I’ve done lots of different things in life but music has been the silken thread running through it all. I come from a musical family, a mother who studied at the Sydney Con with Linley Evans and an Aunt who was the favourite student of great British interwar pianist, Solomon. Another Aunt was a noted actress and the first woman to read the news on the ABC. I studied piano and acted and sang all through school. After graduating I worked for Qantas in Head Office and, in my early 20’s – looking to keep up my music somehow – became a pioneer presenter at 2MBS in the old Alexandra Street Studio. It’s wonderful to be back behind the microphone now, in my mid-70s.
Over the years I’ve had a bit to do with music, being the Patron of the Sydney International Piano Competition at its inception, and Patron of the United Music Teachers’ Association. I have also served on the Boards of the Sydney Con, the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Theatre. In the 1980’s, during postgrad studies, I had several stints presenting the Today show on Channel 9 and also prepared and presented the first three Opera Simulcasts, live, at the invitation of the ABC. These included the Galas with Dame Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne and Luciano Pavarotti. I am a solid supporter of quite a few of our performing arts companies, particularly those for young people like Sydney Children’s Choirs, and have endowed an encouragement award for singers at SCEGGS Darlinghurst.
With the sale of my business (Hickson Associates Literary Agency), and a kind of retirement, I had the joy of singing for some years under Walter Sutcliffe with the Jacobean Singers and, together with my daughter, who sang and toured overseas with Gondwana Voices, participated in a couple of the Tallis Scholars Summer Schools at Sydney University.