Contributors
This page lists details of symposium contributors: biographies are listed alphabetically by surname.
Peter Adams
Peter Adams is an Associate Professor in the Music Department of Otago University, Dunedin, New Zealand, and is well known in that country as a conductor and composer. His first degree was in clarinet performance and composition at the University of Otago, and he was a clarinettist in the National Youth Orchestra of New Zealand and in the Dunedin Sinfonia. A Commonwealth Scholarship took him to London and King’s College where he completed an MMus in Theory and Analysis with Jonathan Dunsby and Arnold Whittall, and studied clarinet with Georgina Dobree and conducting with John Carewe. Since returning to New Zealand to take up his post at Otago, Peter has built a fine reputation as a musical leader in the local community, and as a conductor and musical director working all around New Zealand.
As well as his professional conducting commitments, Peter is a composer and has had many works performed in New Zealand, Australia and America. He is the musical director of the Waitaki Summer Music School and the National Youth Brass Band of New Zealand. He is also active as an arranger, writer and adjudicator, and still occasionally blows the cobwebs out of his clarinets to perform in chamber music recitals.
Sebastian Bausch
Since he was first introduced to the world of historical recordings by his harpsichord teacher Robert Hill at the age of 11, Sebastian Bausch has realized the importance of these unique sources as evidence for the long-lost performance traditions of the romantic era. Years later, after having devoted much time to collecting and analyzing such recordings, he is currently working on his PhD thesis, in which he examines and compares different styles of piano playing in the vicinity of the Leipzig conservatory’s academic tradition at the end of the 19th century. This is part of his work as a research fellow in Kai Köpp’s project “Die Idee des Componisten ins Leben rufen” at the Bern University of Arts.
As a performer, he feels equally at home at the harpsichord, organ and pianoforte, which he all studied with professors Jörg-Andreas Bötticher, Wolfgang Zerer and Edoardo Torbianelli at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and appears in concert regularly as a soloist and chamber musician.
Rachael Beesley
Rachael Beesley is an internationally renowned Australian violinist, director and concertmaster. As a graduate from the VCA University of Melbourne - BA in Music (1989), Grad Dip of Arts in Music (1991) and from The Royal Conservatoire, The Hague, NL - Master of Music (1999). Rachael is a versatile violinist and musician who has devoted her life to performing, teaching, and researching and has become one of the world leaders in the field of historically informed performance (HIP). Rachael is a regular member and guest concertmaster of some of Europe's finest ensembles and orchestras. Based in Australia since 2009, Rachael is guest concertmaster of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera, Opera Australia and Victorian Opera for performances on period instruments. She co-founded the ensembles Quartz, Ironwood and orchestra seventeen88 and regularly leads the chamber music ensembles Ludovico's Band, Salut! Baroque and Accademia Arcadia. As a highly regarded and much sort after teacher and mentor, Rachael is a lecturer at the Sydney and Melbourne Conservatoriums, the School of Music Monash University, the Kate Buchdahl Distinguished Artist in Residence, Adjunct Academic at the ANU School of Music, Canberra and guest director at the ANAM. In the field of HIP and Practising in Flow, she has been invited to speak at conferences in Australia, New Zealand and The Netherlands where she has taught at the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague since 2000. Rachael also collaborates with contemporary Australian composers and in 2000 she was awarded an Ian Potter Cultural Trust. She regularly appears in broadcasts for the radio and television and has performed on over 50 CDs.
Kate Bennett Wadsworth
Kate Bennett Wadsworth studied modern cello with Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory and baroque cello with Jaap ter Linden at the Royal Dutch Conservatory in the Hague, after completing a bachelor’s degree in Scandinavian studies at Harvard College. She has appeared at festivals throughout North America and Europe with baroque ensembles such as Arion, Tafelmusik, B’Rock, Apollo’s Fire, Aradia, Masques, and the Theatre of Early Music, and her continuo playing can be heard on the Naxos, ATMA, Artemis/Vanguard,and early-music.com labels.
