Vanessa South (MA, BMus, DipEd) is a Primary School Music Specialist Teacher, who has also established and conducts a Community Choir.
While completing her performance degree at the NSW Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, (1985-88) she studied viola with Winifred Durie. She won the Thomas T. Roberts Fellowship to the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, USA, (1994-96), where she completed her Master’s Degree under Dr Donna Brink Fox, specialising in Early Childhood Music. She returned to Primary School teaching in Sydney, and moved to Newington College in 1997, where she established a successful transitional music program for students entering Kindergarten. Vanessa has lead a number of in-service courses through the AIS, SSO, and IPSHAA, sharing her experiences and knowledge of teaching music to young children and to primary-aged students. She combines different music teaching methodologies, including Orff and Kodály.
Vanessa is also a singer, and was appointed Alto Section Leader of the Sydney Philharmonia Symphony Chorus, performing under such prominent conductors as, Vladimir Ashkenazy, David Robertson, and Edo de Waart.
During this time she started investigating and interpreting music’s multi-dimensional interaction with the human brain. Through this research she realised the importance of the process of singing on neural functioning for people at every stage of life. She applied her enthusiasm for singing by starting a community choir, which rehearses weekly, developing it into a thriving resource in the Lower North Shore area. The group performs with much acclaim three times a year to a variety of audiences.
Vanessa's Music Classroom 