ONZA COMMITTEE

VICE PRESIDENT & MARIMBA FESTIVAL ADMINISTRATOR:  Cat Rowlings

PGDip Ed.(Arts), BEd, PGCert Digital & Collab. Learning, Level 3 Orff

After many years as a generalist primary classroom teacher, Cat is now a primary classroom music specialist at Konini School in beautiful West Auckland.  With a life-long passion for the arts, Cat is keenly interested in the integration of the Arts disciplines across the primary curriculum and most recently weaving the Orff Approach and Mantle of the Expert dramatic inquiry pedagogy through her classroom programme. As administrator for the Auckland marimba festival team, Cat is figuring out how to make administration tasks more creative!

Caroline Zeeman

Caro has been teaching music for the last 22 years mostly at schools, privately from home, and in the community. She is passionate about having an inclusive approach to music-making. She started the Ukes of Howick in 2009 and this grew to 80 members in 2015. After Caro moved to the country she started another community ukulele group in Pukekohe which is going very well and is lots of fun. Caroline uses the Orff Schulwerk method of teaching both at home and at school. “Imagination, Improvisation, Creativity and Fun” are Caro’s four keywords. She plays the guitar, ukulele, banjo, recorder, and flute. Caro has been writing music since the age of 14 and is an enthusiastic member of the semi-professional ukulele group North of Bombay and has recorded several albums, including resources for schools and music educators.

Celia Stewart
MEd, LTCL, TTC, IRMT

Celia lives in Christchurch where she is Music Director of the Christchurch School of Music and runs music classes for preschoolers and junior school children. She provides professional development in early childhood and primary music throughout Aoteroa and is co-director of a local children’s music festival Strum, Strike and Blow. Celia has been involved on the board of both MENZA and MEC and is South Island rep on the ONZA committee. She has completed four levels of Orff Schulwerk training, Level 1 of Kodaly training and is a member of the Orff Levels teaching team. In 2019 she was awarded an MNZM for services to music education. Celia plays flute in the Christchurch Concert Band, recorder in the Christchurch Recorder Ensemble and sings in local world music choir Acapellago.

Cherrie Leefe
BEd, DipTchg

Cherrie is a primary school music specialist teacher who also teaches violin and piano at several schools on the North Shore, Auckland. Cherrie has taken on the fundraising role for the ONZA committee this year. She is a keen advocate of using the Orff approach to teach music with creativity and passion. In her leisure time she paints landscapes, kayaks, walks, and sings or plays violin with a group of musicians. She also makes time for her three gorgeous grandchildren.

Debbie Graham

Debbie is a Primary trained teacher, with experience teaching Music, Dance, Drama and Singing to students in Northland.  Debbie is an experienced musical theatre performer, with her most memorable roles being Eponine in Les Miserables, Lucy in Jekyll and Hyde, Grizabella in Cats and Madame Giry in The Phantom of the Opera, all staged in Whangarei.  She is a founding member of Opera North, having sung under the tuition of Joan Kennaway QMC. Debbie has gained her level one and two certificates in Orff Schulwerk and is now the Northland regional ONZA Rep, presenting Orff workshops  in Whangarei to Northland teachers. This year Debbie began music mentoring with two schools in Whangarei, presenting Orff pedagogy with a Northland flavour.

Greta Bull-Crossan
BMus(Hons), MMus, GDipTeach(ECE)

Greta works as an Infant and Toddler Head Teacher in West Auckland. Previously, she was a performing singer-songwriter researching the links between vocal and songwriting teaching methods. While studying, she began working in ECE and found a passion for promoting musical play for our youngest ākonga (learners). She values child-led, play-based musical learning opportunities centred around singing, children’s improvised instrumental explorations and sound investigations, which align with the Orff Approach. One of her overarching focuses is promoting to ECE kaiako the inherently musical nature of infants, toddlers and young children. In 2022, she joined ONZA as the ECE coordinator and is excited to share the wonderful possibilities of music education in the early years and work alongside fellow ECE kaiako to empower their own capabilities to create meaningful musical learning opportunities for Aotearoa tamariki.

