Tom Rudolph

Keynote Speaker

Thomas Rudolph, Ed. D. (USA) currently is the Director of Music and middle school classroom and instrumental music instructor for the School District of Haverford Township, in Havertown, Pennsylvania. He is also an adjunct Assistant Professor at The University of the Arts.  Dr. Rudolph is one of the seminal people in music education and technology. He began his work as a clinician and workshop leader in the field in 1982.

He has authored eleven books including: Sibelius: A Comprehensive Guide to Sibelius Music Notation Software; Teaching Music With Technology, currently in its third printing; Recording in the Digital World; Finding Funds for Music Technology, and he was one of 4 co-authors of the TI:ME publication: Technology Strategies for Music Education. Rudolph is the co-author of the Alfred Music Tech Series which includes Playing Keyboard, Music Production and MIDI Sequencing, and Composing with Notation Software. He has published more than 30 articles on music technology that have appeared in the Music Educators Journal, Music Education Technology Magazine, The Instrumentalist, Jazz Educator Journal, and Downbeat magazine.

Dr. Rudolph has consulted with dozens of companies including Apple Computer, Korg, SoundTree, Roland, Bose Corporation and many others. In 1995, he was one of the founders of the Technology Institute for Music Educators (TI:ME) and is now serving as the President of this organization.

Since 1983, Rudolph has taught workshops in music technology at 17 institutions of higher learning and has trained over 3,500 music educators in his acclaimed workshops. He presented the music technology keynote address for the MENC Eastern Music Technology pre-conference in 1996, the Massachusetts State Conference in 1999, the MENC/TI:ME National Conference in 2002, the Missouri State Conference in 2003 and the Alabama State Conference in 2005.

Dr. Rudolph has been elected to Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers in 1996, 2005, and 2006.

James Morrison

Keynote Speaker

James Morrison is, by anybody’s standard, a virtuoso in the true sense of the word.

Besides the trumpet, this multi-instrumentalist also plays trombone, euphonium, flugelhorn, tuba, saxophones, and piano.

At the age of seven, he was given his first instrument, at nine he formed his first band and at thirteen he was playing professionally in nightclubs. His international career developed equally as fast. Just turned 16 James Morrison debuted in the USA with a breathtaking concert at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

Following this were performances at the big festivals in Europe – including Montreaux, Pori, North Sea, Nice and Bern - playing with many of the legends of jazz. Dizzy Gillespie, Cab Calloway, Woody Shaw, Red Rodney, George Benson, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Ray Brown and Wynton Marsalis to name a few. There were also gigs in the world’s most famous jazz clubs – the Blue Note and Village Vanguard in New York, the New Morning in Paris and Ronnie Scott’s in London.

Now 37, James Morrison’s career thus far has been diverse and perhaps not typical of most jazz musicians. He recorded “Jazz Meets the Symphony” with The London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lalo Schifrin, performed concerts at the Royal Albert hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden for Princess Anne. Royal command performances on two occasions for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and for US Presidents Bush & Clinton at Parliament House in Australia. In 1997, James was recognised for his service to the arts in Australia and awarded a medal of The Order of Australia.

Apart from touring the world for most of the year James is also head of Morrison Records, an independent label dedicated to the best of jazz. He also spends much time in education, doing master classes and workshops in many countries and running a jazz scholarship.

An avid user of the latest technologies James is very involved in furthering the presence of jazz and music education on the Internet and also uses computers extensively in his writing, recording and performances.

When not writing film scores, composing or being patron of several youth orchestras, James relaxes in some fairly unconventional ways for a musician - competing in triathlons, abseiling, flying his private plane or driving in a rally championship. His love of cars is well known, as he was host of the national TV program “Behind the Wheel”.

With interests so broad and a career so filled with highlights it seems that he has done just about everything anyone could want – not so. When asked, “What is there left to do?” His reply is typically exciting “This is just the warm up!”

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Marcel Pusey

Keynote Speaker

Marcel Pusey (UK) is a London based composer, bass player and educator. Marcel established Bassistry Music Productions in 1993. The company subsequently won the Shell Livewire Business Award for Outstanding Business in 1995. He co-designed O-Generator the innovative educational music software and established O-Music Ltd with Mark Welland.  

Marcel briefly studied Jazz at the Western Australian Conservatorium. He returned to London and combined studying Business and Finance at Greenwich University with touring with African band, Kariba. Marcel developed his production company in three areas, composition, education and multimedia. Marcel has composed and produced two well-received albums, Bassistry (Okapi Records, 1996), and ‘In Time’ (High Barn 2005), and continues to perform with the band. He has written music for BBC, ITV and Channel 4 television. He also composes for multimedia companies.  

