17. Confidence, confidence, confidence! On leading musically inclusive activities, with Dr Graham Sattler CF

For Graham Sattler, being a musical inclusion advocate means building a life's work around a single conviction: that music is the activity with the fewest impediments to participation. In this episode, Melissa talks with Graham about the journey that took him from the opera stage and the orchestral trombone section to the heart of community music practice, and the moment in Orange, New South Wales, that crystallised everything.

Graham shares what he found when his Churchill Fellowship took him across eight countries investigating best-practice community music leadership training, and why the musicians he met were so strikingly clear about the why, how, and what of their work. He reflects on confidence, courage, and intrinsic motivation as essential leadership qualities; on generosity, compassion, and selflessness as the values that underpin effective practice; and on what happens to a community when leadership changes and those qualities disappear.

The conversation also turns to orchestras — Graham is currently CEO of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra — and what it takes for professional performance organisations to engage authentically with community, rather than as a funding exercise. Honest, thoughtful, and full of hard-won insight, this is a conversation about what it really means to lead music that matters.

• What "musical inclusion advocate" means and where that framing came from
• Music as the most accessible participatory activity — and how to respond when that idea is challenged
• The move from Sydney to Orange, NSW, and the moment community music came into sharp focus
• The training gap in community music leadership across Australia and the Asia-Pacific
• What Graham observed in leadership training programs across the US, Canada, Ireland, Scotland, England, Norway, Portugal, and Armenia
• Confidence, courage, and intrinsic motivation as pillars of effective community music leadership
• The values common to the best community music leaders: generosity, compassion, and selflessness
• What happens to a community when leadership changes — and why training matters
• Professional orchestras and community engagement: honest assessment of where the sector is and where it falls short
• Community music as 60% of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra's organisational output

"Music is the most accessible group activity that human beings can engage in — it has the fewest impediments to participation."

"Whatever they bring into the room is enough. Human beings are profoundly and intrinsically musical, and music is, similarly, profoundly human."

"I discovered what it was to be answerable to, responsible to, identifiable community — and that's when it really crystallised."

"I hadn't teased courage out of confidence before — but they are quite different things."

"When those qualities aren't there, people notice. People aren't stupid. They can spot a phony."

Graham Sattler is an Australian musician, educator, and orchestra CEO whose career has taken him from the opera stage to the conductor's podium to the heart of community music practice. He has worked as a trombonist and singer with the Australian Opera, as a conductor of orchestras and choirs across Australia and internationally, and spent over a decade as director of regional conservatoriums in New South Wales — leading music programs with aged, disability, and at-risk youth communities. He holds a PhD in Music Education, a Master of Performance (Conducting), and a Graduate Certificate in the Psychology of Risk. In 2019, Graham was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to investigate best-practice community music leadership training programs across eight countries. He is currently CEO of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra in Aotearoa New Zealand, where community engagement makes up 60% of the organisation's output.

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Christchurch Symphony Orchestra

• 00:01:27 — What "musical inclusion advocate" means, and how Graham arrived at that description
• 00:03:55 — Responding to the challenge: is music really the most accessible activity?
• 00:05:31 — Why the word "made" is the alarm bell for everything community music stands against
• 00:08:14 — The move to Orange, NSW, and the moment inclusion became central
• 00:13:25 — Why the leadership training gap matters — and what's lost when leadership changes
• 00:16:24 — What confidence actually looks like in community music leadership
• 00:21:19 — Confidence versus courage: two different things
• 00:23:09 — Whatever they bring into the room is enough
• 00:30:18 — The common values of effective community music leaders: generosity, compassion, selflessness
• 00:33:04 — Orchestras and community: an honest assessment
• 00:40:08 — The three closing questions: human connection, one song to unite a room, and a magic wand