ARIA Awards Shine a Spotlight on Our Music Educators
Alberts extends its congratulations to Sue Lowry, winner of the 2023 Telstra ARIA Music Teacher of the Year Award.
The Award recognises Sue’s incredible decade of service at Queensland’s Southport Special School, a state school with 225 students who have intellectual and physical disabilities, complex health needs and behavioural challenges. Sue has designed and adjusted her music program to meet the unique needs, skills and abilities of each individual student, ensuring they are able to enjoy and grow from the benefits of music education.
In its seventh year, the Telstra ARIA Music Teacher of the Year Award shines a light on exceptional music teachers from around Australia, and celebrates the influence they have on setting up our kids for a brighter future. The publicly-voted award saw Sue nominated alongside Jess Copeman of Ainslie School, Ngunnawal Country, Canberra, ACT; Peter Earl of The Music Guy, Dharug and Gundungurra Country, The Blue Mountains, NSW; and Hank Lewerissa of Upper Coomera State College, Yugambeh Country, Gold Coast, QLD.
The 2023 Telstra ARIA Music Teacher Award nominees, from left: Peter Earl, Sue Lowry, Jess Copeman, and Hank Lewerissa (image courtesy of The Song Room).
ARIA CEO, Annabelle Herd, said every one of the nominees has had an extraordinary impact on their students and their communities, just like so many other music educators around Australia: “The four nominees for 2023 are not only amazing music teachers, but exemplary members of society,” Annabelle said. “We are absolutely honoured to celebrate their stories and illustrate the power of enthusiastic and dedicated music teachers, who set students on a path to love and respect music with a life-long passion, and sometimes, a music career that gives joy and impacts lives around the world.”
Teaching grades K-12, winner Sue has grown her music program to include individual tuition opportunities, a steel drum band, a ukulele group, vocal groups, a singing choir, and three African drum ensembles. In alignment with our own findings on the benefits of music education, outlined in our report Music Education: A Sound Investment, Sue’s program has been shown to improve engagement, self-esteem, confidence, sense of belonging and social-connectedness. Importantly, it also shatters the glass ceiling of expectations experienced by many people living with disabilities.
Sue received a standing ovation from the crowd of performers, presenters and music industry heavyweights at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion on Gadigal Land on 17 November. Accepting her ARIA through thunderous applause, Sue said she often witnessed the power of music in her classroom and that sometimes the “first intelligible words” a child spoke were song lyrics.
Sue Lowry poses with her Telstra ARIA Music Teacher Award, presented in partnership with The Song Room (image courtesy of Alex Drewniak/The Song Room).
“Music education offers an inclusive and accessible learning environment for young people of all abilities. Sue’s exceptional music program brings this to life beautifully. Congratulations!” said Alice Gerlach, CEO of The Song Room – which proudly presents the award in partnership with Telstra.
Alice noted that music education provides more than just the opportunity to participate in music at school: “It helps young people to grow their confidence, connect with their peers, develop as life-long learners, and even succeed in other subject areas. I am so inspired by these exceptional music teachers.”
Alberts | The Tony Foundation are proud supporters of The Song Room, an Arts Learning organisation who work in partnership with schools to provide impactful music and arts learning programs to students and specialist art and music training to classroom teachers.
Despite mounting evidence on the transformational change that music can have on children’s education outcomes, Arts learning continuing to be undervalued in Australia, with the Song Room reporting that 3 in 4 children are currently missing out on specialist music teachers in school. Like with our Music Education: Right from the Start initiative, The Song Room are working towards closing the education equity gap across Australia, giving all children the opportunity to reach their potential and break the cycle of disadvantage.
The transformative power of music is undeniable, and it holds the potential to change lives. That is why we continue to advocate that every primary school child in Australia needs, and has a right to, a quality, sequential, and ongoing music education.
