Guest Speakers at our Monthly Meeting
At most monthly meetings, we have a guest speaker. On this page, we will tell you about some of our past guest speakers.
March Speakers List can be acccessed by clicking on the above link.
Past Speakers/Events:
As we go forward, we will keep a record here of the talks given to the Club.
If you have any ideas for suitable Guest Speakers, please contact our Speaker Seeker. You'll find them listed on the Committee page.
July 9, 2024
Janice Petrie: Trivia Quiz
August 13, 2024
Karen Toohey
Karen is the Australian Capital Territory's Commissioner for Human Rights.
September 10, 2024
Ruth Palavestor: Falls Prevention
Details to come.
June 11, 2024
Ambre Hammond: An Unorthodox Life In Music
Born in Cairns, Queensland Ambre (pronounced, Amber) Hammond has performed as a concert pianist for over 30 years throughout Australia, Japan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Italy, France, Ireland, the USA, China, India, Thailand and South America.
To her list of accomplishments as internationalpianist, composer, producer, keynote speaker and philanthropist, Ambre recently added radio guest presenter - with ABC Classic FM.
Recordings of albums of her own compositions, including Reverie, Akasha, Night Flowers, and
Oblivion are available on disc and can be heard on iTunes, Spotify and YouTube.
Through her project Girl Piano Truck Ambre has brought classical piano to disadvantaged people in some of the world's poorest places - Belarus, East Timor,Thailand, Africa and the Philippines. These free concerts have taken place in orphanages, a mental asylum, schools, elderly citizens homes and even a rubbish dump where thousands of local villagers live and work- thus earning Ambre a nomination for Australian of the Year in 2016.
Sydneysiders may remember her performance in 2007 with the Sydney Symphony and James Morrison playing a Double Concerto for piano and trumpet, written especially for them by Hollywood great, Lalo Schifrin.
More recently Ambre has been occupied with more than 40 private piano students operating a successful music school in Sydney’s inner west.
In addition to already having several languages under her belt, (Italian, Spanish and Russian) Ambre is immersed in her second year of studying the Chinese language (Mandarin) ahead of a trip to China in 2024.
In early 2024 Ambre released her first documentary on music education. You can visit Ambre's website here.
May 14, 2024
Tim Kilby: Return of Rock’n’Roll Schtick
Tim has been a primary school teacher who taught in Sydney, Canberra, London, Mittagong, Victoria Falls and Marra Creek (good luck finding it on a map). His passions are travelling, horse racing, bushwalking, listening to the radio, and pop music. He's the presenter on Valley FM 89.5, of Oldies But Goodies- Tim;s Favourites with Tim Kilby. Oldies but Goodies? Sounds like US!
Tim is also a volunteer guide at the Botanic Gardens. He especially enjoys giving visual talks to groups about things vegetative or musical.
His presentation ,'Schtick' will take us on a trip from the 40's to the 90's,having a look at the amazing range of gimmicks pop performers have used to stand out from the crowd - moves, hairstyles, clothes, make-up, stage props and much more.
Tim took us for a trip down memory lane...
April 9, 2024
Colin Greef: Rebuilding Guitars, Building Lives
Colin Greef served in the Royal Navy for 11 years and the RAN for 22 years, serving on a number of ships. Spending a lot of time at sea, he asked some frequent guitar players in the mess to show him a few chords. That initial introduction got him hooked. Many years later after buying his first guitar, he found lots of pleasure in playing with a group of his friends.
For the past seven years Colin has been a member of the Canberra Veterans Music Group, a bunch of Veterans who get together just to play and have a sing-along. For the past four years he has been running his own project collecting guitars from members of the public, repairing them if need be, then donating them to Veterans, disadvantaged children and to homeless shelters. Colin stopped counting after giving away more than 400 guitars.
March 12, 2024
Painting Workshop: Maria Polmeer
February 13, 2024
Dr. Mark Lax: The Mutiny On The Bounty- The Real Story
After five months on Tahiti, master's mate Fletcher Christian led a mutiny on board the Bounty on 28 April 1789.
Eighteen mutineers set Captain Bligh and 18 of his loyal crewmen adrift in a small boat.
Bligh, however, was a skilled navigator and managed to sail them nearly 4000 miles to Timor, in the Dutch East Indies.
Join us, as Dr. Mark Lax goes deeper into those famous events, to tell us the real story of what happened on the Bounty.
Dr. Brad Tucker: Space Race 2
Dr Brad Tucker is an Astrophysicist/Cosmologist, and currently a Research Fellow at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Mt. Stromlo Observatory at the Australian National University.
One of Braad's current projects is the search for Planet X. Visit Brad's web page