Forte School of Music Macarthur

Kath Swallow

Kath is the Director of Forte School of Music Macarthur and opened the music school in October of 2006. Kath has been teaching the flute in the local area since 1992 and has studied her under the tutelage of Naomi Halls (AMEB examiner) and Roma Dix. She is a Life Member of the Campbelltown Camden District Band and plays flute, piccolo, guitar, piano and bassoon.

Kath has toured through Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Germany with the Campbelltown Camden District Band and has performed with the band for 30 years. She has also performed in the orchestra of a number of productions for local Theatre groups including Picton, Camden and the Campbelltown.

Kath has extensive teaching experience and also teaches all of our Forte courses as well as teaching private lessons in Flute. Her main role is as Director, of Forte School of Music Macarthur, overseeing the mulitude of wonderful teachers and staff and looking after the needs of our talented students.

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Jeremy Austin

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Joanne Archer

Joanne is our principle Jungle Music teacher and is a qualified Early Childhood and Special Needs teacher. Joanne has extensive experience with young children from working in local preschools.Her classes are always lots of fun and very entertaining for all our little friends.

Joanne is also a talented pianist and has an amazing singing voice. Joanne is now also teaching keyboard to private students at Forte in the afternoons.

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Bethany Archer

 Bethany is one of our wonderful new Jungle Music teachers at Forte Macarthur. Bethany is studying a Bachelor of Primary teaching at Wollongong University and is in her 2nd year in 2012.

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Lara Barazi-Clingan

Hobart-born singer, Lara Barazi-Clingan, is an accomplished soprano who possesses a great passion for performance and entertainment, as well as teaching music full time.  Having studied music and drama since the age of 5, she has developed a flair for versatility.  Although her background training since 1995 has been in classical art song, musical theatre and opera, Lara also has a keen interest in many other genres, including blues, jazz, pop, rock and soul.

In 2008 Lara completed a Bachelor of Creative Arts at Macquarie University, following this with the completion of her Honours Thesis in 2010 with a focus on vocal performance and pedagogy.

Lara has performed in a variety of productions, including The Pied Piper, Oklahoma, Oliver, and The Beggar’s Opera.  As well as this, she has also recorded vocal excerpts for Sydney Dance Company’s 1998 production of Salome, and the soundtrack for the 2004 short film We Have Decided Not To Die, which won many awards, including the Audience Prize at the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand short film festival in France, and the South By Southwest BAFTA Award.

Lara continues to perform and teach within the Sydney Metropolitan area, and lives in Auburn with her husband Chris, and their two babies - Sassy the dog and Quincy the rabbit!

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James Bateman

James is one of our three guitar teachers. James teaches on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. James has been playing guitar for 15 years and teaching guitar for 6 years.

He has experience teaching both privately and in a school environment. James is competent in acoustic and electric guitar and his favourite genre is Jazz and Blues. James currently owns 21 guitars.

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Karen Chrupalo

Karen is an experienced keyboard teacher and teaches a number of our young keyboard classes. Karen has had a lot of experience with young children, having 6 of her own, and has spent the last 20 years working in a local High School. Karen is currently the Office Manager of Elderslie Public School.

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Ani Galoyan

Ani is one of our newest keyboard teachers for 2012. Ani has already covered some of our keyboard lessons in 2011 and loves working here with all of our wonderful students.

Ani is currently studying a Bachelor of Medical Science at Sydney University.

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Meri Galoyan

Meri started into the discovery of music at the young age of 5 and continued 7 years of intense musical training to complete the whole course at a young age.

Meri has performed in schools, at city concerts and music is now a passion and a main part of her life. Should would love to instill this same passion in all of the children she teaches.

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Elyse Glynn

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Sara Glynn

Sara is one of our violin teachers. Sara has completed an Arts degree at UNSW, majoring in music. Sara has been playing the violin since she was little and is an extremely accomplished player performing with many different  orchestras and ensembles. Sara will be teaching at Forte on Saturday mornings this year.

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Keren Jamieson

Keren has recently joined our Forte team and will be teaching Jungle music and Music is Fun.

Keren holds a certificate of Education from Launceston College and a Bachelor of Performing Arts in Music from the University of Tasmania.

Keren is a mum of three children and is experienced teaching children music as she plays French horn, piano and violin.

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Ngaire Joseph

Ngaire was born in Papua New Guinea and has had 6 years experience as a vocal teacher for students aged 3 years to adult. She has also coached members of well-known Australian bands including Blue King Brown, Old Man River, Gin Wigmore and Edooardo Santoni.

Ngaire has spent 7 years touring with her solo project NGAIRE as well as Missy Higgins, Paul Mac, Monsieur Camembert, Blue King Brown, Marcia Hines, John Butler Trio and Michael Franti, both in Australia and overseas.

