Dr Rachel Howley
Director of Grace Academy

BMus (Perf) QCGU GradBEd (Sec) QUT MMus Studies (Pedagogy) QCGU DMA QCGU

Rachel Howley is a conductor, music educator and researcher. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts (Conducting) from the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University and has conducted some of Australia’s finest elite youth ensembles. These include the Queensland Youth Symphony, the Queensland Conservatorium Wind Orchestra and at MOST, a selective program for Queensland’s most accomplished secondary school musicians. She is also a regular conductor in the Young Conservatorium program at Griffith University, conducts several times a year within the Queensland State Honours Ensembles Program and is a member of the Queensland Wind Orchestra conducting team. In addition, Rachel is regularly engaged as a clinician throughout Australia.

Rachel was the founding Director of Grace Academy in 2015 and is sought after as a music education consultant and mentor. Rachel’s research explores the conductor's role in championing underrepresented composers in music. She actively advocates for diversity and fair gender representation through repertoire selection. In 2018, she founded the Australian Women’s Wind Band Composition Award, contributing nearly 50 new works by Australian female-identifying composers to the industry to date and facilitating publishing contracts between emerging composers and major Australian publishers. In 2022, The Educator Magazine recognised her as one of Australia’s Most Influential Educators.

Dr Emma Di Marco
Community Programs Coordinator, Head of Woodwind

BMus (Hons – Adv.Perf) QCGU PhD QCGU

A 2017 Churchill Fellowship recipient, Dr Emma Di Marco is an Australian classical saxophonist based in Brisbane. She maintains a fulfilling portfolio career as a performer, chamber musician, educator, adjudicator, artistic director, and researcher.

As a champion of Australian music, Emma has toured Australia on multiple occasions with programs that consisted of specially commissioned Australian works. Some of these performances featured collaborations with Australian artists Nexas Quartet, Nathan Henshaw, Hourglass Ensemble, and Barega Saxophone Quartet. In 2014, Emma was appointed a sessional lecturer in saxophone at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music. She is an endorsed artist with D’Addario Woodwinds and is a proud advocate for D’Addario Reserve Reeds. Emma is a founding member of acclaimed ensemble, the Barega Saxophone Quartet, and has performed across Australia and Europe with the group. Her involvement with Barega has seen over a dozen new works for saxophone quartet commissioned, multiple tours interstate and internationally, as well as collaborations with Trichotomy, Hourglass Ensemble, the Queensland Wind Orchestra, Lyre Duo, and a range of visual artists. In 2017, Barega were featured soloists with the Queensland Wind Orchestra and performed David Maslanka’s Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Wind Ensemble. The group released their debut album, Three Serpents, in 2015 which featured compositions written especially for the ensemble and a follow up, Abandon Control, last year.

In 2015, Emma was specially selected to perform in the production of Greek by Mark-Anthony Turnage at the Tongyeoung International Music Festival in Tongyeoung, South Korea. Emma is a casual saxophonist with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. As a concerto soloist she has performed Claude T. Smith's Fantasia for Alto Saxophone and Band with the Queensland Conservatorium Wind Symphony in 2011 and Alexander Glazunov's Concerto in E flat for Alto Saxophone and String Orchestra with the Mueller International Chamber Orchestra in 2010.

Emma is an accomplished researcher in the classical saxophone field. Her research has examined the performance of classical saxophone music in Australia with the aim of fostering further development and growth through increased engagement with digital music-making practices and higher job satisfaction of performers. Her current research interests include: Classical Saxophone Music, Australian Music, Performance Practice, Performance Careers, Ethnography, Digital Music-Making, National Identity, and Job Satisfaction.

Mrs Mandy Gale
Head of Strings

BMus (Perf) QCGU GDTL (Sec) USQ

Mandy initially began learning the violin at 7 years of age through the school system in Gladstone and fell in love with music. In high school she further studied the piano, double bass, and music theory. Throughout her teenage years Mandy performed often as the leader of a string quartet; performing for the Premier Anna Bligh in 2010. She has also performed as Concert Master in Gladstone community musicals from 2009 – 2019.  After finishing high school Mandy began studying music at the Queensland Conservatorium, graduating in 2015 with a Bachelor of Music in Performance on Violin.

