Dr Jean Callaghan

The other thing that made the end of the year busy was completing (with Shirlee Emmons and Lisa Popeil) a chapter on solo vocal pedagogy to be published in the new Oxford Handbook of Music Education. This is a terrific undertaking: a comprehensive handbook AND a website.

Then, after my holiday I began a chapter on ‘Singing Teaching as a Profession’, in which I discuss the attributes of an expert teacher and how these apply in the teaching of singing. This chapter will be published in a collection of work by Australian authors, with the provisional title of Perspectives on Teaching Singing: Australian Vocal Pedagogues Sing Their Stories. No sooner had I completed that than I embarked, with Dr Diane Hughes, on another chapter for that book, called ‘Advocating for Change: Interdisciplinary Voice Studies’. Di and I are keen to see interdisciplinary voice studies included in the National School Curriculum – not just singing as part of Music (and that’s vital!), but voice as an integral part of learning and growth in language and personal development, as part of the curriculum in Science, English, Drama, and Personal Health and Development.

It’s hard to believe that it’s March already. First there’s getting through the end of the year – helping singers with exams and end-of-year performances and my own studio concert. The 2009 studio concert was held at the Philharmonia Choirs large rehearsal room. It’s a great space, in a great arts location. We had a delightful concert, ranging from Bach to Sondheim, with a few operatic arias along the way, and finishing with a group performance of Tom Lehrer’s A Christmas Carol. Great fun, and rounded off with food and drink.

A couple of weeks off in January, then gradually getting back into teaching, with regular clients returning and a few new ones starting. By now the routine’s pretty much in place.

I spent Friday, 6 November and Saturday, 7 November at the Centre of Music in Country – Tamworth Regional Conservatorium of Music. On the Friday evening I adjudicated the Tamara Private Hospital Vocal Scholarship for 2010, and on Saturday I gave masterclasses all day. The singers were young up-and-comers, good to work with. It’s great to see such a lively regional music scene.