Alumni and Supporters

Bachelor of Music (2009)

Bachelor of Music Honours (2017)

Winner of the 2019 ECU Young Alumni Award

Sam Parry begin studying a Bachelor of Music at WAAPA in 2007. The first student to graduate from WAAPA having studied flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone and bassoon in a single performance degree, Sam has always aimed high in his musical career. His extraordinary achievements are testament to the power of his vision and his inspirational leadership.

“When I finished high school and looking for the right place to study I just remember how the energy felt when I first went into WAAPA to audition. That was basically the deciding factor that made me want to be there,” said Sam.

“I felt really lucky. I was able to shape my own education by studying the multiple woodwind performance, which was the first time that had been done before. I’m just so grateful I was able to study at an institution that allowed me to shape my own education.

“For me there were so many great educators at WAAPA. People were passionate about what they were teaching me, and that made a big difference.”

This passion obviously inspired Sam, who has since become one of Western Australia’s leading woodwind and brass multi-instrumentalists, with the flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, saxophone, and a number of brass instruments in his repertoire.

Sam has been passionate about volunteering and community work for decades. The title of Sam's thesis was 'Changing Lives Through Music', which earned him a first-class honours.

While his most notable charitable work to date includes his founding, establishment and successful leadership of the West Australian Charity Orchestra (WACO), he has also completed a two-year stint as a volunteer in New Zealand.

Inspired by the high standard of his WAAPA colleagues, and driven by the lack of musical opportunities in Perth over the summer holiday period, Sam founded WACO in 2008, at the young age of 18. Since it’s foundation, the WACO has played a crucial role in WA’s musical landscape, with a mission to change lives through music.

From 2008-2016, WACO produced fundraising concerts for various charities, including the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation, Redkite, Legacy, Dreamfit, CanTeen, Youth Focus, Esther Foundation, Beyond Blue, and Guide Dogs WA.

“I originally started the WA Charity Orchestra at 18 during my first year of university. I felt like there was a bit of a void in the music scene at the time over the summer period. Our first concert raised funds for Princess Margaret Hospital, and it went really well.

It was a very steep learning curve for me, but its success saw the concert become an annual tradition, and that continued all the way into 2015.

In 2015, I lost my son. That event in my life was a catalyst which led me to stop and reflect on what was most important. I decided I wanted to put almost all my energy into WACO, and it turned from an annual event into an all year program.

Since then we’ve been able to give so many performances on many different incredible stages here in Perth. We have two full-time ensembles, and we’ve been able to do so much community work, and lift people’s spirits by bringing music out into the community. So many incredible people around me have helped WACO to grow into what it is today.”

“My career is still evolving, I’m not sure what it’s going to look like in ten years. But it’s exciting.”

Sam remains the music director for all the WACO ensembles, which are made up of more than 150 volunteer musicians; the West Coast Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus, and the WA Wind Symphony. WACO has launched the professional careers of hundreds of young classical musicians, changed the lives of thousands of audience members, and raised more than $100,000 for WA charities.

Sam is currently the woodwind and brass tutor at St Peter’s Primary School, and is a casual oboist with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and the Perth Symphony Orchestra, and has performed with the WA Youth Orchestra, Fremantle Chamber Orchestra, WAAPA Faith Court Orchestra and UWA Symphony Orchestra.

“Since graduating, I’ve worked in a lot of different space. I’ve been a freelance musician, I’ve been a music tutor in various schools. And now I find myself back here at ECU studying to be a classroom teacher,” said Sam.

“My career is still evolving, I’m not sure what it’s going to look like in ten years. But it’s exciting.”

Sam exemplifies the very best qualities of an outstanding ECU graduate and has used the skills developed at ECU in order to galvanise thousands around him and to make the world a better place.

“I’m really humbled by this award,” said Sam.

“I think for me, winning the Alumni award is not so much a reflection of any amount of work that I have done, but it’s the result of so much hard work by hundreds of people over the last decade or so.”