The School Gates

Alumni Profiles By Ian Robertson

Alumni Manager

Associate Professor Linda Kouvaras (Class of 1977) From New Wave/Punk to the halls of academia!

Linda entered Korowa in 1967 and during her time at the School, the wealth of opportunities in music offered to her laid the firm foundations for her career in music. Linda went on to study music at university but left in her first year and spent several years playing in rock and new wave/punk bands and cabaret and theatre productions.

However, the classical music ‘itch’ compelled her to return to studies in classical piano in the UK in 1984 and then complete her Bachelor of Music (Hons) at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (University of Melbourne), where she also gained her Master’s Degree in Piano and a PhD in Musicology. She never thought she would go back to university and she certainly never saw herself as a musicologist, composer and pianist in teaching and research, where she is now an Associate Professor in Music and Associate Director in Research and Research Training for the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. During her music studies in the mid-1980s, Linda’s tutor informed the class that there were ‘no women composers’ at that time. Linda came to realise that this was patently untrue and she has been galvanised to right the wrongs in perception that still at times prevail - that composers are, by default, all men. She produced the first doctoral feminist study in musicology in Australia (Sweet Death: Strategies of the Feminine Grotesque in a Contemporary Australian Chamber Opera, 1996), and was part of the organising committee for Melbourne’s first Composing Women’s Festival (1994). In contrast to her own undergraduate studies at university – where no subjects ever included any works by women – Linda makes sure that all the classes she teaches include female composers. Linda is also a Senior Resident tutor in Music at Ormond College, a piano examiner for the Australian Music Examinations Board and maintains a select piano teaching home studio. She is the recipient of a number of private and government grants and commissions, her works receiving frequent airplay on radio, in concert, CD recordings and at festivals across Australia and overseas.

Rowena Webster (Class of 2005) Three time Olympian!

Rowena (Rowie) represented Australia at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 in a sport she played at Korowa – Water Polo – making her a third time Olympian. Upon graduating from Korowa, Rowie was awarded a scholarship to Arizona State University, where she started a degree in Physical Education (secondary teaching), which she completed at Deakin University, Melbourne.

In 2000, she began Year 7, joining her two older sisters, Larissa (Class of 2000) and Steph (Class of 2004). Rowie began playing Water Polo seriously at age 12. Her three older siblings also played the sport. At a Korowa School Assembly in 2012, Rowie said, ‘GSV (Girls’ Sport Victoria) Water Polo started my course to success at the Olympics. Playing Water Polo with my older sisters is what started the flame burning’. Rowie joined the National Women’s Water Polo Team, ‘The Stingers’, in 2005. She first competed internationally at the FINA Junior World Championships in Portugal in 2007, where her team won gold. In 2010, she won silver at both the FINA World Cup and the FINA World League Super Finals – a feat she repeated in 2012. In 2011, she was named Australian Player of the Year. In 2012, Rowie’s skill and determination saw her selected for the London Olympics. The team won a bronze medal. Rowie was instrumental in the win, scoring an impressive nine goals! She was a finalist in the FINA Best Water Polo Player of the Year Award in 2013 and 2014. In 2016, she was selected for the Rio Olympics and in 2017 was appointed Team Captain of The Stingers, a position she still holds. Rowie gained selection for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, making her one of the few Olympians to represent Australia at three consecutive Olympic Games. Rowie holds the Australian record for most goals in a National League season, with an impressive 99 goals. She is one of only three players to compete in more than 300 international games for Australia. Her stellar career is testament to her skill and dedication for the sport she loves. After years on the international stage, Rowie truly personifies Korowa’s motto, ‘no reward without effort’.