Jan Thorp – Music Director (St George Players)

Jan Thorp

Jan Thorp MA Hons.(UWS)  B.Mus Ed.  (Usyd) Post Graduate conducting with Robert Rosen.

Jan has lectured in music education at University of Western Sydney, Instrumental Music Director at McDonald College of Performing Arts as well as Musical Director of many local high schools. She was Director of the Department of Education Metropolitan South Festival Orchestra and for many years was the musical director of  the NSW State Railway Concert Band. She is also a professional singer and sang in the Philharmonia Choir and Philharmonia Motet choir for fourteen years.

 Jan and her husband  David, set up the St. George Players over twenty years ago with the support of Kogarah Marist High where Jan was musical director, as an opening for ordinary children to learn the skills they need to become musicians. This led to research into early music education so that the very young were given the exposure and skills they needed to succeed in music and meant St George Players could set up a class to give them those skills. Research into the skills ordinary children need to succeed in music led to Jan gaining a MA Hons. and being asked to present her work at the International Society of Music Educators in Bologna.

As well as teaching music, Jan runs a show called The Moving Picture Show which puts on silent film shows with orchestra and sound effects using the original music that belonged to the State Theatre  Sydney and using historical data to show films exactly as they were produced for  Sydney audiences during the silent film  era.

Performance

The title of  my thesis for my MA (Hons) I did a few years ago was called Playing with Understanding and understanding  is really the crux of successful learning in music.

If a child comes from a family surrounded by all kinds of music and music making they will understand music as they understand basic language.

They become what teachers refer to as “talented”. What about the rest? They are not untalented they just have not had the opportunity to experience music in a creative way. Just think how early children start to make up their own stories. That is learning to use their language creatively.

Learning to use the language of music creatively is exactly what I am doing during this pandemic.

Click Here for fees and further information