2024 WME KEY PERSONNEL

WENDY TODD

VOCAL ADJUDICATOR

Wendy holds both Bachelor and Masters Degrees in Music Education from the University of Melbourne and has pursued post graduate studies in choral conducting at the University of Oregon and UCLA. Additionally, Wendy is very interested in psychology and its application to teaching singing. She holds a graduate Diploma in Psychology from Monash University and is studying an advanced diploma. 

She was Director of Music at Loreto Mandeville Hall from 1990-1999 and since, has been teaching singing and conducting choirs at a number of Independent Schools and her own studio. Wendy teaches students of all ages and abilities from the beginner to the professional including VCE for which she has been an assessor for many years. She has had many students go on to professional music careers in many different genres, including, music theatre, classical, contemporary commercial music and teaching.

Wendy has worked extensively with vocal ensembles and choirs both as a conductor and a singer and is often invited to adjudicate vocal and choral eisteddfods. She is a Board member of the Australian National Association of Teachers of Singing Ltd (ANATS) and is currently the Victorian Vice-President. She has been a National Councilor of the Australian National Choral Association (ANCA) and is a past Victorian President.

She is delighted to be invited to adjudicate the Wimmera Eisteddfod.

Kevin Cameron is an Australian music educator and conductor.  He is Director of Performing Arts at Gippsland Grammar School.  Dr Cameron received his initial musical training at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and has studied music at the Royal College of Music, the University of Western Australia, Arizona State University, and finally the University of Newcastle, where he was the first recipient of the award of Doctor of Philosophy in Music.

Dr Cameron has studied conducting with some of the world’s finest teachers, including the Italian maestro Gian Luigi Gelmetti and the legendary conducting mentor Gustav Meier.  Dr Cameron has appeared with the Sydney, Tasmanian, West Australian, and Darwin Symphony Orchestras, the State Orchestra of Victoria, the Auckland Philharmonia, the National Orchestra of Ukraine, and many youth and community orchestras across Australia.  He was the inaugural winner of the ABC’s Young Conductor of the Year competition, and has subsequently held numerous professional conducting posts, including Assistant Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, ABC Conductor-in-Residence, and Music Director positions at Murdoch University, Newcastle University Choir, and the University of Newcastle Symphony Orchestra.  During his time in Newcastle, Dr Cameron served as the founding Director of the Upper Hunter Conservatorium of Music.

As an educator, Dr Cameron has held teaching posts in a variety of primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions.  As Director of Music at Pembroke School he conducted the Pembroke Symphony Orchestra, Pembroke Chamber Singers, and the Pembroke Girls’ Choir to national acclaim.  The Pembroke Symphony Orchestra was recognised as one of Australia’s finest school orchestras, presenting a six-concert season each year and promoting collaborations with composers, professional soloists, and special projects.  The Orchestra travelled to China in 2005 and to the United States in 2008, where it appeared at the Kennedy Centre with Kamahl and the Lincoln Centre with Lisa Moore, Daniel Sumegi, Caroline O’Connor, and the rock band Eskimo Joe.  The Pembroke Symphony Orchestra was named Orchestra Australia’s School Orchestra of the Year in 2007.  The ensemble programme at Geelong Grammar School was substantially rejuvenated under Dr Cameron’s direction, culminating in the Geelong Grammar School Chamber Orchestra’s tour of France and Belgium under Dr Cameron’s direction in April 2017.  At Gippsland Grammar, Dr Cameron is best known for leading critically-acclaimed productions of Matilda – the Musical and Chicago within the leading performing arts program in the Gippsland region.

Encouraging others to enjoy music has been a major focus of Dr Cameron’s work in the wider community.  When resident in Adelaide, he served as Music Director of Adelaide’s Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra (MetSO), the Unley Concert Band, the Kensington and Norwood Band, and was a frequent guest conductor of the Norwood Symphony Orchestra, the Burnside Symphony Orchestra, and Adelaide’s acclaimed Tutti Choir for disabled and disadvantaged people.  During his time in Geelong, Dr Cameron has worked extensively with local groups, including Orchestra Geelong, the Zelman Symphony Orchestra, the Geelong Concert Band, and the Geelong Symphony Orchestra.  Dr Cameron served a 5-year tenure as Music Director of the Melbourne Conservatorium Wind Symphony, where he developed a reputation for highly acclaimed performances of the very latest new works for the wind ensemble. The ensemble has travelled widely, visiting Launceston, Ballarat, Bendigo, Albury and Geelong in addition to hosting the annual Wind Symphony Day at the Melbourne Recital Centre.  The MCM Wind Symphony was recently named as a finalist in the Excellence in Music Education category of the 2018 Australian Music Centre Art Music Awards.  He has recently concluded his term as Music Director of the New Zealand Youth Symphonic Winds.

Dr Cameron works as a guest conductor and clinician throughout Australia, New Zealand and further afield internationally through his work with Maestros With a Mission, and he is in demand as an adjudicator at eisteddfodau and important music competitions and festivals in all Australian states and territories. He has been involved in the leadership of key banding organisations, as President of the South Australian Band Association, the Victorian Bands’ League and the National Band Council of Australia, 

Dr Cameron has received acknowledgement for his work in community music and music education.  In 1998, he was named the City of Newcastle’s Young Citizen of the Year in recognition of his contribution to the artistic and cultural life of the Hunter region.  In South Australia, he has been named the SA Band Association’s Music Director of the Year and has received Life Membership and the Award of Merit of the South Australian Band Association and the National Band Council’s 25 Year Service Medal in recognition of his distinguished contribution to community banding.  Dr Cameron was recognised by the City of Unley with the award of Citizen of the Year in 2014. 

Dr Cameron has maintained a passion for music and education and continues to assist the development of musicians through his involvement in professional and community music ensembles as a conductor, coach, adjudicator, advisor, artistic administrator, and teacher.