Flow 2027 Presenters – Flow Conference 2027

Werner Beidinger

Werner was born in 1963 and began by studying Music Education with majors in Piano and Elemental Music Pedagogy. After completing his studies at the Orff-Institute in Salzburg, he was offered a teaching position there and taught at the Institute for seven more years. Since 1994, Werner has been a professor for Elemental Music Pedagogy (EMP) at the University of Potsdam, Germany. He is the head of the study program for primary school music teachers and initiated the performance group “BodyLab.” Since 2003 he has been the President of the German Orff Schulwerk Association, and for twenty years was the publisher of the magazine “Musikpraxis” at the Fidula Publishing House (2003-2023). Werner publishes on various questions concerning musical and movement education and is a much sought after lecturer in courses, symposia and conferences in Europe, Australia, Asia and the United States.

Peta Harper

Peta Harper is an experienced Orff-Schulwerk educator from Australia who frequently presents both nationally and internationally, and has taught students from Kindergarten to Tertiary level. A graduate of the ‘Special Course’ at the Orff Institute, Salzburg, Peta has been a presenter of the ANCOS Levels courses and has written education material for a range of professional organisations and institutions. She is currently President of ANCOS and Vice President of the Orff-Schulwerk Association of NSW, and is studying a Masters in Elemental Music and Movement Education through the Mozarteum, Salzburg. Peta’s understanding and passion for the Orff-Schulwerk approach enable her to find creative ways to gain access to and unlock challenging music and movement experiences for students using a minimum of resources.

Crista Coogan

Christa has 30 years of Orff-Schulwerk teaching experience with a focus on movement and dance in elementary and middle schools, and creating dance/music performances in schools, refugee shelters and theatres in her home base of Munich and throughout Germany. Christa taught for 10 years at the Orff Institute in the 1990’s and still teaches there for the Special Course. Former Lecturer in Elemental Music Pedagogy at Munich’s University of Music and Theater. Christa offers seminars and workshops internationally as an OSW movement and dance specialist. Vice president of the International Orff Schulwerk Forum Salzburg (IOSFS); team member of the online International Mentorship Programme in OSW Pedagogy; Levels training: San Francisco/AOSA, Madrid, China, Singapore. BFA degree/Dance, The Juilliard School, NYC; MA/Dance Studies & Musicology, University of Salzburg.

Dr Robyn Staveley

Dr Robyn Staveley is a distinguished music educator and researcher whose work sits at the cutting edge of cognitive neuroscience, embodiment, and music pedagogy. With extensive experience teaching across both school and university sectors, Robyn specializes in translating complex neurological research into practical, transformative classroom strategies.

A leading voice in the field, Robyn has delivered workshops and seminars nationally and internationally. Her expertise is highly sought after on the global stage; she recently served as a keynote presenter for the 2024 International Orff-Schulwerk Forum (IOSFS) in Olomouc, Czech Republic, and was also a keynote at the 2025 Australian Pinnacle conference.

Her contributions to the profession have been widely recognized. Robyn is the recipient of the 2018 ANCOS Award of Honour, the 2025 Professional Teachers Council Distinguished Service Award, and two Outstanding Achievement Awards for Teaching and Learning from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).

Paul Myatt

Paul Myatt is a passionate music teacher, author, composer, and workshop presenter. Paul, along with colleague Gillian Erskine, co-founded the Forte Music School Network (1994), which now exports Australian-designed music education to the UK, USA, Canada, Europe and NZ. In 2019, Paul and Gillian began developing Piano Teaching Success, which supports piano teachers in Australia and internationally in developing skills in embodied teaching strategies, such as Whole Body Learning, which is based on the philosophies of Orff-Schulwerk, Dalcroze, and Kodály, and is inspired by neuroscience. Paul has compositions and arrangements in the AMEB and AGMS syllabi, and a range of school textbooks for music theory called FUNdamentals, first published in 1998. Paul is a regular presenter at MTNA, NCKP and other international music education conferences and also teaches primary Creative Arts at Macquarie University. He holds a Master's in Education and one in Research and is working towards his PhD.

Katie Salisbury

Katie is a passionate music educator from Sydney, Australia. She is a recent graduate of The Special Course at the Orff Institute, and has spent the last six months back in her own classroom, putting her learning into action. Katie has a broad range of teaching experience, from early learning through to high school, and more recently in tertiary education. She has taught Orff Levels with the Orff Schulwerk Association of NSW, of which she has been an active member for many years. Previously, she has served on the Australian National Council of Orff Schulwerk (ANCOS), and the Tasmanian Orff Schulwerk Association. Katie is deeply committed to fostering creativity in the classroom, and is passionate about sharing her experience with other educators.