Ngaire has run vocal workshops in Queensland, Vanuatu and New Caledonia and has been hired to coach a number of Australian idol contestants.

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Taylor King

Taylor is a very talented guitar teacher.Taylor is a young, up and coming recording artist and is not only regularly billed at the Roxbury and Newton Hotels, he has also already recorded his own albums and has had airplay on Triple J. Taylor is a very talented guitarist and loves teaching here at Forte on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons.

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Jeremy Lawless

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Jessica Lawless

Jessica is one our keyboard teachers. Jessica is a very talented musician who is quite versatile. She not only plays piano and violin, but also dabbles in guitar and bassoon as well.

Jessica is a member of the Fisher's Ghost Youth Orchestra and will be teaching private piano students this year at Forte.

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Hwana Lee

Hwana is a pianist that started performing at the age of 5 in Seoul, Korea. Hwana holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano performance, Accompanying, Chamber music and Piano Pedagogy in 2009, from George Mason University in the USA.

Hwana has over 13 years teaching experience working at Music Lesson Central Academy in the USA. As an experienced solo performer Hwana has performed in, and won many competitions in the States and was awarded a scholarship in 2007.

Hwana understands that each student has their own needs and works towards helping each individual achieve their goals and dreams.

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Hannalé Lombard

 Hannalé  is teaching keyboard and brass at Forte Macarthur. Hannalé has completed a Bachelor of Music Honours degree at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa in 2002, majoring in French Horn with piano as her second instrument.

Hannalé has had experience teaching brass, piano, recorder and class music. She has also conducted various orchestras including the Durbanville High School Band, Rhenish Primary School Orchestra and the Franschhoek Boy's Brigade band. Hannale is currently Musical Director of Cobbitty shool band and is the Music teacher at Marion.

Hannalé has performed with the Stellenbosch Horn Quartet, the Cape Town Concert Brass Band, the Cape Town Philharmonica Orchestra and the Hugo Lambrechts Youth Orchestra. Since moving to Australia at the beginning of the year, Hannalé has become a member of the Campbelltown Camden District Band.

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Susie Macdonald

Susie is one of our Forte mums and she has joined our team of Jungle Music and ‘Music Is Fun’ teachers. Susie is a qualified Early Childhood teacher and has a wealth of experience in this field. Susie is heaps of fun and is enjoying teaching some of our little friends every Friday morning.

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Rhiannon McWilliam

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Ranjani Peiris

Miss Ranjani is our highly qualified private keyboard/piano teacher. Ranjani holds a  Piano Teacher’s Diploma (L.R.S.M.) from the Royal Schools of Music London and a Piano Teacher’s Diploma (L.T.C.L.) from the Trinity College of Music London. Ranjani has also held the position of Examiner of Music (Piano and Theory) for the Institute of Western Music and Speech, Sri Lanka.

Ranjani teaches most of our private piano students on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and we are very fortunate to have such a qualified keyboard teacher at Forte Macarthur. Ranjani teaches from our Forte courses as well as from the AMEB exam syllabus.

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Sandra Ryan

Sandra specializes in clarinet and saxophone. Sandra can play many instruments including an Eb and a Bb clarinet and Alto clarinet, and also plays Soprano, Alto and Tenor saxophone. Sandra has an extensive musical background and has played with various local groups.

When Sandra isn’t teaching music she works as a Veterinarian and lectures on Veterinary Nursing at TAFE. She also manages to find time to be a mum to her four gorgeous children.

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BJ Schell

BJ is one of our most energetic keyboard teachers. BJ has spent 6 years at the Conservatorium High School and is now studying a Business degree at Swinburne University as well as studying for his Pilots licence.

BJ is both an accomplished piano and saxophone player and  is a regular face seen at Forte Macarthur, teaching both  keyboard classes and saxophone students.

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Lisa Simpson

Lisa is one of our wonderful Jungle music teachers. Lisa is a qualified Radiographer but is also a talented musician playing piano, guitar, and having a beautiful singing voice. Lisa can be found having fun and teaching our young friends on Monday mornings.

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Laura Swallow

Laura is multi-talented teaching Jungle Music, Music is Fun, Flute, Clarinet and keyboard as well as being a member of our Student Support team. Laura is an accomplished Flautist having completed her Eighth grade AMEB flute exam with Honors. Laura highly qualified with a  Bachelor of  Music and a Bachelor of Education at UNSW. Laura is now studying for her Masters in Music Therapy at UWS.

Laura has spent 5 years in the State Schools Symphonic Wind Ensemble and has also spent a year as the Lead Flautist in the UNSW Orchestra. Laura has also had experience playing in the Handbell Ensemble at UNSW and has studied under the tutelage of flautist Prue Page.

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