Talented BSSC alumna and popular Central Victorian singer, guitarist and composer, Sherri Parry, wowed the students and staff during Wednesday lunchtime’s Wellbeing Week event.
She later spent an hour with music students talking about what it’s like to work as a musician—including ‘things you must know if you want to work in the music industry’.
It was a comprehensive and generous talk that encouraged students to see the breadth of careers linked to the music industry, and the value of good connections with people already in it.
Sherri included the opportunity for students to begin working on their own media kit. These kits allow others in the music industry to find out essential information about an artist.
“It’s so important to create a ‘presence’ to promote yourself—and what you’re doing–on social media.”
Sherri graduated in 2015 from BSSC and admits she wasn’t the most diligent student and, despite being well on her way to a career as a performer, hadn’t elected to study music for VCE.
“I think I would have been considered quite rebellious back then because I often wagged school to go and drink coffee at Hudson’s.”
While school didn’t capture her imagination, her commitment to music never wavered.
“I had always written my own songs—even as a nine-year-old I remember being on the swing in our backyard and composing a song about a flower in our garden.”
By the time she was twelve, Sherri was singing during the breaks of a local band’s performance at the Bridge Hotel—and is now grateful for an experience she refers to as having “been thrown in the deep end so early”.
A fan of a wide range of music, and reluctant to stick to a single style, Sherri says it’s difficult to locate her work in a particular genre.
Sherri says she knows how easy it is for aspiring musicians to have their passion for their art crushed and hopes to inspire the next generation of musicians to keep faith with their creative spirit.
