Paul has been involved in the music education industry in Australia for over 20 years. He is a seasoned “Orff-er” having studied Orff-Schulwerk with one of the ANCOS founders, Keith Smith at the BCAE (now QUT) in the 1980’s, he has also completed all the ANCOS accredited Orff levels courses,

Paul is a founding director and a member of the education faculty of Forte School of Music (established 1994), Australia’s only full format franchised music education organisation, which has over 4,000 students in Australia and exports Australian music education to the United Kingdom and New Zealand. He is also the co-writer of the easiLEARN® series of theory and piano texts which are published by the music education leader, Alfred Publishing. Paul is a regular clinician for Alfred Publishing. His work has also been published by the AMEB.

Since 2004, in his spare time, Paul returned to his first love, playing French Horn. He plays principal horn the St Lucia Orchestra as well as playing in Queensland Wind & Brass. He is also ancillary player for the Brisbane Philharmonic Orchestra and Qld Wind Orchestra. Paul is very committed to community music making and through his involvement in community orchestras and bands he hopes to introduce more people into the community music arena.

Community Music Making – It’s Our Future!

Session Abstract

Everywhere you turn around you hear about the expanding budget for sport, where’s our expanding budget for the Arts and in particular, Music?

Community Music is a vital and dynamic force that provides opportunities for participation and education in a wide range of music and musical experiences.

Community Music activities are based on the premise that everyone has the right and ability to make and create music. Accordingly, such programs can act as a counterbalance and/or complement to formal music institutions and commercial music concerns.

In addition to involving participants in the enjoyment of active music-making and creativity, Community Music provides opportunities to construct personal and communal expressions of artistic, social, political, and cultural concerns. Also Community Music encourages and empowers participants to become agents for extending and developing music in the community

In the pursuit of musical excellence and innovation, Community Music activities also contribute to the development of economic regeneration, create job opportunities in the cultural sectors, and enhance the quality of life for communities. In all these ways Community Music activities can complement, interface with, and extend formal music education structures.

Find out how you can help expand that elusive Arts funding budget though making Community Music, Our Future!