Now mid-way through her six-year cycle of the Bach cello suites for the Toronto Music Garden, Kate recently premiered a companion piece to the 4th Suite, written for her by Canadian composer Michael Oesterle. Kate also has a special passion for classical and romantic performance practice, which she has explored as both soloist and chamber musician. Her recording of the CPE Bach A minor concerto with Les Bostonades is due to be released in June 2015, and her performances of Beethoven and Mendelssohn sonatas with fortepianist Yi-heng Yang have been called "sublime" by the Boston Musical Intelligencer. Kate is currently pursuing a PhD in 19th-century performance practice under Clive Brown at the University of Leeds.
Clive Brown
Clive Brown was a member of the Faculty of Music at Oxford University from 1980 to 1991 and is now Professor of Applied Musicology at the University of Leeds. Publications include Louis Spohr: a critical biography (Cambridge, 1984; revised German edition 2009), Classical and Romantic Performing Practice (Oxford, 1999; Chinese translation 2012), and A Portrait of Mendelssohn (Yale, 2003). He has also published many articles on historical performing practice and, as a violinist, conducts practice-led research. His critical, performance-oriented editions of music include, for Bärenreiter, Brahms’ Violin Concerto and his complete sonatas for one instrument and piano; for Breitkopf und Härtel, Beethoven’s 1st, 2nd and 5th symphonies, the Choral Fantasia, and the Violin Concerto, as well as Mendelssohn’s opera Die Hochzeit des Camacho; for AR-Editions, Franz Clement’s D major Violin Concerto (1805); and for the Elgar Complete Edition, the Music for Violin (Vol. 37). He is Director of the CHASE Project (https://chase.leeds.ac.uk), which investigates the implications of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century performers’ annotations in music for string instruments.
Shuann Chai
Pianist Shuann Chai is an active and engaging performer, critically acclaimed for interpretations on both modern and historical instruments. Her projects reflect a wide range of interests: performing the 32 Beethoven sonatas on historical pianos (seasons 2013-15), collaborations with modern dancers featuring the music of John Cage (2013) and Sergei Prokofiev (2015), and a lied program with Dutch baritone Mattijs van de Woerd commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the First World War. Resident in the Netherlands, she has performed throughout Europe from Finland to Spain and the Ukraine to the UK, and is also an active performer in Asia and as well as her native USA. Shuann has also been featured in live webcast on Avro Klassiek (NL) and live radio broadcasts on WGBH Boston (with cellist Pieter Wispelwey), the Dennis Lewin Radio Show on WCLV Cleveland, CKUA Edmonton (Canada), Harmonia Early Music Radio, Hong Kong Radio 4, and Radio-Canada.
Shuann completed degrees in both Piano Performance and Biology at Oberlin College and earned Master’s degrees from the New England Conservatory in Boston and the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (NL). Her teachers have included Jack Radunsky, Norma Fisher, David Breitman, and Claus-Christian Schuster of the Altenberg Trio. In 2010 she received a full scholarship at the Banff Centre (Canada), where she was one of eight pianists from around the world selected to take part in an exclusive Beethoven Seminar and Master Class with Anton Kuerti. She was invited back to the Centre as an Artist-in-Residence in 2012 and 2013.
Alongside her concert appearances, Ms. Chai has been increasingly in demand as a teacher. She has conducted master classes and lecture-demonstrations at the Gulangyu Piano Academy in Xiamen (China), the Grieg Conservatory in Bergen (Norway), the Central Conservatory of Beijing (China), National University of Taipei (Taiwan), the University of Edinburgh (UK), the University of California at Davis (USA), and Duke University (USA). Last year she also received an appointment at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where she is now a Visiting Lecturer in early keyboards and pianos. She also serves as the Artistic Director of the Pianoforte Festival of Zaandijk (NL), now in its fifth year.
Her first solo CD, featuring Beethoven Sonatas on the fortepiano, was released in 2012 to critical acclaim.
