Lifelong Learning and a Passion for Music

“I consider myself very fortunate that I am still able to express myself through music, and to enjoy making music with others,” says Salvos Holme Care Client, Wyverne. “This gives me so much joy. It also delights me to see the look on the faces of the people singing in the choir.” 

Wyverne has been a Salvos Home Care Client since 2021, when she relocated from Victoria to Queensland. For her, the greatest benefit of being a Salvos Home Care Client is, as she notes, the Carers and their passion for their work. “They are the kindest, most thoughtful and capable people I have ever known,” she explains. “I feel completely at home with them all, and confident that they will listen to me, and do their best to meet my needs.”  

In her personal life, Wyverne is also passionate about music and involved in the music scene. Indeed, this love for music goes back to her childhood, when she began piano lessons at age seven. She was encouraged by  her grandmother, with Wyverne recalling, “We played piano duets together every time she visited.”  

From 1962 through to 1963, Wyverne specialised in music at Teachers’ College, and it was here she also began to play the clarinet. Her first five years of teaching were at a kindergarten class, where Wyverne produced an operetta at the school. In the 1980’s she taught piano lessons at the Bathurst branch of the conservatorium, mainly to the younger children. 

In the 1990’s, Wyverne became a Primary School Music Specialist and was again heavily involved in the wider music program, running a choir, teaching music classes and leading a term-long project of celebrating First Nations Creative arts including storytelling, singing, dancing, and visual arts with around thirty Indigenous children at the school.  

In the latter part of her career, Wyverne became a university lecturer in education, early childhood and primary school, which provided her with travel opportunities. “At that time, I was sent by the university for short periods of teaching in Singapore, Vietnam, and China to carry out training in Early Childhood Education,” she states. “I loved this immersion into other cultures and still keep in touch with my friends there.”  

These days, the spirit of learning and challenging oneself in a musical domain is still apparent in Wyverne, even playing four recorders and forming part of the Fifties Plus Advanced Recorder Group. “In my retirement village where I have lived since 2021, I play music with several other villagers, I have started a choir, initially for women, but we now have a few men in our group!”  

Wyverne’s advice for learning a new skill or musical instrument? “Learning music is hard work but gives many rewards” she tells. “Like everything else we want to learn, we have to practise regularly to get enjoyment in the long run. Finding a group at your own level is the way to go and so much fun learning together!”