Sharon Thorburn, of Wellington
Sharon Thorburn, of Wellington, received the Queen's Service Medal for services to the community. Ms Thorburn is a gifted and inspiring teacher and composer who has had 20 years of teaching and management roles in New Zealand, Kenya, Brunei and Scotland. In 2007 she was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship to research Venezuela's social transformation music movements, El Sistema and La Schola Cantorum de Venezuela. She founded and is Chairperson of the Kotuku Choir, an early intervention programme for at-risk youth in Wellington. In 2008 Kotuku toured internationally, helping to create partnerships with top international choirs. Also in 2008 the Kotuku Choir won the Supreme Wellington TrustPower Regional Community Award. In 2009, Ms Thorburn walked the length of New Zealand to raise awareness of child abuse and violence as a part of the Footprints of Hope campaign.