About Moorambilla Voices
Moorambilla Voices is an award-winning arts organisation that provides music and arts education programs for children living in regional and remote Australia. Founded in 2006, Moorambilla Voices’ mission is to inspire and empower young people to explore their creativity and express themselves through music, dance, and visual arts that have a strong connection to culture and Country.
In 2020, during Covid, Moorambilla partnered its exceptional artists with curriculum experts to create 168 20–30 minute modules. Each module showcases the specialised artistry, integrity and immense capacity of the individual artist. They are delivered in a way that is engaging and sequential, and are mapped to the NSW Syllabuses. 42% of the content is First Nations led, created or consulted.
Session information
600 SENSATIONAL SECONDS – practical ways to get 10 mins of music a day into your classroom.
Using the most minimal of resources, learn how to expand your skill set to enable your children to experience 600 sensational seconds of music for their daily dose of positivity. After 20 years of delivering workshops to over 50,000 children in remote and rural NSW, Michelle Leonard has developed fun, sure fire techniques to share with you to energise, educate and engage. All you need is your hands, your humour and a willingness to try.
FOCUS AREAS:
- Music literacy with Guido – how to get them sight singing FAST
- Fractions are fun – and so are time signatures!
- Cross curriculum creativity – how to embed and integrate music
- “Please sit down” with a side order of resilience, grit and positive self-concept
Presenter: Michelle Leonard

Michelle Leonard OAM is the founder, Artistic Director and Conductor of Moorambilla Voices. This nationally awarded program seeks at its core to give country kids a rare opportunity to sing, dance, record, tour and create incredible performances with artists of the highest calibre. It has been featured in two documentaries – Wide Open Sky – and Outback Choir (ABC), Sydney TEDXSYDNEY 2018 and in 2019, 2021 ABC Christmas Special and ABC Classic choir conductor. Michelle was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for Services to the Community and Performing Arts in 2017, 2018 the Sydney University Alumni of the year award for services to the arts and in 2019 was named in the Financial reviews top 100 most influential women in Australia. She was delighted to be the first arts practitioner to be awarded the national runner up for Westpac AgriFutures rural Womens award in 2023.
Michelle is originally from Coonamble.