Maree Hennessy is an internationally recognised leader, teacher, professional development facilitator and mentor in Kodály-inspired practice. Her career spans from music teacher in regional Queensland to Director of the renowned Kodály Center at Holy Names University.

Maree has extensive experience in music education across sectors and age groups – early childhood, school, university and community settings in state, independent and Catholic school systems. Having worked in country Queensland, she developed extensive experience in teaching and learning in multi-level and mixed ability contexts.

Maree has developed curriculum materials and resources designed to assist teachers in the implementation of effective music programs in schools. She previously worked as Senior Project Writer for Curriculum into the Classroom materials designed to support Queensland teachers in the implementation of the new Australian Curriculum. She was also an editor, key writer and demonstration teacher for the KMEIA QLD ‘Middle Years Music Education’ DVD resource for teachers.

Wendy Rolls enjoys working with singers as a teacher, conductor and performer. She currently divides her time between choral conducting (at Brisbane Girls Grammar School & All Hallows’ School), classroom music (at BGGS) and singing teaching in small group and one-to-one settings (BGGS, AHS & Mary MacKillop College, Nundah, and private studio).

Wendy holds a Bachelor of Veterinary Science (UQ), Bachelor of Education (QUT), and an Australian Kodály Certificate and a Master of Music Studies in vocal pedagogy from the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. Her Masters’ thesis was titled: The adolescent female singer: What pedagogy is best for her voice?

She has presented workshops and seminars on vocal pedagogy, vocal health for teachers, and classroom musicianship as well as conference presentations for Kodály Australia, Australian National Association of Teachers of Singing (ANATS) and Australian National Choral Association (ANCA). Wendy is committed to supporting music teachers to achieve optimum vocal health, and to apply the principles of Kodály-informed musicianship and evidence-based vocal pedagogy in choral and classroom settings. She believes that we must foster healthy, sustainable singing in children to set up for a lifetime.

Kathy Rappel is a specialist music teacher at Brisbane Boys’ College where she implements a Music Every Day Program for the Prep to Year 3 students. A significant initiative of this program is commissioning new Australian choral repertoire suitable for young children and supporting the work of Australian composers. Kathy has presented workshops both locally and nationally and was a guest lecturer in music education at the University of Queensland. She has run musicianship classes for Kodály Queensland and was the Director of the Young Composers’ Competition for the Australian Society of Music Education for numerous years. Kathy is passionate about bringing new ideas into her classroom to better educate her students.

Debbie O’Shea is a Primary School Music Specialist who currently teaches at The Gap State School in Brisbane. She is an advocate of voiced-based music education for everyone.

Debbie has had an extensive career teaching and coordinating music programs from Preschool to University level and developing teaching materials for music educators.

Debbie has taught in State Schools, Catholic Schools and Independent Schools in Cairns and Brisbane. During her time in Cairns, Debbie was instrumental in forming the Cairns Chapter of KMEIA Qld and arranging in-service opportunities for teachers in the area, including the Kodaly Certificate Courses. She has also taught Early Childhood classes at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music.

Deb Brydon is a primary music specialist who returned to music teaching after working as a Senior Project Writer with Education Queensland’s Curriculum into the Classroom project, writing for Music and The Arts. In 2020 she earned national accreditation as a Highly Accomplished Teacher.

She has taught primary school music for over 25 years in both Charters Towers and Brisbane. Deb has been an accredited do-re-mi teacher and has also taught Classroom Music at Griffith University. She has been on the Kodály Qld committee for 19 years and was recently awarded Honorary Life Membership.

Deb has been the project co-ordinator for Kodály QLD’s DVD Projects including Musical Beginnings, Middle Years Music Education and Step Up With Music. She holds an Australian Kodály Certificate (Early Childhood) and is former President and Vice-President of Kodály Queensland.

She lives in Mugan-djin (Brisbane), on Yagara Country with her husband and 3 children.