Busselton's musical gift keeps on giving

Nicki Hair believes, above all else, that music is a gift that should be shared.

And the Busselton High School music teacher has lived that belief wholeheartedly throughout her life.

Born in England to a former backing-singer mother and trombone-playing father, Nicki came out to Australia with her family at seven years old.

Her parents, one-time owners of a theatrical agency with the likes of Shirley Bassey on their books, no doubt instilled an early appreciation of performance in Nicki.

But it was in Year 6, as a student at Mt Helena Primary School, she first picked up a cornet, a brass instrument similar to the trumpet.

Nicki later took up the trombone and started conducting while at Eastern Hills High School, before winning a scholarship to Governor Stirling High School for Year 11 and 12.

After graduating from high school she tried a year of medicine at the University of Western Australia, but later decided to switch to a double degree in music performance and music studies.

She played for the WA Youth Orchestra, the WA Youth Concert Band and the Arts Orchestra and played the trombone professionally, “freelancing” for two years after university, which took her to Asia, New Zealand and all across Australia.

It was an experience she loved, but eventually grew weary of the “nocturnal” lifestyle of a professional musician, which meant “working while everyone else is playing”.

Nicki returned to Perth and started her career in music teaching, working for the School of Instrumental Music.

Her first posting was two years in Carnarvon, followed by positions with music departments at Collie, Harvey and Bunbury.

After joining a Bunbury band she met Stuart, a Bunbury-based trumpet player and mechanical engineer who became her husband.

“I was conducting, he was playing, our eyes met and the rest was history, as they say,” Nicki said.

They married in 1991 in Bunbury and now live in Dardanup with their two children, Logan 18, and Madeline, 15.

Nicki has been teaching at Busselton Senior High School for 12 years and leads the award-winning Busselton School Band.

The band has played at the Sydney Opera House at the Sydney International Film Festival and at Disneyland in the US in 2011.

They will travel to Singapore next month with a group of 34.

“I’m lucky because I get to meet these kids in Year 6 and teach them for six years, watching them grow through the years into the lovely young adults that graduate in year 12,” she said.

“Music is a great avenue for kids to express themselves; it’s a chance to nourish your emotional side which as a teenager you’re sometimes not able to express as much.”

Nicki is also involved in the Busselton Brass Band, a family affair she shares with daughter Madeline on drums and husband Stuart playing the cornet while she conducts.