Hazel Roggen
BMus, LTCL, AIRMT, Suzuki 3, Orff 4, Kodaly Sec1

Hazel is an experienced studio teacher of traditional and Suzuki piano approaches and is the parent of professional musicians. She regularly tutors at Suzuki camps and workshops. Her traditional piano pedagogy training began in Switzerland, followed by Suzuki training in New Zealand and Australia. Study towards Master of Education is underway at the University of Waikato. Orff and Kodaly techniques are incorporated into her studio practice. Hazel believes music enhances every stage of life and her students include preschool beginners through to diploma level and adult students. Many former students are career musicians. Besides pets and garden, Hazel enjoys technology and has been webmaster for ONZA since 2010.

Heather Libeau-Dow 

Introduced to Orff-Schulwerk at university, Heather pursued this approach that resonated with her teaching philosophy as a primary music specialist.

The journey included Levels courses and conferences in Australia with the Victorian Orff Schulwerk Association, leading to completion of the inaugural Post Graduate Diploma C$ through the University of Waikato and Levels 3/4 courses facilitated by international Orff tutors Mary Helen-Solomon, Christoph Maubach and Barbara Haselbach. The highlight was attending the Orff Summer School in Salzburg July 2010 with 100 music teachers from around the world.

Heather’s current workload includes mentoring pre-service teachers on placement for University of Canterbury College of Education, as well as integrating Orff-Schulwerk creative practice for extension music classes, private singing and piano tuition. As a longstanding member of Music Education Canterbury, Heather is involved with planning events and professional development opportunities.

In her spare time, Heather enjoys catching up with three adult children and five grandchildren, hosting B&B accommodation, painting watercolours and researching family history.

Janine Wymer
BA (Educ), ATCL, DipEdit

Janine has been part of the ONZA committee for 5 years and is currently the librarian, minutes secretary and a keen member of the Auckland Marimba Festival team. She is a primary-trained music specialist at Mellons Bay School and splits her time between this and private piano tuition. Right now she is enjoying using storybooks as inspiration for Orff- based classroom lessons (check out the ONZA website for recent storybook additions to the library). In her spare time Janine is gradually ticking off some of New Zealand’s great cycle rides.

Jeremy Hantler

With a strong musical upbringing and a Jazz performance degree, Jeremy began his teaching pathway by sharing his love of Taonga Pūoro and Waiata Māori with primary school Kapahaka groups. Armed with a GradDip and ONZA levels 1-4, he has taught in over 20 schools and run a CRT music programme in 3. He has attended music education workshops in Austria, Italy, Sweden, and Estonia, as well as learning and presenting at workshops and wananga locally. Jeremy is passionate about equipping young people with the tools, awareness and inclination to express themselves musically.

Maria Kapa
BMus(Hons), PGDip Arts (Music), PGDip ECE, Dip Tchg, Dip Maori Visual Arts

Tēnā koutou katoa.

Ko Maria Te Awheteki Kapa ahau. Hi, my name is Maria Kapa. He uri ahau no Ngāti Rangitihi, Whakatohea, Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Rangiwewehi. I am a descendent of these iwi.

Maria majored in ancient Maori instruments and vocal performance opera in her BMus(Hons) degree. She has also completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Arts Music Major, a Post Graduate Diploma ECE (early childhood), a Diploma of teaching primary, a Diploma in Maori visual arts and ‘te reo’. Maria is a trained Kodaly and Orff practitioner. She currently teaches children from grade 1 through to grades 7 & 8. Maria is a seasoned performer in musical theatre, opera and other genres of music. Maria is available on the Orff committee to speak into bi-cultural spaces in the music classroom. Maria runs workshops on bi-cultural education in Aotearoa and has written an article for MENZA magazine on bi-cultural music education in the classroom.

