Accomplished conductor Sue Findlay hangs up her baton after 14 years leading Albany City Wind Ensemble

Sue Findlay’s road to a 14-year stint as conductor of the Albany City Wind Ensemble all started with learning the humble piano when she was a kid. “I was just really lucky that my parents saw the passion and let me go for it,” she said. “I was born in Albany, and at just the time the instrumental program was being started in all the primary schools and I was in the first intake of that.” At school, she took up the cello, before learning the string bass, which she played in her first concert band. Findlay would spend the performances watching the trumpet players “wishing that I had a more interesting part” and so she went on to study the instrument at the University of Western Australia. There she also added the clarinet and trombone to her repertoire and made her first foray into conducting. Her experience across a range of instruments has informed how she conducts musicians. “By the time you’ve got all that background — I’ve got a string background, a woodwind background, a brass background and the keys — it sort of means that you understand a bit of the different players and what’s tricky for them to play,” Findlay said. “You know what might be easy on a flute is difficult on a trumpet, you just know a bit about each instrument.” In 2008, after spending time teaching music in Perth and Geraldton, she returned to Albany with her family and was asked to conduct the Albany City Wind Ensemble. “I love concert bands,” she said. “I went along and played with them for the last part of 2008, just to become part of the group for a little bit, and then took over the directing in 2009.” She views her mission as turning “a whole heap of wrong notes into right notes”, and sees the people she conducts like an instrument. “I like to say now I play the choir, and I play the concert band, and I play the orchestra because it becomes my instrument,” she said. “They’re all just concentrating on their own little bit, and they’re not aware of what the overall sound is supposed to be or how it’s coming out. “It’s turning all those individual parts into something that works together. “Initially it’s making sure that they’re all playing the right notes and the right rhythm, and then going beyond that, and turning it into a piece of music.” Findlay has operated ACWE under a manifesto that aims to add a signature sense of humour into their performances and make their concerts approachable for everyone no matter their musical knowledge. “I just love concerts that the wife wants to go, and she brings along her tradie husband, kicking and screaming,” she explained. “And he at the end of it says, ‘yeah, I’d do that again’, and I hear that so often. “I try and make our concerts accessible to everybody — we’re not highbrow.” Over the years, Findlay has resisted calls to work in Perth, preferring the challenges that come with running a community music ensemble, which she says would rival any in the big smoke. “People have said to me in the past, ‘you should go and work with professionals in Perth’, but they’ve already got it,” she said. “I just love to see someone who never thought that they’d be doing this, or being part of something like one of our Entertainment Centre concerts, and just being part of something so much bigger than themselves.” Findlay has worked with musicians of all levels of experience at ACWE, from former WA Symphony Orchestra members to those who “didn’t start their instrument until they’re in their 60s”. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re the best player there, or the worst, everyone is there every week,” she said. “The weaker players benefit from the skill level of the really accomplished players, and the end result is so much greater than the individual.” Her passion for performance has rubbed off on her family, with her mother taking up the euphonium at the age of 60, and her three sons all displaying musical talent with son Peter poised to take over as ACWE conductor from mid-2023. Although she is leaving ACWE, Findlay will remain part of Albany’s music scene, continuing her work as a junior school music teacher at St Joseph’s College and directing About FACE Choir which she set up in 2013. “I started that group because there was nothing in Albany for young people who wanted to do something really top-class,” she said. “You didn’t see young people sing — they may have sung at school, and then nothing until their hair’s grey and they join the choral society. “I really wanted to bridge that gap, and over the last 10 years, we’ve had 100 kids come through About FACE.” After 14 years as conductor and 62 concerts, Findlay will be bowing out from ACWE with a final performance next week. “I want to go while I’m still at my best, and leaving the band in a really good place for someone else to take it over and just keep running with new ideas,” she said. Findlay’s final performance will be at ACWE’s Christmas Celebration, featuring About FACE, on December 11 at Ocean’s Church. Tickets are available at Black Duck Gourmet Pantry, at the door or at www.acwe.com.au.