The Conductors

Susan Sukkar (Combined Recorders)

Susan Sukkar has had a long and varied career as a music educator working across early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. This includes an extensive association with the recorder having performed as a professional player with many ensembles in Australia and overseas. Susan holds Bachelor of Education and Master of Education degrees and has studied recorder at post graduate level at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Royal Conservatorium Den Haag, Holland.

 

Susan has been a passionate supporter of the recorder in schools for many years, directing ensembles for infants through to HSC students studying recorder for their performance majors. Susan was a Lecturer in Primary Music Education for several years at the University of Western Sydney, Nepean and recently a part-time lecturer in Music Education at the University of Technology, Sydney. Susan has also conducted teacher professional learning workshops for Musica Viva.

 

Susan is Regional Arts Coordinator for Sydney Region and artistic director of The Arts Unit’s Festival of Instrumental Music, which is held annually at the Sydney Opera House and involves several thousand instrumentalists from across NSW.

 

Alex Pringle (Combined Strings)

Alex was raised in the Riverina city of Albury. He graduated from the Australian Institute of Music with a Bachelor of Music in violin performance in 2001 and has since performed on violin and viola in a wide variety of international ensembles. He is in demand in Sydney as a session player and has toured extensively throughout Australia, supporting both international and local performers such as Barry White, Lionel Richie, Brian Wilson, and Michael Crawford.

 

As a conductor, Alex currently works with some of Sydney’s finest student ensembles including the NSW Public Schools Symphony Orchestra and String Sinfonia and the Sydney Youth Orchestra, as well as directing ensembles at Sydney Girls High School, Fort Street High School and Killara High School.

 

Further to this, he has been a member of the Symphony Services Australia Young Conductor’s Program for the past four years, giving him the opportunity to stand before most of the major Australian orchestras in both workshops and performance. In 2010 he hopes to travel abroad to complete a Masters in Conducting.