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River Music

Nigel and Sandy live in the iconic Margaret River region, in the SouthWest of Western Australia. They have been happily married for 33 years with 5 beautiful children, 2 wonderful sons-in-law and 2 adorable grandchildren. Through their years of experience in playing and teaching music, worship leading, pastoring a country church and raising a family, they desire to teach and help you in these passions. We will describe more about ourselves below, and also introduce you to our whole family.

Introducing Nigel, Founder Of River Music

Nigel has been passionate about music for as long as he can remember. He learnt to sing almost before he could talk, with hymns in his father's congregation and around the family piano. At 10 his brother-in-law gave him his first guitar lesson and so began a 44-year long relationship with this instrument that has always been by his side. From 15 years he became lead guitarist and singer in country Rock and Roll bands. The journey from there has included teaching his wife and 5 children to play and sing, teaching music in schools and privately, songwriting, worship leading, helping his daughters produce albums, and mentoring worship and youth bands (In between all this he has worked as a mechanic, a carpenter,  built the family home, raised a family and presently he runs a small business and pastors a country house church.) His passion now is to bring this wealth of experience to you.

Introducing Sandy

Sandy is pictured here at Esther and Hayden's recent wedding with  Sophie and Shem's daughter in hand.
Sandy had a love of music from childhood, handed down through the family. You would often find her standing on a piece of machinery on the family farm, singing her heart out as if on a stage. Amazingly at about age 10, she was told through a medical condition she would never sing!! However at 20 when she met Nigel, he quickly helped her change all that and together they started a music duo and took singing classes while studying at Uni. They quickly found their musical harmony. Sandy was actually told by one of her favourite singing teachers that she had a 4-octave range!! When they were married Sandy continued singing lessons through 5 pregnancies and some of her favourite memories were playing and performing with various members of her family and worshipping together in the family lounge room. Apart from singing and motherhood, Sandy homeschooled her children. She has a very pastoral heart for people and co-pastors/administrates the house church and youth group together with Nigel and helps with the family business. There has never been a dull moment!

Introducing Sophie

Sophie is the oldest of the tribe and married to Shem. Together they have 2 beautiful children, Jesse and Isobelle. Sophie learnt guitar from her dad and sang from a young age, worship leading in church and youth groups and was the first one to courageously start busking (which led all of us to follow in this activity). This took her on to playing music for gigs and events, inspiring her to write and perform originals. By the age of 21, she had created 2 albums. Sophie loved travelling ministry; beginning at age 15 with her family, she went on to tour New Zealand with itinerate Pastors in 2010, where she met her wonderful husband. When she was young, she often helped her father with all kinds of practical and building tasks, skills she now uses to renovate and style her homes. She completed her Bachelor in Music at Australian Institute of Music in Sydney and Post-Graduate Teacher's qualification. She and Shem have often served together in their church in worship ministry and now in marriage and couple's ministry. 

Introducing Melody

Melody has certainly lived up to her name and would sing tunes in perfect pitch before she could talk properly. At 8 years of age, we needed a piano player in church and we taught her 3 chords and she played every Sunday thereafter. This was her training ground to play and sing. She has been poetic and skilled with songwriting and music composition and although keyboard and voice is her main instrument, she is versatile on other instruments too. Melody and Sophie played as a sister duo for a season, then Melody completed a business course and ran her own piano teaching business, before doing some missions trips overseas and then embarking on writing, producing and recording her own album. This is her pictured at her album launch, with some backup from the family. Melody is presently completing her final year of a bachelor in Music.

Introducing Esther

Esther is our number 3 girl, and was dancing and flipping almost as soon as she could walk! She wanted to attend dance lessons from a young age and often had to bargain with Dad and Mum to earn money for the classes. She excelled in these classes and was choreographing dances from age 12, including for the Busselton Christmas Carols which attracts a crowd of over 2000 each year. She has a wonderful Country-Style voice and loves Line Dancing with her new husband, Hayden. She completed a Diploma in Performing Arts at Principal Academy of Dance in Perth.  She is currently training as a teacher and has undertaken mission trips to remote communities North of Western Australia. She coaches Dance and the Performing Arts, including online during COVID shutdowns. In this photograph, she is featured on-stage production by Shekinah Productions in Brisbane.

Introducing Sarah

Sarah is our fourth daughter and as you can see has a love for surfing and the ocean (which our region is renowned for).
She too was taught the guitar by dad and from a young age had this ability to soar with her singing ability. At 16 years of age, she auditioned for the Voice and got in the top 100 in Australia. She loved dance also and did training largely in contemporary and ballet. Sarah and Josh (mentioned below), would often perform and busk together when they were young and perform at events like the Busselton Community Carols. Sarah also started songwriting at a young age and later went on to play in gigs and put her soul/surf style originals on Spotify. Sarah is very arty and completed a diploma in Art and sang in the Ablaze Youth band and now is studying at Uni.

Introducing Joshua

After 4 girls, Josh came along. He was doted upon by all his sisters and of course by us. His musical ear has been exceptional also from a young age and the instrument he took to was the piano, taught by his sister Melody. Sarah and Josh performed together from a young age and definitely had the cute factor. They would often busk together for family trips over East to see family or to travel to church conferences. Josh is now a keyboard player and singer for The Ablaze Youth Band. He now is completing his final year of school and his study breaks often find him playing and singing on the family piano, blessing the household with his gift. Josh is also a filmmaker and started a Youtube channel at a young age. He has won several filmmaker awards including Top Film for Secondary schools in Australia and finalist in the prestigious CineFest Awards in Busselton as well as a number of awards through his school.