivals Internationally (Byron Bay Blues Festival, Woodford Folk Festival, Celtic Connections, WOMAD N.Z, Big Chill Festival U.K, Roskilde Festival and numerous others). 

In October 2016 he was invited to Antarctica as part of Antarctica N.Z’s ‘Artist Community Outreach Programme’. Since then, Warren’s creative focus has pivoted; focusing his composition and research around environmental re-connection (Tūhono ki te Taiao) and the impending Anthropocene. 

In 2018 Warren was commissioned to compose the opening of the New Zealand Arts Festival in Wellington, celebrating Traditional Seafaring Navigation knowledge (Mātauranga Māori) which included a 300 piece choir. The event was attended by 20,000 strong audience and recently won ‘Best Arts or Cultural Event 2018’ for the New Zealand Events Awards.

Dr. Jeremy Mayall

Dr. Jeremy Mayall is a composer, performer, artist, and researcher from Kirikiriroa-Hamilton, NZ. His work is primarily in music, sound art, installation and multimedia formats, with a focus on exploring the interrelationships between sound, time, space, the senses, and the human experience. Collaboration is at the core of much of his multi-sensory work, and recent projects have included work with musicians, dancers, poets, aerial silks performers, theatre practitioners, scientists, perfumers, bakers, authors, sculptors, filmmakers, pyrotechnicians, lighting designers and visual artists. Mayall’s musical work is presented in New Zealand and internationally, including tours to USA, UK and China, as well as commissions for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, NZ Trio, WOMAD, and Orchestras Central. He regularly collaborates with taonga puoro specialist Horomona Horo on a range of different commissions. He also works in immersive installation projects, is an author and researcher whose creative practice-informed work has been published internationally, and is CEO of Creative Waikato.

Christian McDonald

Music Teacher for 10 years, with a love for Taonga Puoro that was developed in my studies at Waikato University under Toti West. Developing a wananga model for our students founded on Taonga Puoro and integrating Maori Arts has been a passion since 2019. Students learning to compose as our tupuna would, only come from our tupuna spaces, the moana, the awa, the ngahere, the marae. Using natural elements to compose rhythms, lyrics, melodies and voices has been a journey this year, and I would love to share my journey. This mahi is a testimate to the relationships built with Iwi, Hapu and community, and the possibilities are endless.

Graham McPhail

Graham McPhail taught secondary school music in Auckland for 21 years and then worked for NZQA as the full-time national moderator for NCEA music for three years. Currently he is Senior Lecturer Music Education at the Faculty of Education and Social Work, the University of Auckland where he runs the programme of pre-service secondary music teachers. His research includes curriculum design and the big question of ‘what is it we should be teaching?’.

Jaroslav Novak

Jaroslav Tāne Novak is a musician, educator, and co-founder of Music Ecademy, a web application that teaches music theory and aural skills.

Jaroslav is passionate about helping students learn music and co-founded Music Ecademy while teaching to make learning theory more engaging for students and to enable teachers to easily track student progress. Nearly a decade later, Music Ecademy is now used by thousands of students across Aotearoa, Australia, and around the world.

Jaroslav holds degrees in music and commerce from the University of Otago where he completed his Master’s thesis on the applications of e-learning and online software. He also undertook further studies in orchestral conducting at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts.

Brenda Oakley

Brenda has worked in Music Education for the last 20 years, mainly as a classroom music teacher and HOD in secondary schools in Tauranga. She now teaches privately from her Rotorua home, and as a woodwind ITM in several Bay of Plenty schools.

Chris O'Connor

Chris has played drums in bands since his teenage years and has made a living as a professional musician performing, recording, composing and teaching in a dizzying array of settings. He studied Jazz at the Wellington Conservatorium of Music (Adv. Dip. Jazz 1993-1996), and Ethnomusicology at VUW (Dip. Arts 2000). Chris has had music therapy in his sights since first encountering it while living in the UK in 2003, and is currently studying towards his Masters of Music Therapy at VUW.

Collaborating with people in music has always been Chris’ passion, and this has led him to work in a diverse range of musical contexts.  An experienced touring musician, he has travelled the country and the globe.  As a recording artist, Chris appears on over 50 albums, as well as documentary and film soundtracks. As a composer, Chris has collaborated with filmmakers, choreographers and theatre directors.

Chris is a passionate educator, maintaining a private practice as well as having held artist-tutor positions at Auckland University, Unitec, Massey University, and Victoria University of Wellington. Chris lives in Auckland with his partner and two children and is relishing the new horizons of music therapy and the work at RMTC is opening up for his musical practice.

Sean O'Connor

Sean teaches music at Thorndon Primary School, and is also a recording artist and independent music educator, running collaborative interactive performances and workshops with his “Porowhita” waiata whakataukī’ and his alter ego “Waiata the Taniwha”.

John Page

John has over thirty years of teaching music both as an itinerant teacher, and classroom practitioner, an HoD Music, Director of Arts and Itinerant Scheme Coordinator for the Bay of Plenty. He is currently in a role of holistically managing the Arts at Tauranga Boys’ College as well as managing the Western Bay of Plenty Itinerant Teacher of Music Scheme. John would like to look at having an open discussion for teacher managing ITM’s and look at a focus on the large issues moving in to 2025 as well as a key knowledge in running, maintaining and growing a quality ITM programme in the community.

