KEVIN O’MARA – PRODUCT DESIGN, PRINT PRODUCTION and ADMINISTRATION

Writing Credits

Developmental Classroom Music Program

  • Music Room (books 1-7)

Integrated Arts Program

  • Cool Cats Cross Arts Adventures (levels 1-4)

Singing Resources

  • Start Singing (with the Cool cats Kids)
  • Start Singing Aussie Kids Songs
  • Advance Australia Fair (adapted for younger singers)

Guitar tutor

  • Upbeat Guitar 2

Dance collections

  • Cool Cats Big Bush Dance with Paradidle Band
  • Cool Cats Big Dance Party with Paradidle Dance Band
  • Start Singing Action Songs with Paradiddle Band
  • Start Singing and Dancing with Paradiddle Band

Mini-musicals

  • What We Did on Our Holidays
  • Our Cake Eating Hippo Plays (musical adaptation of the Hazel Edwards stories)
  • The Gingerbread Man
  • Holidays

Junior Musicals

  • A Christmas Pageant
  • HMS Pinafore (adapted for younger performers)
  • The Mikado (adapted for younger performers)
  • The Pirates of Penzance (adapted for younger performers)
  • Kids in Camelot
  • The Little Mermaid
  • Masquerade!
  • A Kidsummer Night’s Dream
  • Danger Kids
  • Kids at Sea
  • Once Upon a Time
  • Kids in Paradise
  • Dragon Girl
  • Currawong Creek
  • Kids in Space
  • Superkids

Senior Musicals

  • Open Season

Music picture book

  • Moondrops – a First Book of Lullabies

Miscellaneous

  • Cool Cats Graduation Kit

Kevin O’Mara supports operations, projects and production, engineers recording sessions, handles the music set, designs layout and liaises with printers – and takes his tea black with one sugar. He also finds time to write and edit for the company.

Kevin was born in Melbourne, growing up in the working class suburb of Fawkner and is a passionate Carlton supporter – but don’t hold that against him. When not on Bushfire Press duties, Kevin umpires Aussie Rules football on the weekends in winter and leads the Warrandyte Primary School Bush Band.

Kevin has been a classroom teacher, music teacher and Music Advisor, as well as a professional musician, writer and performer. He holds a Dip Prim Tch and a Grad Dip Mus.

Kevin’s involvement in music began with a scholarship to St Patrick’s Cathedral Choir, Melbourne and he was a chorister with the choir from ages of 9 to 25. He was a founder member, in 1978, of Paradiddle Band, an Australian-Irish group that specialises in bush dances and primary school programs and is still performing.

In the late eighties, Kevin began writing school musicals with Lynne Bartlett, Mark Leehy and Rob Fairbairn. By the end of the decade, he, Lynne and Mark began Bushfire Press and those early shows were first titles published by the company.

Get in contact with Kev via email

Kevin O'Mara