Brisbane born Anne Sweeney has been a string educator and conductor for 36 years since graduating from the Queensland Conservatorium in 1989. Anne moved from Brisbane to Sydney in 2001 to take up the position of K-12 Director of Strings at Queenwood School. She currently holds the position as 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, Anne has a wealth of experience working with string players from K-12 individually, in small groups and in large ensembles from beginner to Year 12 HSC level. She is called upon as an Eisteddfod and Music Festival adjudicator regularly and provides mentorship and professional development to string teachers in NSW, interstate and overseas. Anne is also an accredited Suzuki Violin and Viola teacher, and she enjoys working with children from the age of 3 incorporating this pedagogical method. Anne has had a long and varied playing career over the past three decades as a classical musician in professional symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles, in professional music theatre productions both in Sydney and around Australia and for classical and contemporary recordings over many years. Anne’s passion is engaging and exciting students about playing a stringed instrument and she is a strong advocate for music education for every child in Australia no matter where they live. Anne believes that music is not just about minims and Mozart, it is about perseverance, teamwork and the joy of making something beautiful together. An instrumental teacher has an incredibly special role in a child’s life. It is often the only one-on-one relationship that a student has with an adult outside of their immediate family from Primary School through to Year 12. Anne feels privileged to be alongside her students on their musical journey, providing pastoral care along the way. She has been married to professional trumpeter Simon Sweeney for 23 years and they have two adult children.
