Strings from the Beginning: How to Grow Your String Program

Brisbane born Anne Sweeney has been a string educator in schools for 30 years since graduating from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in 1989. She moved to Sydney in 2001 to take up the position of K-12 Director of Strings at Queenwood School. Anne is now the K-12 Director of Strings at SCEGGS Darlinghurst in Sydney, a school with a wonderful tradition of commissioning new Australian works for performance. Anne is the co-conductor of The NSW Arts Unit String Sinfonia, a weekly ensemble which caters to Gifted and Talented music students from public schools across Sydney. As a string specialist, she is called upon to provide mentorship and professional development to string teachers in NSW and interstate. Anne has had a long and varied playing career over the past three decades in professional symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles as a classical musician, in professional music theatre productions in Sydney and around Australia and for classical and contemporary recordings over many years. Anne’s passion is engaging and exciting children of all ages about playing a stringed instrument. She believes that music is not just about minims and Mozart - it’s about perseverance, teamwork and the joy of making something beautiful together.