In profile: Kirsten Knight

Kirsten Knight, Head of Co-Curricular Music & Director of Strings

What do you like best about your current role?

Variety! I love having lots of different activities to do over the week – from conducting and teaching strings to organising concert events. There is always something going on in our Music calendar and I like being busy working with our wonderful music students.

Can you tell us about your role and current projects?

An interesting question in these current circumstances. My role usually includes weekly rehearsals with my groups, teaching Year 3 students to play their stringed instruments, managing our Individual Music Tuition program, and coordinating our concert events. We have moved as many activities online as possible for this period but of course things are a little different.

With our remaining Term 3 gigs now unable to proceed I am looking to future events such as our End-of-Year Celebrations. We have some terrific music in the works for both Junior and Secondary Celebrations! I am also looking forward to hearing each of our String Orchestra students soon when they submit their auditions for next year. I enjoy hearing the progress of each individual student.

What did you do before joining the Radford community?

Hmmm, well I have been working at Radford for over 17 years, so I’ll have to think back a bit… Prior to that I taught at Burgmann Anglican School on their strings program, and taught violin and viola at several schools around Canberra. In addition to my teaching work, I played in several orchestras in the region, including Canberra Symphony Orchestra.

I only finished up as a student at Radford at the end of 1994 so there weren’t too many years in between!

What do you enjoy outside Radford?

When time permits, I love to do a bit of craft. I find it a relaxing creative outlet. I enjoy spending time with my family, which often also includes plenty of music.

How are you managing lockdown?

I admit that I am thoroughly an extrovert, so I miss being on campus with our students and staff. I feel lucky that my children are old enough to manage their online learning independently, so it is easy to have the space to get my own work done. I’m not sure how families with younger children manage and I am thinking of people facing challenges during this lockdown.

In terms of keeping myself motivated I am completing the work tasks that I know are still relevant and not in danger of being cancelled. I’ve rescheduled tasks I would normally do later in the year to now so I can free up time for organising events at short notice as soon as we are able to be back on campus. Hopefully it’s not too long!