Our Team

President

Eve Brown has been a member of MBSO, playing the violin and now viola since 2006 and president since 2010. She is a primary school teacher, specialising in inclusive education and coordinates the school instrumental programme.

Eve works collaboratively with the MBSO team and the local community to promote musical excellence by featuring local talent in performances. Concerts include the work of local composers and soloists as well as school and community ensembles.

She has also led tours to Toowoomba, northern NSW, Mt Tamborine, New Zealand and Tasmania in past years.

Musical Director

Musical director of MBSO and the MBSO Youth Symphony, Bronwyn Gibbs is a strings specialist who has established strings programs at a number of schools in Brisbane and has been conducting community orchestras since 2000.

Bronwyn learnt violin and piano from an early age. She completed ATCL in both violin and piano, and a Diploma of Creative Arts (Music) in Toowoomba at USQ, where she studied violin with Spiros Rantos. After USQ, Bronwyn trained with the ABC National Training Orchestra in Sydney. She came to Brisbane in 1984 where she completed LTCL in violin, in addition to a Graduate Certificate in Instrumental Pedagogy, a Graduate Certificate in Music Studies and a Master of Music Studies at the University of Queensland.

Bronwyn has been an avid member of AUSTA for many years and has been involved in organizing conferences, music festivals, workshops and concerts, as well as adjudicating competitions, and international tours.

Bronwyn has performed with many orchestras and ensembles during her career, including Brisbane Symphony Orchestra, Brisbane Philharmonic Orchestra, St Andrew's Sinfonia, and many more.

Bronwyn enjoys working with young artists and promoting their talents in composition and performance. Under Bronwyn's direction, the orchestra has expanded its repertoire in classical music as well as continuing to play popular and contemporary works.

With a gift for recognizing talent and developing sound orchestral technique, MBSO is fortunate to have Bronwyn Gibbs as Musical Director.

Concert Master & Conductor of Junior Strings

Katie Lawton is the current concertmaster of the Moreton Bay Symphony Orchestra. She holds an honours degree in Music Performance from the University of Queensland, where she studied voice with Leslie Purvis, violin and viola with Patricia Pollett and cello with Gwyn Roberts.

Katie loves musical theatre, and has performed both onstage and in the orchestra pit with many Brisbane groups. Katie previously played first violin in the Brisbane Symphony Orchestra, performs regularly as a freelance musician with a string quartet, plays in a folk trio and plays for colonial and bush dances.

Katie has been a music educator for many years; teaching strings at several schools in the Moreton Bay region and is passionate about the benefits of music education for everyone! She currently conducts the MBSO Junior Strings ensemble.