Among other things, Shuann Chai is grateful for having two inspiring musical companions: a concert grand Steinway signed by jazz greats Herbie Hancock and Ahmad Jamal; and an original 1820 Rosenberger fortepiano, generously provided on permanent loan by the National Musical Instruments Foundation of the Netherlands (NMF). She is also the beneficiary of generous support from organizations such as the Fonds voor Podium Kunst (FPK) and Ars Donandi.
Jung Yoon Cho
Jung Yoon is currently pursuing her practice-led PhD under the supervision of Professor Clive Brown at the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on investigating 19th century German violin performing practice with special reference to the Brahms violin sonatas. She is also interested in seeking possible positive interactions between historical and modern performing practices through her own practical experiments with the early performing practices, which can potentially contribute to enriching today’s performances. Jung Yoon completed her BMus and MMus in violin performance at the Royal Academy of Music, supported by various scholarships, awards, and prizes including the Robert Rendell Scholarship, the Picker Trust Award, the Southdown Trust Award, as well as a Foundation Award as a discretionary prize from RAM. She is also currently an active solo, chamber, and orchestral player.
Ann Cnop
Ann has been very active in the early music world for many years. As a soloist and Konzertmeister she cooperates with famous ensembles such as La Petite Bande, Il Fondamento, Concert Royal Köln, NordBarock Hannover and Europa Galante.
Currently she is conducting extensive research on the performance practice of the Romantic repertoire. This is also the subject of the PhD she is working on.
Ann is also a violin teacher at the Conservatory of Ghent.
Nicole Forsyth
Nicole has performed and recorded Australian groups working in historically informed performance & new music, Pinchgut Opera-Orchestra of the Antipodes, Ironwood, Ensemble Offspring, Halcyon, Latitude 37,appears on award winning recordings for ABC Classics, Tall Poppies, Move & Vexations 840, and has played in the major festivals around Australia – Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Queensland, Ten Days on The Island (Tasmania), Hobart Baroque, Peninsula Summer Festival, Freshwater Festival, Aurora Festival of New Music. Nicole has also enjoyed playing with the Sydney Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony, Australian Chamber Orchestra, and for Opera Australia. She has also worked with Big hART, an Australian arts-for-social change company, on Scott Rankin’s acclaimed play Namatjira & sound art project The Acoustic Life of Sheds, as a curator for Sydney Living Museums (Historic Houses Trust of NSW), and as a scriptwriter on drama series Orchestra.
Nicole co-founded Ironwood & is currently Manager, as well as playing viola. She holds a B.Music - Sydney Conservatorium of Music, studied historical performance in London & The Hague, a GradCert scriptwriting at the Australian Film Television & Radio School & is studying for a PhD in Learning & Teaching Historically Informed Performance. Nicole lectures at Sydney Conservatorium in the Historical Performance Unit, and has also taught viola & chamber music at primary & secondary schools.
Johannes Gebauer
Johannes Gebauer read musicology at King’s College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1993. As a musicologist, he worked for Christopher Hogwood and participated in many of his publications and editions. In 1995 he took up postgraduate studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, after which he settled in Berlin. As a violinist he was a member of several period instrument ensembles like the Academy of Ancient Music, Collegium musicum 90, the Bach Ensemble New York, Cappella Coloniensis, Concerto Köln as well as guest concert master at several occasions in the Canadian Aradia Ensemble. In 2007 he founded the Camesina Quartet, with which he has recently recorded a third CD.
In 2012 he returned to research joining Kai Köpp’s team at the Bern University of the Arts, where he finished his MA in Performance in 2013, his Master of Research (at Bern University) in 2014 and is now working on his PhD thesis.
Andrea Massimo Grassi
Born in Milan, he studied clarinet with Primo Borali and Antony Pay. In 1995 he received the prestigious ‘Diploma d’onore’ from the Accademia Musicale Chigiana of Siena. He completed his musical studies graduating with honours in Modern Literature and gaining the PhD in Musical Philology. He has performed chamber music in Italy as well as in USA, Russia, Germany, Spain, France and Portugal, playing for the University of Chicago, Minnesota State University, Teatro alla Scala of Milan, Université de Rouen, RAI Radiotelevisione italiana, Gnessins College of Moscow, Accademia Chigiana, Lusitanian festival ‘Sete sòis Sete luas’, Musikhochschule of Mannheim, Northeastern Illinois University, Southeast Missouri State University.