Ian Williams

Ian has over 30 years’ teaching experience as a Primary School and Early Childhood teacher, and has taught in various Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory and in Queensland. A Primary Music Specialist with Queensland Education for over twenty years, Ian’s songs are sung in schools and homes all over Australia and internationally. In the early 2000’s he occasionally took time off teaching to tour a one-man show around schools in the top end of Queensland and the NT.

Ian has released many albums of songs for children and had songs published by the ABC, the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, Bushfire Press, and NSW Dept of Education, as well as the Qld Orff-Schulwerk Association and Kodály Qld amongst others.

Now retired from teaching, Ian still loves songwriting, especially for school children, which is what he does best. There is a wide selection of Ian’s songs on his YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/@IanRossWilliamsmusic

Kristie Fudge

Kristie brings over 20 years of classroom music experience and currently serves as a Music Education Coach for the South Australian Department for Education’s Music Education Strategy—mentoring hundreds of preschool and primary educators across the state.

With all four Australian Orff-Schulwerk Levels completed, Dalcroze approach expertise, and her current role as President of the Orff Schulwerk Association of South Australia (OSASA), Kristie brings a wealth of practical wisdom, movement, and pedagogy to our presenter lineup.

Session Information

'Yet!'

Resilience and a growth mindset are essential skills for students as they learn to navigate challenges, setbacks, and new experiences. In this session, we’ll explore these ideas through the joyful lens of music and movement.
Together, we’ll sing about how our brains grow, celebrate the power of making mistakes, and use rhythm and physical expression to feel the contrast between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. Through playful musical activities, we will discover practical ways to help our students understand that effort strengthens their abilities, challenges are opportunities, and every misstep is a chance to learn something new.

Dr Paul Jerome Grosse

Dr Grosse attained his doctorate on researching about the efficacy of Orff -Schulwerk and Inclusive Education. He holds the Bachelor of Music Teaching from the University of Western Australia on an Australian scholarship, received his Master of Arts, researching in Giuseppe Verdi’s operas. He is an adjunct lecturer at the above institution as well as the Singapore University of Social Sciences. Having completed his levels training in San Francisco and the Special Course in Salzburg, he works extensively with students from both mainstream and special needs schools. Paul has given extensive workshops on the Orff-Schulwerk philosophy in South- East Asia. He is presently overseeing the Orff-Schulwerk Association of Singapore.

Session Information

Rondo on a Lullaby

Using an authentic Vietnamese lullaby, the workshop will lead the participants to move, to sing, to play, to improvise on melodic instruments.

Katie Hull-Brown

Katie Hull-Brown is a music educator, doctoral researcher & lecturer connecting classroom practice & research-informed pedagogy. With 25+ years across early childhood, primary & tertiary education, she is a passionate advocate for music education. Currently completing her doctorate at La Trobe University, her research explores SEL in classroom musicking. Her 2025 paper in AJME examines effective music mentoring strategies for classroom teachers. She has presented at APSMER, ANZARME, ASME, ISME & AARE, & was recognised with the 2025 ASME National Music Educator Award. Katie has mentored 50+ generalist teachers across 20+ primary schools & lectures in arts education at Melbourne Polytechnic. She serves as Chair of VOSA & Secretary of ANCOS.

Session Information

Finding Your Flow: Teaching for Joy in a Disrupted World

STRETCH: Elastic Learning & Collective Cognition

Paper Presentation: A Place Where Everyone Plays: Orff Schulwerk, Community Musicking, and the Story of Turramurra and Rosewood Folk Music Camps

Julie Rombach-Kendall

Julie Rombach-Kendall served as a music teacher from 1986-2026, sang for Santa Fe Opera (Mosaics) in 1998 and has taught private voice lessons for over 40 years. Because of her love of Orff she attended two International Orff Schulwerk Forum Salzburg Conventions in the Czech Republic and Greece. She trained at the Salzburg, Austria Orff Institute thanks to her Golden Apple Foundation Grant. She has served as the New Mexico American Orff Schulwerk Association chapter president and Instrument Co-Chair for the National AOSA 2023 Conference. She annually attends the AOSA national conferences since 1986. She has a BM from UM-Ann Arbor, a MM from UNM, American Orff Levels I-III, two levels of Kodály and some Dalcroze training. She was the 2024 John Batcheller Award recipient for top elementary music educator in New Mexico (USA). She is a 2023 Golden Apple Fellow. Her hobbies outside of making music include dancing, weight lifting, reading, hiking, science and exploring the world. She is excited to share some Arabic Children’s songs in her “Creating Unity Through Music” session at this year’s Flow 2027 Australian Orff Conference.