Michelle Hall

Tairāwhiti Gisborne representative

Dr Millie Locke

Millie is an ONZA levels teacher and coordinates ONZA’s professional development programmes. Millie has been involved in music education in Aotearoa, New Zealand, in various educational and community-based settings (early childhood, primary and tertiary) for many years.  In the mid-nineties, Millie was awarded a fellowship to undertake AOSA Level 2 (1996) & Level 3 (1997) in Orff Schulwerk at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York. Since that time, she has been deeply involved in the ongoing process of adapting this approach to local music education settings. Millie currently teaches in the School of Music at Auckland University. Her current research interests include Orff-inspired music teacher formation, critically responsive pedagogy, and, composition and improvisation in primary school.

Renée Morin 
MMus ED, PG Dip Orff Institute,

Renée moved to New Zealand in 2005. She became involved with ONZA from its early stages and started teaching the levels courses in 2008.

Between 2005 and 2010, Barbara Haselbach from the Orff institute was a regular presenter in Aotearoa. Under Barbara’s influence, Renée decided to undertake a postgraduate degree in music and dance at the Orff Institute in Austria (2011). Renée is particularly interested in the integration of music and movement. She holds a Masters degree in music education from Canada and she lives in Wairoa, Northern Hawkes Bay where she teaches music part-time and also privately.

Robyn McQueen
PGDipEd, BA, DipTchg (Primary), CertTESOL Orff Level 3

Robyn teaches classroom music at Bayfield Primary School in central Auckland. She has served ONZA in many roles, most recently as a teacher mentor. In recent years she has enjoyed developing ideas that lead students to create and compose with a visual stimulus as a starting point. She is completing her MEd in 2021 with a focus on student agency and culturally responsive practice in primary music classrooms in Aotearoa. Along with general committee participation, Robyn edits a blog for ONZA members. Suggestions and contributions from members are welcome. onza.robyn@gmail.com

Robyn Trinick
MEd, LTCL(MusEd), AdvDipTchg

Robyn is a tertiary educator specialising in primary and early childhood music education and primary literacy education at the Faculty of Education, The University of Auckland. She began her career in education as a generalist primary teacher working mainly in South Auckland primary schools. Music was always an integral part of her classroom teaching, and she saw the benefits of music for all aspects of learning. These early experiences, alongside inspiration from Orff-Schulwerk conferences and workshops, has developed into a particular interest in music and language connections. More recently, she has used music to nurture her grandson, who has PURA syndrome, and has an increasing interest in the principles and practices of music therapy.

Rosemary Song
MEd, MMus/BMus-Collaborative Piano, Cert TESOL

Rosemary is a music specialist teacher at ACG Parnell College, teaching Years 1-8. She completed Orff certification both in South Korea (2012) and Australia (2015). She organises regular performance opportunities for students through Maestro Music Centre, an organisation she established with her husband who is a cellist. She has been a member of ONZA since 2017 and is currently in charge of marimba hire. When she is not working as a teacher and collaborative pianist, Rosemary likes to play the organ, enjoy yoga time, and play with her baby girl.

Suzanne Thom 

From a child, Suzanne has had a strong interest in music and had tuition in piano, guitar and vocals. She trained as a teacher 28 years ago and music has been strong in her own classroom practice as well as running choral and music groups within the school. She has also run programmes for preschoolers, and has supported her own children through their NCEA musical journeys. Suzanne naturally shares her joy for music with tamariki, kaiako, friends and family.

Her association with ONZA began when she attended a workshop in 2016. Captivated by this approach to teaching music, she went on to complete Orff Levels 1 and 2.

"I love how this way of working encourages children's own creativity" she says. Suzanne is keen to support generalist teachers to become confident teachers of music. Suzanne has been working at Eastern Hutt primary school as a specialist music teacher since 2019.