Musician Judith Clingan celebrates 50 years in Canberra

She was studying languages at ANU and planned to be a French teacher, but singing - preferably in groups - was her passion. Her father opened a bookshop in what was then the Monaro Mall - now the Canberra Centre - and she remembers lingering in the shop and reading a musical score, when someone approached her and asked if she liked singing.

That was her starting point: she helped found the ANU's choral society, SCUNA, and a few years later, the Canberra Children's Choir.

For the past five decades, she has been virtually unstoppable, composing music, conducting choirs, running summer music programs, travelling, performing, studying and teaching, and next week, she will mark her 50th anniversary in Canberra with a three-day event.

So Good A Thing will include an exhibition of her works and a choral music festival with workshops, talks and performances designed to appeal to everyone, with some events especially for children.

Clingan said she had never planned to become an educator of music, although she has established some 13 music organisations in Canberra, many of which are still running, including SCUNA, Music for Everyone, Voicebox Youth Opera and Wayfarers Australia.

"I hadn't thought of it in those terms but that's what always kept on happening," she said. "Basically, I think I love singing choral music so much that whenever I'm with people who might even remotely possibly like it, I want them to join me and sing a duet, or get another few people and sing a trio or quartet. It just is something I love doing, so it just keeps on happening."

She said she wanted to mark her anniversary with an event that would bring together more than 100 past students, musicians, singers, composers, conductors and members of Canberra's most established music groups.

Although she took a brief hiatus from music a few years ago, studying full time at art school in 2010 and 2011, she found the music pulling her back.

"Last year, I took a group of 20 adult musicians around the world for a year and performed non-stop," she said. "That made me totally realise that teaching and performing music is what I am and I can't escape it, and I don't want to be a painter instead. I love painting but the other thing just keeps on grabbing me … It just seems to be what I'm supposed to do, to help people who can sing and who enjoy singing and can go further.

"I enjoy performing with people who know what to do, but a different part of myself enjoys seeing a person who finds it difficult gradually take little steps."