He has published, among other things, the book ‘Fräulein Klarinette’. La genesi e il testo delle opere per clarinetto di J. Brahms published by ETS as well as and the Urtext edition of the Clarinet Quintet by Brahms for the Henle Verlag, Munich. He has held seminars-concerts and master classes in the USA, Russia and in many Italian Universities and Music Academies, and he is dedicated to training and education, in particular as coordinator and teacher at the Accademia Teatro alla Scala.
Sheila Guymer
Sheila Guymer is a fortepianist and chamber musician with research interests in the performance practices of the First Viennese School, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms. In Australia, she has held positions as an accompanist and tutor in performance studies at Melbourne and Sydney Conservatoriums, and as a lecturer at the Universities of Victoria and New England. In 2011, she was awarded the FFI Freda Bage Fellowship to undertake a PhD in Music supervised by Nicholas Cook at the Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge. Her dissertation is a study of professional fortepianists’ interpretative decision-making, based on interviews with Robert Levin, Malcolm Bilson, Tom Beghin, and Bart van Oort. She is a member of Emmanuel College.
Katy Hamilton
Dr Katy Hamilton is a freelance researcher, writer and presenter on music. Her area of specialism is the music of Johannes Brahms and his contemporaries, and she has also been involved in projects covering subjects as diverse as the history of the Edinburgh Festival, the role of émigré musicians in post-1945 British musical life, and variety shows at the Wigmore Hall in the early twentieth century. She has taught at the Royal College of Music, the University of Nottingham and Middlesex University, and published and assisted on projects focussing on nineteenth-century vocal music, and is an active chamber accompanist and repetiteur, having worked with instrumentalists, singers and choirs in England, Ireland, Spain and Germany. She has also made several appearances on BBC Radio 3, as a Brahms specialist and as part of the CD Review team. Recent publication include Brahms in the Home and the Concert Hall, a co-edited volume for Cambridge University Press.
Job term Haar
Job ter Haar studied at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague with René van Ast, Lidewij Scheifes, and Anner Bijlsma. During and after his studies he specialized in playing chamber music. With his baroque ensemble Musica ad Rhenum he has made a great number of CDs, which distinguish themselves through the use of historical tempi and rubato. In recent years he has delved even further into classical and early romantic style. Above all, his interest is in the use of early nineteenth century expressive tools. Next to his performing career, Job ter Haar is working as a research coach at Codarts Rotterdam. Currently he is doing research at the Royal Academy of Music in London about the performing style of the 19th century cello virtuoso Alfredo Piatti.
Ironwood
Ironwood is an innovative Australian ensemble, committed to exploring historically informed performance of repertoire from the Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras on period instruments. Formed in 2006, Ironwood draws on a wealth of experience from across the globe. Core members include Rachael Beesley, Julia Fredersdorff, Robin Wilson, Anna McMichael & Alice Evans, violin, Nicole Forsyth, viola, Daniel Yeadon, cello & Neal Peres Da Costa, historical keyboards. Ironwood also complements historically informed performance with newly commissioned works by Australian and international composers.
Ironwood has worked with multiple promoters at venues across Australia including Musica Viva Australia, Melbourne Recital Centre, Sydney Opera House Utzon Room, Art Gallery of NSW Resonate Series, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The Biennale of Sydney, fortyfivedownstairs Melbourne, Sydney Harbour Trust, Sydney Living Museums (formerly
Historic Houses Trust of NSW), Bundanon Trust, regional music societies in NSW, Victoria and Queensland, Melbourne Festival, Peninsula Summer Festival and Ballarat Goldfields Festival. In 2015, Ironwood will establish a series in Sydney, Melbourne and regional areas, foster collaborations with other eladin Australian ensembles.
