About

Multimedia storyteller, publicist, strategist.

Professional musician. Festival director. Writer.

Arts operations manager.

  • Multimedia content creator (writing, photo, video, music, podcasts) with decades of experience across communications platforms in digital and print publishing
  • Content strategy, metrics and UX design
  • Festival direction, orchestra operations, project management, grant writing, team building, community leadership
  • Communications, press releases, media relations
  • Independent worker, team player, constant learner, excellent communicator
  • Ideas, solutions, collaborations
  • Social media and community engagement
  • Set-up and maintenance of multiple WordPress websites
  • Skills: MS Office (Mac/PC), Powerpoint/Keynote, Adobe CC (Premiere, Photoshop, Lightroom), Finale, WordPress, Squarespace, CCI, Google Analytics

Experience

Operations & Communications Manager, Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra
2023-present

  • Managing operations for international-level chamber orchestra including national tours and youth education programs
  • Overseeing communications and marketing team

Communications Coordinator, Hunter Writers’ Centre
Jan-Aug 2025

  • Overseeing communications strategy and content creation for Hunter Writers’ Centre and Lighthouse Arts

Freelance musician (double bass, organ, piano)
1992-present

  • Currently with Christ Church Cathedral, St John’s Cooks Hill, St Luke’s Wallsend (organ), Christ Church Camerata, Lake Macquarie Philharmonic (bass) & solo looping bass
  • Formerly with Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, State Orchestra of Victoria and early music ensembles, Arts in Nature Festival
  • Composition, arrangement, teaching, direction, piano accompaniment

Public information officer, Metro Parks Tacoma
2021-2023

  • External and internal communications and storytelling
  • Led media relations and coverage
  • Community outreach

Communications coordinator, Point Defiance Zoo/Northwest Trek
2017-2021

  • Strategy, content writing and daily maintenance of web sites
  • Launched two new WordPress-based sites
  • Four blog stories/month, some press releases
  • Email marketing and other digital content

Founding director, Tacoma Ocean Fest and Tacoma Light Trail
2017-2023

  • Conceived and launched highly successful arts- and science-based environmental festival and light art festival in Tacoma, Washington
  • Artistic planning and direction, project management, team building, volunteer recruitment
  • Grant writing, budgeting, contracts
  • Communications direction and execution
  • Community partnership building

Arts and features reporter, The News Tribune
2006-2017          

  • Wrote 4-6 multimedia stories per week on local arts and features subjects
  • Shot or edited photographs and made videos for online content weekly
  • First in newsroom to create entire multimedia immersive website story
  • Developed successful new features sections (GoExplore, GoFree)
  • Team collaboration for bigger projects like yearly travel section
  • Detailed long-form enterprise reporting 3-4 times/year
  • Drove engagement on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram)

Freelance writer
2004-present

  • Seattle Times, Crosscut, Preview Art Magazine, South Sound Magazine, Puyallup Tribal News, press releases, art catalogs                                                        

Editor-in-chief and writer, HDI Publishers, Houston, TX
2000-2004

  • Developed, wrote and edited two monthly print magazines

Organist, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Tacoma, WA 
2011-2020

  • Organist and pianist, composition, choral arrangement, instrumental direction, assisting choral direction, recording, multiscreen video editing

Education

Master of Communication in Digital Media, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (2014)

Bachelor of Letters, University of Melbourne, Australia; philosophy major (2000)

Diploma of Performance, Royal Conservatory of Music, The Hague, Holland; double bass (1994)

Bachelor of Arts in Music, University of Melbourne, Australia; double bass major, piano minor (1992)

Awards and Honors

2022 “Most Influential”, South Sound Business Magazine

2021 City of Destiny Award for Adult Leadership (City of Tacoma)

2021 Winner, Newcastle Nature Stories competition

2017    SPJ “Best of Northwest” 2nd place Arts Writing

2016    SPJ “Best of Northwest” 2nd place Long-Form Travel Writing

2015    UW Faculty of Communications Award for Outstanding Student Research (MCDM)

2015-16 Alumni Fellow of MCDM CommLead program, University of Washington

2015    SPJ “Best of Northwest” 2nd place Comprehensive Coverage

Trained Leader with Climate Reality Project (2020)

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What they’re saying…

Rosemary is equal parts creative mind, organized writer and hard worker. – Karen Peterson, former editor, The News Tribune

A professional who understands how best to position an organization to meet today’s communication challenges… – Anita Verna Crofts, University of Washington

Tacoma Ocean Fest was one of the single most amazing events I have ever been to. – Sam Erwin-Svoboda, festival-goer

Contact me.

Get in touch!