For her contributions to the arts and the community, “Kathleen McGuire Day” was proclaimed twice by San Francisco mayors Edwin M. Lee and Gavin Newsom. Kathleen was presented with a Local Hero Award by San Francisco’s KQED-TV, and she was elected as Grand Marshal of the San Francisco Pride Parade. While living in the United States, Kathleen earned a doctorate in conducting at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her conducting credits include the Women’s Philharmonic, the Community Women’s Orchestra, the Empyrean Ensemble, the University of Colorado Orchestra, Opera By the Bay (San Francisco), and the Boulder Philharmonic. She has conducted at some of the world’s finest venues, including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Centre, Place des Arts (Montréal) and the Sydney Opera House.

In Colorado, Kathleen conducted at the Lyric Opera in the prestigious Eklund Opera Program, including principal artists from the Metropolitan Opera and Glyndebourne, apprenticing under maestro Robert Spillman for four years. While honing her craft, McGuire received mentoring from maestros Simone Young AM, Sian Edwards, Martin Isepp, Marin Alsop, Richard Divall AO OBE, Carlo Felice Cillario and Nicholas Braithwaite. She studied conducting formally with Robert Rosen for three years as a private student and then in postgraduate studies at the Victorian College of the Arts.As the recipient of a Rotary International Fellowship, she completed the Master of Music with Distinction at the University of Surrey, Guildford (UK), studying orchestral conducting with Nicholas Conran and choral conducting with Dr Owen Rees.

McGuire earned a Bachelor of Music degree in composition at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (University of Melbourne), where she studied with Peter Tahourdin and Barry Conyngham AM. She has been recognised multiple times in the Professional Choral Composer division of The American Prize. Her compositional interests, and recent commissions, focus on social justice issues and affecting positive change through music. Shawnee Press has sold tens of thousands of copies of her arrangement of “Harriet Tubman” about the Underground Railroad slave abolitionist. Collaborative works Street Requiem and No Excuses! have received multiple international performances and recognition, including the Remarkable Women Award from Mentone Girls’ Grammar, the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Staff Excellence in Community Engagement (Australian Catholic University) and the inaugural Vice-Chancellors Alumni Award (University of Surrey). In Australia, Kathleen’s works are published by Wirripang.

Today, Kathleen is a permanent academic in the Faculty of Education and Arts at Australian Catholic University where she received the 2021 Excellence in Teaching Award, and she is the Music Director of the Tudor Choristers. She serves on the board of the Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy, is a member of the American Society of Composer, Authors and Publishers; the Music Arrangers Guild of Australia; and was elected to the Society of Pi Kappa Lambda – the US National Music Honors Society.  Kathleen and her Irish wife Audrie met in a choir. They share three children and a feisty border collie cross named Chicko.