2015 will see the release of two recordings for ABC Classics: Brahms Piano Quartet op. 25 and Piano Quintet op. 34; and Mozart: Stolen Beauties with Anneke Scott, natural horn. Ironwoods discography includes the best-selling Music for a While – Handel & Purcell with Miriam Allan, as well as JS Bach Oboe Concertos with Diana Doherty; Baroque Duets with Fiona Campbell & David Walker, Vivaldi & Handel with Kim Walker, bassoon.
Ironwood has presented its research in ninteenth-century performance at the 2012 American Brahms Society conference in New York City and at the 2014 Reactions to the Record Symposium at Stanford University.
Camilla Köhnken
Camilla Köhnken studied piano performance with Pierre-Laurent Aimard in Cologne, Jerome Rose in New York, and Claudio Martínez Mehner in Basel. Additionally, she completed a BA in medieval history and art history at the University of Frankfurt/Main.
Enjoying an international career both as a soloist and chamber musician on modern pianos playing in halls like the the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Weill Recital Hall/Carnegie Hall in New York, or the Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria, Santander, she is also very interested in period instruments of the 19th century and served for many years as a pianist in residence at the Beethovenhaus Bonn.
Since June 2014 she is a doctorate candidate in the applied interpretation research project "Instructive Editions" under Prof. Kai Köpp at the Bern University of the Arts where she is focusing on shared interpretation practices of the Liszt school.
Kai Köpp
Kai Köpp studied musicology, history of art, and law at the universities of Bonn and Freiburg (PhD thesis on the concertmaster in the 18th century). After his viola diploma at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg and three years at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with a focus on the viola d’amore, he was a member of leading period ensembles in 18th and 19th century repertoires (Concerto Köln, Cappella Coloniensis des WDR, Nova Stravaganza etc.).
Having taught at Zurich and Trossingen he entered the Bern University of the Arts in 2008 as lecturer of music and teacher of performance practices, directing several publicly funded research projects. In 2011 he was appointed Swiss National Science Foundation Professor for applied interpretation research. Besides, he is involved in the European Research Council project “musicexperiment21” at the Orpheus Institute Gent. His ‘Handbuch historische Orchesterpraxis’ (Kassel 2009, 22013), which is about to be translated into English, examines unnotated norms of ripieno playing from the baroque to the romantic era.
Alexander Leman
Alexander Leman is a much-sought-after pianist. Already winning several competitions at a very young age, he was able to study with the best teachers like André De Groote, Daniël Blumenthal, Jean-Claude Van Den Eynde and Abdel-Rahman El-Bacha. He has had the opportunity to perform as a soloist with several Belgian and foreign Symphonic Orchestras and has a strong affinity with playing chamber music, which he has done from Tokio to New York.
Hilary Metzger
Hilary Metzger was born in New York City. She received a BA in music history at Yale University while studying cello with Aldo Parisot, a Masters of Music in cello performance at Mannes College of Music and a Doctorate in Musical Arts with Timothy Eddy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Awarded a US government Fulbright scholarship, she came to Paris in 1991 to study baroque cello with David Simpson and Christophe Coin, graduating with a unanimous premier prix at the Paris Conservatory. Laureate of the Henry Cabot Prize (Tanglewood Music Center) and the Harriet Hale Woolley Award (Unites States Foundation in France), Hilary Metzger now specializes in performing music of 18th and 19th centuries on period instruments and plays regularly with l'Orchestre des Champs Elysées, (Philippe Herreweghe); Anima Eterna, (Jos van Immerseel); Le Concert Spirtuel (Hervé Niquet) and Les Talens Lyriques (Christophe Rousset). She teaches in the Early Music department at the Ecole Nationale de Musique de Villeurbanne as well as at the Jeune Orchestra Atlantique Masters degree program in classical and romantic performance practice at Poitiers and Saintes.