Bassistry Education has become one of the UK’s leading workshop groups. Marcel devised dynamic, innovative educational music workshop programmes for schools exploring Latin, African and Contemporary Rhythm, Song and Dance. The workshops now operate throughout the UK, Australia and Hong Kong. O-Generator Educational Music software was designed over a 5 years. Marcel, and co creator Mark Welland have produced ‘Learning to Compose’ and ‘World Music’ which are distributed worldwide by Sibelius of whom Marcel works closely. Bassistry Music continues to work with and employ some of the UK’s finest musicians, working with artists as diverse as Amy Winehouse, Corrine Bailey Rae, Steve Martland, Incognito, Craig David, the Spice Girls and hip hop artist Plan B. As a working musician he is passionate about linking professional musicians back to the world of Music Education.

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Andy Hagerman (Japan)

Andy Hagerman (Digidesign Training Manager|Asia) has worn many hats during his professional life, which has resulted in a unique combination of traditional musical background and the latest in high-tech. 

Andy began his musical life at the early age of eight as an aspiring tubist and bassist. Excelling at his craft, he continued his studies at the prestigious Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. During his time there, he also discovered a passion for position and arranging, creating works for orchestra, chamber ensemble and even jazz and rock bands.  Also during that time, the music technology revolution emerged (with the release of MIDI in the early 1980s), and Andy was immediately hooked, immediately recognizing the usefulness of music technology in aiding the creative process. 

 After graduation, Andy took his dual interests forward, performing in numerous ensembles of all types, and even enjoying many years of live playing and arranging at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and Tokyo Disneyland. As a composer and producer, he has been very active in the creation of planetarium and science centre soundtracks, and his work can be heard worldwide, including at the renowned American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Andy has served as the Associate Course Director of Advanced Audio Workstations at Full Sail Real World Education in Winter Park, Florida, coordinating and guiding the curriculum of one of the largest digital audio workstation lab environments in the world. Andy remains active in composition and production with Singularity Arts, which serves the worldwide planetarium community. Currently, Andy is the Manager of Digidesign’s Training and Education program for the Asia Pacific region, supporting a network of training partner institutions, as well as participating in numerous educational events and seminars  He is a Certified Pro Tools Operator for both Music and Post Production, a Certified ICON Expert and Certified Pro Tools Instructor.   

Andy has authored the following books, published by Course Technology:

• Zen and the Art of Music Technology 
• Digital Music Making for Teens
• Working with Beats in Pro Tools: Skill Pack
• Pro Tools LE 7 Ignite! 

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David Evans

David Evans is the entrepreneur who founded In The Chair, creators of StarPlay. After leaving his role as IT Manager of the Adelaide Festival, Australia's premier arts event, in 2000, David started the digital content production company Digital Monkey, servicing the Australian Entertainment Industry and working closely with creative people on a plethora of applications and content for the digital and interactive screen. David identified the potential of StarPlay while working with Chris Matters from his then client, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. A partnership was formed to create the company, leveraging David’s global digital music and entertainment contacts and his extensive arts and information technology experience.

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James Humberstone

James’ background is in community music and music education. A composer from a young age, James completed composition Bachelors and Masters degrees at Exeter and Sydney universities with research topics on experimental composers Howard Skempton and David Ahern, original members of Cornelius Cardew’s community Scratch Orchestra in the late 60s and early 70s.

Today James helps design new music software and education initiatives for Sibelius as their Director of Application and Education and also works at MLC School in Sydney as one of three composers-in-residence in a composition-based music programme. He is a casual lecturer at the University of Western Sydney in music technology in education.

James is very active as a composer of both education and concert music for schools, colleges and ensembles all over Australia, much of which can be listened to and downloaded for free from his website www.composerhome.com. James is also currently a PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales, writing a case study on his primary childrens’ opera, Kiravanu, which will be premiered in September 2008.

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Peter Lee

Peter Lee graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1998. While completing a Bachelor of Music, Peter commenced work with his partners on Auralia, a software package specifically designed to assist music students with their aural skills. Initially only available in Australia, Auralia was soon widely exported to countries including the USA, UK, New Zealand, Sweden and Germany. Translations into languages such as German, Swedish, Chinese and Hungarian were completed.

