Sister Mary Duchesne Lavin : Associate Artist
Date of Birth: 24th May, 1930
Sr Marie Duchesne Lavin graduated from the Catholic University of America, Washington D.C., in 1972. Since then she has undertaken a number of courses which have been concerned mainly with music education. These include attendance at a Kodály Music Institute Summer Course, in Kesckemet, Hungary, and a course on Primary School music, based on the Orff concept, at the Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, USA, in 1972.
Lavin has spent a number of years in Papua New Guinea, where she has been a teacher of primary and secondary school music, and a private instrumental teacher (piano and violin). In 1970 and 1971 she was Lecturer in music at Port Moresby Teachers' College. Following a period of study leave in 1972, Lavin became Senior Lecturer in music at the OLSH Teachers College at Kabaleo. She has been a private instrumental teacher in the Sydney area since 1976.
During the period 1965-1975, Lavin was involved in numerous music activities, including the provision of instrumental music for school broadcasts produced by the ABC in Port Moresby, the conducting of pilot projects for various music teaching methods (such as the Suzuki violin method) in primary schools, and the preparation of a series of fifteen music appreciation programmes geared to secondary school and tertiary level students of Papua New Guinea.
In 1973 Lavin was awarded a grant from the Papua New Guinea Department of Education to undertake research into the music of Papua New Guinea. Her work in this area, which has included the collection and transcription of traditional music, and research into traditional instruments, has resulted in the publication of two volumes of traditional music.
Biography provided by the composer