Mandy has always had a passion for teaching music and sharing the joy that it brings. After being offered a string teaching position in 2015, Mandy spent 5 years running numerous school instrumental string programs in Gladstone across up to 6 schools at a time. Teaching violin, viola, cello, and double bass, conducting multiple ensembles who competed in local, regional and State competitions. Mandy was responsible for coordinating the Gladstone regional instrumental strings workshop which grew under her leadership. As workshop coordinator, Mandy was responsible for sourcing inspirational conductors and string educators to work with the students of the Gladstone region. Through her teaching, Mandy’s students have had opportunities to perform with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and the Camerata Chamber Orchestra as well as publicly throughout Queensland. Mandy was also the guest artist and conductor of the program Verdi Strings which was a non-profit orchestra for advanced string students in the Gladstone region.

Mandy completed her Graduate Diploma in Teaching and Learning through USQ 2017 with a focus on secondary teaching. In 2020, she returned to Brisbane for the Head of Strings position at Grace Lutheran college, where she teaches and oversees the Rothwell and Caboolture string programs.

Mrs Meg Docherty – Dance (Caboolture)  

B Arts (Dance) QUT GD Education QUT Cert III Children’s Services TAFE Cert III SIS30213 Community Activity ATOD

Meg started dancing at the age of three, and since then her passion for dance has flourished. She is a graduate of St. Paul’s Lutheran Primary school and Grace Lutheran College Rothwell. Throughout the years, Meg has had various performance opportunities locally and abroad including performance tours in Hong Kong and America.

Meg graduated from QUT with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Dance and a Graduate Diploma in Education, Senior Years with English as a secondary teaching area. During her studies, she worked at a local dance studio and completed her Australian Teachers of Dance qualification. Meg has also had the pleasure of training alongside tutors from Australasian Dance Collective, The Queensland Ballet and participated in workshops with industry professionals such as Stephen Tannos and Renae Ritchie.

Meg began work at Grace Lutheran College Caboolture in 2013 as the Curriculum Dance teacher. During her time at the College, she has choreographed for Musicals including Anything Goes, Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat and The Little Mermaid. Meg has also been heavily involved in College events such as Dance Showcase and Grace Celebrates. She has travelled to various tour locations and eisteddfods with the Caboolture Dance Troupe, including a National competition in Sydney. Meg strives to provide students with creative opportunities and real world industry experiences, which has led to a biannual Dance Film collaboration project between Film Crew, Dance Troupe and Mr Shayne Grieve.

In 2017, Meg launched the Grace Academy Dance Studio. She is currently a classroom Dance teacher for years 7-12, the ensemble director for the Caboolture Dance Crew and Dance Troupe, teacher of the Ignite Excellence: Dance Development program, as well as coordiantor of the Grace Academy Dance Studio. Meg is also a Confirmer with the QCAA (Queensland Curriculum Assessment Authority) overseeing the assessment of Senior Dance student work from throughout the state. She is a dedicated and enthusiastic teacher who loves her profession and strives to inspire her students and provide them with vast opportunities.

Mrs Rachel Grieve - Dance (Rothwell)

BA (Dance & Drama) BEd (Secondary) QUT

Mr Travis McLaren – Drama

BA (English/Drama)/B Teach (Secondary) UoN, GradDipDiv ACT

Travis is a Novocastrian with a passion for theatre and the gospel story. He graduated in English, Drama and Teaching at the University of Newcastle. This included a season at Manchester Metropolitan University in England where he trained in directing and stagecraft. Travis has been involved in numerous productions as an actor, director and playwright. Of note is his work with Taree Arts Council, Maitland Repertory Theatre and Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble.

A teacher of 7-12 Drama at Grace, Travis works full-time to teach students a range of disciplines so that they may devise, reflect on and perform drama. As the coordinator of Drama at the Grace Academy, he works alongside a variety of exceptional artists to provide young people opportunities to experience voice training, theatresports, short acting courses and feature productions all intertwined with the foundation that creativity is a gift to be used for glorifying Christ.