When she’s creating music, you are just as likely to find vocalist, musician and UNE music lecturer Dr Donna Hewitt in the back shed as in the music room.
“For the past 10 years, I’ve been developing alternate controllers for music performance and, more recently, wearable controllers that I incorporate into my own performances,” she says.
“I love making the wearables, which involves soldering, design construction and learning about electronics circuits, then programming the electronics boards to do something useful and sewing the electronics onto clothing that’s practical to wear for a performance.”
Using these electronics, Donna is able to control aspects of a musical performance such as sound, live voice processing, lighting and video simply by moving different parts of her body, merging action and sound.
It’s mesmerising to watch, and while she “loves creativity” and experimentation, at the heart of it all a good old-fashioned love of music.
“Music has always been a huge passion. As a school student, I spent hours in the music room making music,” she says.
“I completed a science degree at the University of Sydney, but decided to follow my main passion: music. While studying, I worked as a singer and taught piano, before I was opened up to the world of music technology and music production.
Graduating from the Western Sydney University with a PhD as part of the university’s first cohort of music students, she worked at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Sydney and QUT (Queensland University of Technology) before coming to UNE in 2016, where she’s found her interest in digital technology lends itself well to the teaching environment.
“I enjoy the challenge of finding ways to innovate the inherently practical and often collaborative nature of music-making and performance for online students,” she says.
“I am really passionate about encouraging students to be bold in their musical endeavours, and I love seeing their satisfaction when they write and perform new compositions. I like to see our graduates go out into the world with the confidence to create their own opportunities.”
Donna is living proof that with vision and hard work, pursuing something you love pays dividends.
“Music really infuses so much of my life and so the old adage about choosing a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life is kind of relevant to me.
“The best decision I made in my life was to pursue music as my career path. I feel lucky to be able to do this.”
Find Donna’s music at: https://donnahewitt.net/
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