Jarrod Hepburn

I am a Senior Lecturer at Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. I played regularly with Melbourne String Ensemble from 1995 until around 2003, and joined the Asia tour in 1996 and the Germany tour in 2002.

After finishing my undergraduate studies in law and software engineering, I spent a year living and working in Ghana, Canada and Ireland, before returning to Melbourne to work with one of Australia’s largest law firms, King & Wood Mallesons. The opportunity of postgraduate study at Oxford University then arose, and I left for the UK on a Chevening Scholarship to spend five years at Balliol College, Oxford, studying for a masters and doctorate in international law. I then lectured at Exeter University in the UK for two years before returning again to Melbourne.
Although violin’s not my main focus today, I still play wherever possible – in Oxford, I once played in seven concerts in eight weeks (including the Rite of Spring, and an all-day nine-symphony Beethovenathon)! I’m currently playing with Corpus Medicorum, an orchestra mainly for doctors and health professionals but with a few legal interlopers as well.

MSE gave me some of my first teaching opportunities, tutoring the younger players, and it also taught me a lot about analysing musical problems, discovering patterns, working in teams and communicating clearly (whether in words or in music). These are the same skills that I use today in my job as a researcher and teacher of the law, and I was lucky to develop them with Fintan and MSE.