Edith Poon-Lai

Edith Poon-Lai teaches Performing Arts and Chinese to 4-11 year olds at Kristin School (Auckland) for the past 24 years. Her passion for Music began when learning the piano and singing in a school choir during her primary school years in Hong Kong. Edith has presented workshops for ONZA ECE projects, MENZA Network of Expertise and various Chinese education conferences. She is currently serving on the committee of New Zealand Choral Federation (Auckland). Edith holds a Master of Music Education from Auckland University and has completed her levels training in both Orff (ONZA) and Kodály (Australian Kodály Certificate). She is dedicated to nurture children’s development when making, responding to, creating Music. Edith is very grateful for this opportunity to give back to the generous MENZA community!

Christian de Sá Quimelli

PhD in Education Candidate – University of Waikato.

Educating and building human beings through music is my life’s main goal!

I graduated as a Music Teacher and have had many growth experiences in the area. I have worked as a Recording Assistant, Music Director, Guitar Instructor, Session Musician, Elementary and Primary School Music Teacher, and University Lecturer.

In 2018 I finished my Master’s in Science and Technology Teaching at the Federal University of Technology – Paraná (Brazil) with interdisciplinary work involving Physics and Music teaching through the construction of Optical Theremins.

I am currently a PhD candidate in Education at the University of Waikato (New Zealand). I am applying my Master’s discoveries in my PhD thesis in a social setting, trying to improve student engagement through Art and Electronics.

My family gets my attention in my free time, along with music, capoeira, and old video games.

Wiremu Sarich

Wiremu is a Youth Educator based in the Far North. Wiremu has a passion for working with youth and utilising matauranga Maori to build positive relationships and understanding of te taiao whanui.

Victoria Thompson

Relatively new to classroom teaching, Victoria is in her 5th year, but prior to this taught piano/ singing privately. She has a particular interest in cross-cultural communication through music. She has also completed Master’s research on young people’s citizenship on social media, and lately enjoys combining these areas to think about the development of a bicultural lens within music teaching practice online. Victoria has worked at Te Kura since 2020.

Hinekoia Tomlinson

Hinekoia Tomlinson (Ngāti Hine, Whakatōhea, Ngāti Awa) is a highly trained and experienced vocal coach and performer. She is the owner of Waiata Mai Vocal Coaching, a pakihi born out of the desire to fuse two of her passions, vocal coaching and te ao Māori. The kaupapa of this studio is people focused and provides an āhuru mōwai, a safe space to develop vocal technique and vocal confidence and to engage with te reo Māori through waiata and haka. With a passion for Kapa haka Hinekoia is a part of Te Taha Tū, a Tāmaki Makaurau based rōpū. Hinekoia has an Honours Music degree and holds a qualification in voice physiology as an Estill Master Trainer. She is a self-professed voice nerd, loves watching kapa haka, learning te reo Māori and jamming with her whānau.

Linda Webb

Linda Webb MNZM: Pre-service teacher education, primary music specialist & classroom generalist, music in special education & community contexts; Music education advocacy & research; Governance & leadership roles in MENZA including as ISME CoPA rep, CANZ, & MThNZ.

Helen Willberg

Helen has been singing all her life, and presently sings in two choirs and directs a Youth Choir. She has been happily immersed in Music Education in her career which includes Lecturer in Music to Primary and Early Childhood Teachers, and a number of publications. She is a Life member of MENZA, the Music Education New Zealand Association, and is passionately advocating for better teacher training to bring life-giving music to every child from birth to tertiary education and thereby boost well-being, literacy and numeracy for all learners.

Helen G. M. Willberg. QSM, M.Ed, BA, ATCL, LTCL (piano) Dip Tchg. Registered Music teacher, Life member of MENZA, and holder of the National Supervisor’s Certificate of the Playcentre Federation of NZ.

Chris Williamson

Chris Williamson has a wealth of experience as a performer, composer and teacher. This ranges from teaching primary school students’ their first notes, through to teaching post-graduate students at the NZSM.

In this workshop Chris will address ways of teaching – for all instruments – without using traditional Western music notation. This approach is intended to support learning notation, relational pedagogy and meta-cognition.

Maria Winder

Maria Winder MNZM, BA, Dip Tchg (Primary) Australian Kodály Certificate in Early Childhood Education.

Maria believes that singing is essential for children’s well-being and is every child’s birth right. She is NZCF’s current Children’s Outreach Co-ordinator and the leader of early childhood music workshops for All Together Now. Maria completed her Australian Kodály Certificate in Early Childhood Education earlier this year and is a fully registered primary school teacher. Her most recent teaching position was at East Tāmaki School, Otara as the music specialist teacher. Maria formerly worked for Victoria University in Wellington and subsequently, The University of Auckland as a district Music Advisor to Primary Schools. She has adjudicated The Kids Sing several times in Hawkes Bay and has participated in The Kids Sing Auckland with her own school choirs. Maria has been a member of Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir, The University of Auckland Chamber Choir, Viva Voce and The Dorian Choir and currently sings in Luminata Voices Women’s Chamber Choir. Maria co-authored ‘Hear Our Voices’ a choral resource, published by NZ Choral Federation for leaders of children’s choirs and has conducted massed choirs for the APPA Music Festival since 2004. Maria was a founding trustee and director of music education for the NZ Ukulele Trust (2007-2021) and former board member of MENZA. She was awarded an MNZM for services to music education in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday honours.

Jade Wrathall

Jade Wrathall is currently working within the Division of Education at the University of Waikato, while also completing her PhD. Her research explores children’s access to music education and advocates for equitable opportunities for all children in New Zealand. Jade is a current trustee of the MENZA board and has held various teaching roles at early childhood centres and primary and intermediate schools throughout Hamilton.