JINGLES JAM'S CREATORS ARE VANESSA AND KARINA JOHNSTON

VANESSA JOHNSTON completed music studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and is an accredited piano teacher. In 1993, she founded ‘Kids Music Madness’ and taught music and movement classes to 2 to 8 year olds throughout Sydney for a period of ten years. She also taught in the ‘Junior Training Program’ at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and as a music specialist in long day care and preschool centres. With a young family of her own, Vanessa now focuses her time on developing Jingle Jam music resources and related materials as well as presenting professional development workshops to teachers and parents throughout Australia.

KARINA JOHNSTON has a Diploma of Teaching from ACU National and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Macquarie University, Sydney. She has many years experience as a piano teacher, dance teacher and primary school music teacher. Her teaching qualifications have made the progression an easy one to becoming a staff training presenter of Jingle Jam’s music and movement workshops. Her music and dance training made the transition to becoming a song writer very natural. Karina now has three young children of her own and is inspired daily by them!

OUR STORY
In the mid 1990s when we were teaching music to young children it became apparent that there was a lack of music resources actually teaching children about music. It was quicker for us to write new resources than it was to search for existing material. It was the requests we received from students, parents and teachers wanting our songs that prompted us to record our work hence Jingle Jam was born. It has been a wonderful labour of love. We enjoy what we do and are proud when we see and hear so many people playing our songs, especially when they appear on children’s television. Between us we have five wonderful children ranging from 1 to 7 years of age who are our latest inspiration. We have enjoyed Jingle Jam to date and are excited about possibilities that the future holds!