Maleny Arts Council Inc Committee
Peter Lavery - President
Peter Lavery is an Emeritus Professor at QUT where he worked for over 30 years before retiring to Maleny in 2011. Academic leadership roles included Head of both the Drama Department and subsequently the Academy of the Arts. In his final position as Director of QUT Precincts he was responsible for the development and programming of the cultural assets of the University including Art Galleries, Theatres, Old Government House, and the high-spec digital media spaces in the Creative Industries Precinct and The Cube. His background in theatre has involved acting, directing and producing. His professional theatre career includes work with the Queensland Theatre Company, TN, La Boite, The College Players and Sam Wanamaker's Globe Theatre (London). His work in arts education has involved leadership at state and national levels.
Kerry Milner - Secretary
Kerry has a long and varied history in little theatre, from backstage to production, most particularly with Brisbane Arts Theatre but also with other companies in Brisbane and Hobart. Much of her theatre experience involved singing, her main love, and during her years in Hobart she was able to undertake formal voice training. On returning to Brisbane she spent ten years with the highly respected Brisbane Chorale and has put her continuing voice training to good use since retiring to the Maleny area in 2014. She is currently a member of the Tapestry “a cappella” choir, among others. Kerry has achieved a number of commercial qualifications during her working life and has amassed considerable experience in secretarial and project management skills.
John Marsden - Treasurer
Judith Ross-Smith
Judith Ross-Smith OAM has been involved with the theatre most of her life, having studied as a child with her great aunt, Brisbane’s doyen of theatre, Barbara Sisley. She has taught drama in schools and privately in Melbourne and Armidale, played major classical roles in amateur theatre, and acted with a professional group New England Theatre Centre in Armidale. For 20 years of her business life she was a bookseller, originally with her own educational and general bookshop, and then managed the University Bookshop at UNE for 11 years, before retirement. She has worked as a journalist, and wrote a regular travel column for The Armidale Express for many years. Judith helped organise the Armidale Arts Festival, under the auspices of the Armidale Arts Council, for the ten years of its life and wrote a book on 100 years of theatre in Armidale. She includes the international service club Zonta as one of her major hobbies and served for six years on its international PR committee.
Judith Ross-Smith OAM has been involved with the theatre most of her life, having studied as a child with her great aunt, Brisbane’s doyen of theatre, Barbara Sisley. She has taught drama in schools and privately in Melbourne and Armidale, played major classical roles in amateur theatre, and acted with a professional group New England Theatre Centre in Armidale. For 20 years of her business life she was a bookseller, originally with her own educational and general bookshop, and then managed the University Bookshop at UNE for 11 years, before retirement. She has worked as a journalist, and wrote a regular travel column for The Armidale Express for many years. Judith helped organise the Armidale Arts Festival, under the auspices of the Armidale Arts Council, for the ten years of its life and wrote a book on 100 years of theatre in Armidale. She includes the international service club Zonta as one of her major hobbies and served for six years on its international PR committee.
Jane Todd
Jane is a freelance copy-editor. She co-ordinates a course, "Editing for the Communications Professional" at the University of the Sunshine Coast as well as running a busy freelance business, copy-editing in a wide range of genres.
After the completion of an Arts Degree at the University of Hull, UK, Jane travelled extensively before settling in Queensland in 1989. She has sung in choirs throughout her life and currently sings with Tapestry, an "a cappella" group based in Maleny.
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Margaret Taylor
Margaret began her career as a principal understudy for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. She was with the company for two years travelling extensively throughout the UK and the USA. She then became a member of the English National Opera Company, at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane where she remained for five years as a principal soprano, singing 25 major roles in London and the provinces. Since leaving the ENO, she has made a feature film of the Barber of Seville singing the role of Rosina, made several recordings with the London Concert Artists with whom she was the leading soprano. She has performed in many international cities around the world including, Johannesburg, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Brisbane. She now enjoys life as Director of The Maleny Singers, and the Maleny Performing Arts Orchestra, whom she also conducts. |