A companion package for theory studies, Musition, was soon released. With both programs now at version 3, Auralia and Musition are widely regarded as the leading Ear Training and Theory Training programs, offering an unparalleled breadth and depth of content. In 2005 Auralia won the 'Australian Made' award at the Australian Music Association conference, an award given to the best Australian made product. Auralia was also shortlisted for a BETT UK award in 2006.

Peter continues to enhance Auralia and Musition and works with teachers and students from around the world exploring developments in music education and technology.

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Katie Wardrobe

Katie Wardrobe studied music education at the University of Melbourne where she completed a Bachelor of Music (Hons).  She worked in the music retail environment for a number of years, before moving into arts management.  Katie held the position of Community Program Manager at Orchestra Victoria where she implemented the mOVe! orchestral education program and project-managed around 75 performances and workshops annually throughout the state of Victoria.  She has worked as a freelance copyist, music arranger and transcriber for more than 15 years and is a member of the Music Arrangers Guild of Australia.  Katie has a special interest in choral (and particularly a cappella) music and is the Musical Director of the Yarra Ranges Children's Choir.  Katie currently works part time as Education and Support Specialist for Sibelius Australia and independently runs professional development courses and training as an approved Sibelius Training Partner.

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Peter Wardrobe

Peter first studied at Southern Cross University where he completed a Bachelor of Arts in Contemporary Music. He then studied at Melbourne University where he completed a Bachelor of Teaching degree and subsequently taught classroom music for 5 years. Peter then explored his love of music technology at the Alfred Brash SoundHouse at The Arts Centre in Melbourne as programme delivery coordinator. He has now brought his skills to Sibelius where he is a full time Education specialist, developing new ways of integrating Sibelius software into the Australian music classroom.

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Tim Wilson

Tim is an Australian based saxophonist, woodwind instrumentalist and composer, who has performed, toured, and recorded with a broad range of artists and ensembles including Ray Charles, Olivia Newton John, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Tasmania Symphony Orchestra, Michael Buble, Australian Show Band, Bobby Shew, Blowfish, Mike Nock, Bennetts Lane Big Band, Joe Chindamo, Tom Burlinson, Russell Morris, Rhonda Burchmore, Los Cabrones, and The Badloves.

Tim has performed throughout Australia with various jazz ensembles, including festival appearances at the Melbourne International Festival of Jazz, and the Wangaratta Jazz Festival, Electric Jazz Festival, Bacardi Festival and the Ultimate Drummers' Weekend. He has also performed in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Mauritius, Germany, and Canada.

In 2004, Tim was selected as a semi-finalist in the White Foundation World Saxophone Competition, which was held in London as part of the BBC Jazz Festival. Tim has released 4 CDs to date as a leader/co-leader. The 'Tim Wilson Trio' debut CD was nominated for an ARIA award in 2000, and the group was awarded a Contemporary Music Touring Grant to tour Australia in 2001. The trio released its 2nd cd 'Sorry, Pardon, What?' through Newmarket Music in 2004.

Tim's jazz/fusion/world music project 'Logic?' released its debut CD in 2001, and the group has since supported international acts such as The Yellowjackets and the Dave Weckl Band. The groups 2nd cd "The Waiting Game" was released in 2004. Tim is also featured as a sideman on many other jazz cds including Jamie Oehler's 'Blowfish', Nina Ferro's 'Recollections', Paul Williamson Sextet and the 'Glenn Cannon Band'. Tim is also active in the commercial music scene and has played on the 'Logie Awards' (backing artisits such as Danny Minogue, Guy Sebastian, Sophie Monk and Shannon Noll), John Foreman's 'Big Night In', 'Dancing with the Stars', 'It Takes Two', 'Good Morning Australia', 'Carols By Candlelight', 'Starstruck', 'XFactor', 'Hey, Hey, It's Saturday' and 'The Footy Show'.

