MAL HEWITT OAM - PRESIDENT
Mal is the founder and driving force behind Celebration Sing Out! and the TOPS orchestra, both of which he established in 1993.
Mal is highly regarded for his leadership and advocacy for music education as a right for all children. He was awarded an OAM in 2014 for his services to Music Education and the community.
He graduated from Sydney Teachers College and Conservatorium of Music in 1966 and holds a Diploma of Music. His career spanned forty years with the NSW Department of Education as a classroom music teacher, a Head Teacher, Deputy Principal, and Senior Education Officer in the Performing Arts Unit, where he was responsible for school state-wide music programs.
His focus was the development of band and orchestral programs in schools of great economic disadvantage.
On retiring in 2004, Mal teamed up with colleagues to establish the Collegiate of Specialist Music Educators (CSME) to lobby for a quality music education for every child, especially those suffering economic disadvantage.
Mal is the founder and driving force behind Celebration Sing Out! and the TOPS orchestra, both of which he established in 1993.
Mal is highly regarded for his leadership and advocacy for music education as a right for all children. He was awarded an OAM in 2014 for his services to Music Education and the community.
He graduated from Sydney Teachers College and Conservatorium of Music in 1966 and holds a Diploma of Music. His career spanned forty years with the NSW Department of Education as a classroom music teacher, a Head Teacher, Deputy Principal, and Senior Education Officer in the Performing Arts Unit, where he was responsible for school state-wide music programs.
His focus was the development of band and orchestral programs in schools of great economic disadvantage.
On retiring in 2004, Mal teamed up with colleagues to establish the Collegiate of Specialist Music Educators (CSME) to lobby for a quality music education for every child, especially those suffering economic disadvantage.
WARREN FISHER
Warren started his working life in the classroom and as a conductor of bands and choirs.
Warren’s equal love of performance took him away from the classroom for nearly a decade. On the stage he sang everything from Irish popular music with the Three Irish Tenors, and a singing snake in “Sid the Serpent Who Wanted to Sing” (OZ Opera Schools Tour) to God/Dwight in “Jerry Springer: The Opera” for the Sydney Opera House Trust. Warren has more than 36 operas to his credit with the Opera Australia Chorus, as well as a couple of dozen roles and covers.
With great joy he returned to the world of education where he took over the reins of the choir program at Knox Grammar School. Warren is now Director of Choirs and Tech Crew Co-ordinator at Knox. He strongly believes that everyone should sing. Not because it helps brain development, concentration skills, or literary and numeracy skills, but because everyone can do it. "When we sing, we access areas of our being that may otherwise be left dormant; and it just feels so good," he says.
LAWRENCE LAU
Lawrence started his music training with the Sydney Schools Symphony Orchestra in 1985, majoring in Timpani and Percussion with his debut at the Sydney Opera House in 1987. He has been actively involved in a number of ensembles in Sydney including Strathfield Symphony Orchestra, Kuring-Gai Philharmonic Orchestra, Northern Beaches Symphony Orchestra, East Sydney Chamber Orchestra, and has the current Principal Percussion seat with The Occasional Performing Sinfonia. He has extensive experience in IT and operations, and is currently a practicing lawyer in NSW and an officer of the NSW Supreme Court.
LOIS DONNELLY
Lois is a retired primary school teacher who taught for 30 years in Sydney’s northwest. She grew up in a musical family and has always loved music and singing in choirs. Lois remembers singing with a primary school choir in Sydney Town Hall for the first time in 1962 and enjoyed performing in a madrigal group and combined secondary choir at Sydney Town Hall while she was a student at St George Girls’ High.
Lois first became involved with the Celebration Sing Out! in 2011 and is now coordinating the primary school choirs.
SIMONE KATZ
JOHN HIBBARD