I live and breathe music

  • … a range of instruments including bassoon, saxophone, clarinet, flute and keyboard.

  • … in several bands in Melbourne including classic rock covers band Platform 5, pop anarchists Raiders of the Lost Property, classical wind quintet Five Winds, and Cuban-inspired Salsa outfit Taxi Colectivo.

  • … bespoke pieces for choirs and organisations. While I have a soft spot for songs of the 80s and 90s, I love a challenge and am open to all genres. By commission - or choose from my back catalogue of arrangements here.

  • I’ve been conducting choirs and ensembles for years.

    I currently lead community choir SingNow in North Melbourne - a non-auditioned and relaxed collective for all ages and abilities.

    I have been arranging and conducting for Pitchface - a choir for women and non-binary folk in the inner west - since 2018.

    I conduct Habeas Chorus - a well-being choir for Melbourne’s legal community.

    I was engaged to lead and teach the Maribyrnong Reconciliation Choir in 2025 to celebrate Reconciliation Week.

    I also conduct high school students in choirs and concert bands.

  • … in the classroom, having been a high school music teacher for almost 30 years.

    … private clients in woodwind instruments.

    … and run private workshops in choral arranging.

  • A bassoon is perhaps an unusual instrument for a 10-year-old to fixate on, but from the moment I saw and heard one being played while at a concert with my Grandma as a kid, I was hooked.

    Sure, it was enormous and well beyond the financial reach of my parents, but I was adamant it was the instrument for me. I’d been learning the piano since the age of five and loved singing at school… but now the bassoon had my heart.

    For a time, the closest I could get to one was playing a hand-me-down clarinet (so not very close at all, really) but that all changed when I was 15, after a chance meeting between my mum and a local musical legend where I grew up in Kent, England.

    Jeffery Vaughan Martin was a much-respected Music Director who was hugely influential throughout his long career. And as luck would have it, he was also a bassoonist. When he heard it was my dream to play one, he offered to lend me a bassoon and teach me free of charge. His generosity and kindness changed my life and set me on a path to study music at university.

    There is never a moment when there’s not a tune going around in my head.

    Music is my happy place – it’s the reason I get out of bed in the morning.

    In the moments when I’m singing or playing, my mind is quiet and calm as I become completely absorbed.

    And while singing or playing solo brings me joy, connecting with others through music and bathing in delicious harmonies is like nothing else in the world.

“Rich in texture, rhythmically engaging, and full of lush, complex harmony, Susie’s music is always a pleasure to sing and deeply satisfying to perform.”
— Sarah Benson, Chorister