Session Information

Creating Unity Through Music

Do you serve Arabic students and are unable to find Arabic children’s songs? Do you feel uneasy about pronouncing the words correctly? Many Arabic cultures pass their music down by ear. In this session, you will learn a few Arabic children’s songs and an Arabic dance. The songs are about a girl soaring into the sky on a swing, a lullaby, a pet goldfinch who likes to dance and a traditional debka. The music has been rewritten left to right and will include the Arabic pronunciation and a poetic English translation for each song. As an English speaker, I understand the challenges of learning to speak Arabic. You will leave with some tools to help your Arabic students feel included through music.

Karissa Van Liew

Karissa O. Van Liew is an international music educator who received her Bachelor of Music Education degree and Orff Level 1 from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Master's degree in Traditional and World Music from the University of Sheffield. Karissa seeks to provide her students with a comprehensive music education that allows them to actively experience many genres of music. Karissa began playing traditional Korean percussion in 2016 in South Korea, which led her to co-author the book, The Heart Rhythms, Songs, and Dances of Korea, which is part of the World Music Initiative series with GIA Publications. Karissa is currently teaching Middle School Music at the American International School of Chennai in India.

Session Information

From Breath to Beat: Teaching Korean Percussion in the Western Classroom

Participants will be led to perform the basic rhythms of Korean percussion (Samulnori) by utilizing spoken rhythms, body percussion, and transfer to instruments. Samulnori embodies flow through cyclical rhythms, breath that connects the body with the sound, and exchanging energy between the ensemble. While instruction is primarily grounded in traditional Korean rote-style learning, it aligns closely with Orff pedagogy through a natural progression from speech to movement to rhythmic playing. Additionally, participants will use the Korean rhythms to create new rhythmic variations, write an original poem, and use movement to feel the pulse and connect players. Instruction will be given on the rationale, legitimacy, and logistics of teaching in a western-style classroom, such as utilizing original recordings, modifying pieces for students, and adapting instruments. With this hands-on experience, educators will be able to transfer the workshop pieces and instruction to their own classrooms, enriching students with engaged world music pedagogy. Those wishing to pursue further knowledge and skills in Korean folk music will be better equipped to make use of the published and online resources that are available in English.

Tina Beh

Tina discovered the Orff approach when she enrolled in Level One in Queensland in 2010. It gloriously fulfilled her need to connect the core values and intentions of a learner-centred, playful, classroom space with practical, joyful, music-making activity and movement. After completing all four levels of the Orff Schulwerk Teacher Training Courses in 2019, Tina has been regularly presenting for QOSA and now WAOSA. Tina has shared her passion for collaborative music-making in the Orff way with people of all ages at various National and International education conferences, leading a women’s community choir in Brisbane for many years, and in the classroom and the broader school communities she is part of.

Session Information

Parallels - How We Move and Flow

Parallels - on the barred instruments, in body movement, sound and body, dance and improvisation. Comparisons of unison, parallels, convergent, divergent, and swirling mountains and valleys.

Lisa Woods

Lisa is a Primary Performing Arts teacher and choir trainer from SA with over fifteen years teaching experience. She has recently completed Level 4 Orff training, and this is her fifth National Conference. Lisa has a passion for singing and enjoys being part of the SA Public Primary Schools Music Festival, as both a choir trainer and metro coordinator/conductor. She holds a Bachelor of Primary Education with a Music Major from Griffith University, QLD and currently teaches Music, Dance and Drama full-time in the North-Eastern suburbs of Adelaide. Lisa has been presenting workshop sessions since 2019, most recently in May, 2026. Her strength is music; she plays a variety of instruments (flute/guitar/drums), and enjoys singing and songwriting.

Session Information

Recorder Stories

In teaching recorder to students in year 3 and above, Lisa found the recurring challenge students have in having difficulty in understanding how fingers work together to play different notes. She has created a picture book aimed at developing deeper knowledge of how fingers interact on the recorder, which has resulted in more successful demonstration of recorder technique and subsequent engagement and performance. The picture book is called 'The Seven Skydiving Mermaids' and was manufactured using Canva. Come along to have an opportunity to see this resource and practice the descant recorder, and be inspired to compose short pieces of music, based on the engaging characters or developing further storylines.

Flow Conference 2027

Key Presenters

Werner Beidinger

Peta Harper

Christa Coogan

Focus Presenters

Dr Robyn Staveley

Paul Myatt

Katie Salisbury

Ian Williams

Elective Presenters

Kristie Fudge

Dr Paul Jerome Grosse

Katie Hull-Brown

Julie
Rombach-Kendall

Karissa Van Liew

Tina Beh

Lisa Woods

Werner Beidinger

Peta Harper

Crista Coogan

Dr Robyn Staveley

Paul Myatt

Katie Salisbury

Ian Williams

Kristie Fudge

Dr Paul Jerome Grosse

Katie Hull-Brown

Julie Rombach-Kendall

Karissa Van Liew

Tina Beh

Lisa Woods