David Milsom
David Milsom is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Huddersfield, and director of recently-established research centre HuCPeR (Huddersfield University Centre for Performance Research). David’s teaching is mainly in the domain of performance. David’s PhD, Theory and Practice in Late-Nineteenth-Century Violin Performance 1850-1900 (Aldershot, 2003) has become a respected and much-quoted text on the subject, and provided a pathway towards his AHRC Fellowship in the Creative and Performing Arts at Leeds from 2006-9, in which he continued his work with Clive Brown putting into practice, in experimental ways, the fruits of scholarly research into nineteenth-century string chamber music performance. David continues to work in the field of historically-informed performance, but his interests of late have taken a broader cast, including performance on Baroque violin with Huddersfield-based group, Four’s Company, as well as a number of performance projects (including some forthcoming recording work) on modern instruments, seeking to embed aspects of historical research into a wider aesthetic and practical performance context – this includes performance with newly-established chamber group The Meiningen Ensemble (currently, a piano trio with Jonathan Gooing and George Kennaway). Among a number of David’s more general publications of late is the A-Z of Solo String Players (2014) for Naxos Books. David is active as a violinist, violist and conductor in mainstream and ‘historically informed’ contexts, and a CD reviewer for The Strad magazine. Since 2013 David has been a Visiting Research Fellow of the University of Leeds, and continues to contribute to the still-active CHASE project (funded by AHRC from 2008-2012).
Alfia Nakipbekova
Described as “sensitive and elegant… a real joy to hear” (The Strad) and praised for her “seamless legato characteristic of the best Russian cellists” (The Times), Alfia is known internationally as a soloist, chamber musician and pedagogue.
Originally from Kazakhstan, Alfia studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire with Mstislav Rostropovich, and also took regular master classes with Daniil Shafran. She was awarded a diploma for Outstanding Mastery of the Cello at the Casals Competition in Budapest, and soon after moved to London, where she received a series of master classes with Jacqueline Du Pré.
As a concerto soloist, recitalist and a founder member of The Bekova Trio, Alfia performed in numerous festivals and recitals in the UK, Russia, Europe, USA, Middle East, Canada and Australia. The Trio is broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 3 and 4, and radio stations throughout the world. Alfia’s extensive discography (Chandos, Toccata Classics, Melodya, BIS) includes major chamber music repertoire for Piano Trio, Cello/Piano Sonatas, Cello/Violin Duos, including critically acclaimed recordings of Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Martinù, Shostakovich, Granados and Ravel. From 1998 Alfia regularly performs a series of "Bach Marathon" solo recitals playing Six Bach Suites in one evening in the major venues and festivals, including London, Oxford, Aldeburgh, Melbourne Festival, Cork Chamber Music Festival, among others. Her recording of the Bach Cello Suites was released in December 2009 (WCM) and was nominated as the best album of the year by the Russian Classical Radio “Orphey”.
As well as having a busy performance and recording schedule, Alfia is the Principal Lecturer in Cello at Leeds College of Music. She is currently researching the development of the cello in the 20th century for her PhD thesis at the University of Leeds, supervised by Dr. Michael Spencer and Dr. Michael Allis.
Claudia Pacheco Chávez
Mexican cellist. She began her musical studies in 1989 with the Programme of Youth Orchestras and Choirs of Mexico. She graduated with honours from the National School of Music of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (2012). In 2014, she started her Master degree studies in Music – Performing, with the thesis: The performing practices in the german circles during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries, with special reference to Joseph Joaquim and other string players close of Johannes Brahms. She has studied viola da gamba and was part of the ensemble “La Capilla Virreinal de Nueva España”, led by Aurelio Tello. Currently, she is cellist of Benito Juarez Chamber Orchestra and professor of the Continuing Education Programme of the Faculty of Music at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Shortly she will present her exam for consideration of degree (Master) in the Graduate School of this same Faculty.
Vasiliki Papadopoulou
Vasiliki Papadopoulou studied violin (diploma and master music performance) at the Hochschule für Musik Köln/Wuppertal and the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste. She is also dedicated to historically informed performance practice and the baroque violin, having studied baroque violin in Cologne and participated in baroque ensembles, like Concerto con Anima, TAMIS Barockorchester, Die Kölner Akademie, as well as in various orchestras (EUYO, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie a.o.). Since October 2010 she is pursuing her PhD at the Uni- versity of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (MdW) on the editions’ and performance history of J. S. Bach’s sonatas and partitas for solo violin, for which she has been granted various stipends. She has presented various papers (one of which published in Understanding Bach) and lecture recitals on her dissertation subject. Since December 2014 she is a research assistant for the Johannes Brahms Gesamtausgabe in the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).
