Who We Are

Ainslie Jackel

Ainslie was fortunate enough to have exposure to a rich musical environment long before birth! Her father was conductor and director of the Navy Band and her grandmother an opera singer; so classical music and music appreciation have provided very strong foundations for her continued academic success and career path. Ainslie's early music experiences provide personal evidence supporting the link between music and academic excellence.

Ainslie began her own musical studies playing piano through the AMEB system, but found the method frustrating and demoralising. Diverse musical opportunities arose at secondary school, where Ainslie played saxophone, clarinet and oboe with a supportive and inspiring music teacher. Ainslie completed an examination on clarinet and played oboe and saxophone in various school competitions and group ensembles, including the prestigious Mt. Gambier School Jazz competition held annually in South Australia and School Bands Competitions. Ainslie performed solos at all of these competitions and the bands were awarded medals and awards at each competition.

While Mt. Gambier and the School Bands Competition are special highlights, Ainslie has vast experience playing in other music ensembles including choir, stage band, concert band, Peninsula Youth Music's Summer Vacation voice ensemble and smaller chamber groups as well as assisting with junior ensembles and younger members of the band. During her final year at high school, Ainslie was appointed Music Captain, reflecting her deep commitment and love of music as well as her ability to motivate and support younger players.

In 2003, Ainslie graduated from Monash University with a Bachelor of Biomedical Science, Honours in Biochemistry and a Diploma of Arts majoring in Politics. Pursing her strong interest in educational methods, Ainslie completed a report investigating the feasibility of providing individualised curriculum for each child within a classroom setting as part of her final studies in politics.

Ainslie returned to music towards the end of her degrees and began voice lessons with a Suzuki teacher in 2004. Ainslie undertook voluminous personal study into the history, development and philosophy of the Suzuki approach as well as observing classes across a few disciplines before committing to Suzuki. The Suzuki approach provides Ainslie with a means by which to combine a love of music and a passion for education in a supportive and creative manner.

Ainslie has since been approved as an Accredited Suzuki Voice teacher-trainee. She completed AMEB Grade Seven in 2007 and is currently preparing Eighth Grade repertoire.

Ainslie begun her music career with pre-instrumental/group music education and has now opened her own Suzuki voice studio in Langwarrin to provide others with the opportunities early music education gave her.

Chelsea Wybrow

Chelsea has enjoyed the benefits of a rich and musical environment from the very beginning. Her mother, a ballet teacher on the Mornington Peninsula (some of you may even know Miss Karla!) read Glenn Doman's Teach your Baby to read and was inspired to educate Chelsea from an early age.

Chelsea has been a Suzuki violin student from the age of four. She completed seven levels of Suzuki Graduation with a wonderful and supportive Suzuki teacher before transferring to the AMEB method of assessment. While she excelled and completed Grades 3–8 and her A.Mus.A with an A-grade average, she found the AMEB method and it's teaching attitude uncompromising and harrowing. She also studied music at VCE level in 1998 aged fifteen and was invited to perform at Top CATs in 1999.

Throughout her musical life, Chelsea has performed with many orchestras, including Peninsula Youth Music Society, Frankston Symphony, Melbourne Youth, and Toorak College's Purcell, String, and Symphony Orchestras. In her VCE year she was Concertmaster of the Southern Regional Symphony Orchestra—an ensemble group composed of outstanding students across both public and private schools in the Southern suburbs of Melbourne.

Chelsea has performed solo from a young age at many and various Suzuki events as a small child, in Moonlight Stampede at the Melbourne Town Hall, and more lately, at concerts for her own students. She's also busked from the age of six for various causes, both public (charitable) and private (needing a new violin) and still occasionally heads out to set her case up and provide a good example to her students.

Chelsea began to teach violin based on the Suzuki method in 1998. While attending Melbourne University, she completed the Suzuki Primary Teachers' course and is a STCA approved teacher trainee. She currently holds a Bachelor of Arts with a Diploma in Publishing and Editing. Chelsea credits her academic and musical success to her mother's early-education stance, and has watched several of her students receive scholarships due in part to their musical ability.

The two families who began her studio in 1998 have since grown to some thirty. In 2003, Chelsea was asked to run music classes at Mt Martha Primary School and Sorrento Primary School. Her students (aged 3 to 38) and their parents are involved in weekly Group Lessons at Sorrento and Mt Martha, which encourage students to play with and be motivated by their peers. She has enjoyed great success with many families and looks forward to working with many more.

At present, Chelsea's private teaching studio is located in Langwarrin; she gives weekly music lessons to students from Mt Martha, Mornington, Frankston, Karingal, Langwarrin, Somerville, Skye, Seaford, and surrounding suburbs as far up the Peninsula as Beaumaris.