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Susie Davies-Splitter

Susie is a music and movement educator, Orff practitioner, jazz musician, composer and past president of the Victorian Orff Schulwerk Association (VOSA). Together with her partner, Susie and Phil have presented and conducted professional development workshops for teachers throughout Australia, New Zealand, Europe, USA, Canada and Singapore, as well as the renowned Orff Institute in Salzburg, Austria. Susie and Phil have presented workshops and concerts at the International Society of Music Education conferences in Spain and Malaysia as well as recently presenting at the AOSA conference in San Jose 2007. They have 5 collections of their songs published by 'Themes and Variations' for the US and Canadian market which have proven very successful. Since 1997, Susie has been on the teaching team for Orff level courses for VOSA. Susie has trained pre-service students in music at the Australian Catholic University and Melbourne University and is currently studying for her masters in Music education at the same institution. She also presents a course 'Joy of Jammin', an Orff based improvisation course accredited through VOSA and ANCOS. Susie and Phil have developed the very popular 'Welcome to Music' Series of CD's and books, musicals and choral range which is enjoyed extensively by teachers, parents and children of all ages throughout Australia, New Zealand, UK and Asia. . Titles include; Rainbows, Trees & Tambourines, Bop in the Bath, Funkey Monkey, Razzamajazz, Boomerang Jam, The Power of You, Move It and Anything is Possible and their brand new album 'Sing , Jam & Jive' They regularly present shows, family music workshops, artist in schools programs, professional development for teachers, performances and their popular 'Musikeynote' presentations at conferences. Over the years, they have been commissioned to write songs for schools and organizations, develop music programs in preschools and schools and direct choral festivals and large scale musical events. Susie and Phil have also received numerous awards for their song writing including 2nd place winners in the 2007 Australian Songwriter's Association ballad section; 2nd place winners in the 2006 Unisong International songwriting contest; 2nd place winners in the 2006 QuickLaunch/FlightSafe Song Contest in the USA; 3rd place winners in the 2006 Australian Songwriter's Association Australia section; 2nd place winners in the 2005 Australian Songwriters Association (ASA) - Children's section;1st and 3rd place winners in the 2003 (ASA) 'Spirit of Australia' section Susie and Phil's vision is to spread the word to as many children and adults around the world that singing, moving, dancing, playing and creating music is good for the heart, for the soul, the body and the mind and that everyone can enjoy music!

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Josh Cowie

Joshua Cowie is the senior Sibelius trainer at the Arts Centre's Alfred Brash SoundHouse. He has working in music and multimedia education for fourteen years and currently lectures in music theory and composition at the Australian Catholic University. Joshua holds a degree in music composition and is one of the few Victorians to hold an Associate Diploma in Music Theory with the AMEB. Professionally, has used Sibelius to typeset music for publication both in Australia and the UK.

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Brad Merrick

Dr Brad Merrick is an experienced musician and music educator who is currently Director of Research in Learning at Barker College, Hornsby, NSW, a large Independent School which caters for students from years 3-12. He still teaches classroom music within the secondary school and is responsible for overseeing the integration of Music Technology into the curriculum. He currently responsible for two dedicated music computer laboratories, a keyboard laboratory and a full recording studio within the music department at Barker. He has presented many papers, workshops and PD programmes around Australia and overseas, including sessions for ASME, MusicaViva, ISME and the AIS NSW. He has a passion for the ongoing integration of ICT in music education and believes that ICT can have a significant influence upon the music education of students. He completed his PhD through examining the influence of motivation and self-regulation upon music composition within music technology learning environments. He has also written many articles into the classroom application of ICT in music education and popular music, most recently for Music in Action. As a senior examiner for the NSW HSC and a co-author of several music textbooks, including the widely used 'Music Let's Do It', he is experienced in developing classroom activities that engage students in their learning. He is currently a member and chair of the Music Technology sub-committee which is reporting to the Music Education Advisory Group for the Federal Government review into Music Education. Having lectured in Music Technology and Education at both Sydney University and the University of Western Sydney as well as teaching in the State, Catholic and Independent sectors of NSW for over 20 years, he is aware of the current needs of music teachers in the classroom. He was recently invited to present a session on the integration of ICT in music at the world Music In Schools and Teacher Education Commission in Rome as part of the ISME world conference.

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Yvonne Lang

Yvonne graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with a Bachelor of Music Education, majoring on classical guitar. Whilst completing her degree she conducted numerous primary, high school and community wind ensembles. She has toured as a trumpet player with groups such as the Australian Wind Orchestra and been an administrator of the Australian Winds Music Camps. More recently Yvonne has become interested in vocal music, conducting an adult a capella group. After completing her degree Yvonne combined her educational background with her business interests, creating a specialist print music store which supplied the education market throughout Australia. Action Music went on to become a major supplier, publisher and retailer in the print music industry. As co founder of Optimo Software, Yvonne has teamed up with Russell Hammond, a widely recognised expert in the field of music education. They have combined their skills and developed the software database program Optimoplus+. This unique software program provides streamlined systems for tracking and cataloging all print music, resources and instruments for universities and schools.

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