Eugenie Teychenné, composer and author of the Possums books, grew up in Gippsland in south-east Victoria, Australia.
After completing a Bachelor of Music at Melbourne University, she worked as a freelance orchestral violinist, performing with companies such as the Bolshoi Ballet and the World Stars Ballet on their Australian tours, and Music Theatre productions in Melbourne including Les Misérables (co-leader) and The Phantom of the Opera at The Princess Theatre.
Throughout the eighties, Eugenie worked as assistant to film composer, Bruce Smeaton, in Australia, London and Los Angeles, on a number of feature films including Fred Schepisi’s Roxanne and Iceman.
Music education has also played an important part in Eugenie’s life. After attending a performance by the first touring group of Suzuki students from Japan she decided to undertake Teacher Training in the Suzuki method, subsequently graduating in the Primary and Intermediate levels. She became a founding member of the Suzuki Association in Melbourne and participated in workshops given by Dr Suzuki during his visits to Australia.
She began writing pieces for her own violin students, combining Suzuki’s teaching principles with repertoire that would appeal to children. These have since been published as the Possums in the Roof and Possums at Sea books.
Working as Strings Co-ordinator in several Melbourne schools, Eugenie’s role included leading classroom string groups for beginners where she soon realised resources for teachers were limited. She began developing an online teaching resource using audio-visual tools to teach repertoire and technique in the classroom, resulting in the Possums Over the Moon website.
Eugenie currently teaches violin from her home studio in the Yarra Ranges, while continuing to work on her music publishing projects.
For further information on all Eugenie’s string publications, please visit https://playingpossums.com