Neal Peres Da Costa
A graduate of the University of Sydney, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London), the City University (London) and the University of Leeds (UK), Neal Peres Da Costa is a world-renowned performing scholar and educator. He is Associate Professor and Chair of Historical Performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. His monograph Off the Record: Performing Practices in Romantic Piano Playing (Oxford University Press, New York: 2012) is hailed as a book that ‘no serious pianist should be without’ (Limelight, 2012) and honoured as ‘a notable book’ on Alex Ross’s 2012 Apex List. In 2012, it was the subject of a five-part series broadcast by ABC Classic FM during the Sydney International Piano Competition and an interview with Christopher Lawrence for the ABC Classic FM Music Makers programme.
Neal regularly appears with Australia’s leading ensembles including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera, and Ironwood. Notable performances include Bach’s monumental Goldberg Variations at the Festival Baroque in Perth (2009), and the Peninsula Summer Festival (2010), and between 2013-15 at the Music Viva Festival, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music; and the ACO, the Australian Haydn Ensemble (AHE), Pinchgut, and Ironwood Seasons. Highlights in 2014-15 include a US tour and two CD recordings for ABC Classics with Ironwood and performances of Beethoven’s first, second and third piano concertos with AHE. With Ironwood, he is involved in on going cutting-edge projects that have led to performances and recordings of late-Romantic chamber repertoire in period style. To that end his collection of keyboard instruments has expanded to include historical nineteenth-century grand pianos including by Collard and Collard (English c.1840), Erard (French c.1869), and Streicher (Viennese replica c.1860).
Winner of the 2008 Fine Arts ARIA for Best Classical Recording for Bach’s Sonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord (ABC Classics, 2007) with Richard Tognetti and Daniel Yeadon, Neal’s discography includes: Bach’s Complete Sonatas for Viola Da Gamba and Harpsichord with Daniel Yeadon (ABC Classics, 2009), The Baroque Trombone with Christian Lindberg and the ACO (BIS, 2009); The Galant Bassoon with Matthew Wilke and Kees Boersma (Melba, 2009); Baroque Duets (Vexations 840, 2011) which he directed with Fiona Campbell, David Walker and Ironwood; Music for a While with Ironwood and Miriam Allan (2012); 3 with Genevieve Lacey and Daniel Yeadon (ABC Classics, 2012); and most recently Mozart: Stolen Beauties with Anneke Scott and Ironwood (ABC Classics, 2015) and Brahms chamber music with Ironwood (ABC Classics, 2015 forthcoming).
Sarah Potter
Sarah gained her doctorate from the University of Leeds, having completed practice-led research entitled ‘Changing Vocal Style and Technique in Britain during the Long Nineteenth Century’. This project analysed the vocal practices used by singers teaching and performing in Britain during this time, bringing together evidence from voice science, music history, and professional practice to interpret treatises, music criticism, and early recorded material with a view to better understanding nineteenth-century approaches to ‘classically-trained’ solo singing.
Sarah is keen to build upon this work by further investigating smaller-scale trends in vocal performance practices, particularly in relation to individual performers and composers, and the performance of specific repertoires. Other research interests include singers and celebrity, pedagogues and vocal pedagogy, and the concept of bel canto. With wide-ranging experience as a soloist and choral singer, Sarah's research informs, and is informed by, her professional practice.
Miaoyin Qu
Miaoyin Qu was born in China. She studied in Nanjing Normal University, China, where she got a BA and an MA in piano performance and became a tutor, teaching piano performance in the same institution. In Oct 2008, Miaoyin finished her second master in piano accompaniment and repetiteuring at Leeds College of Music, under the guidance of Marion Raper and Martin Pickard. She finished her Phd at the University of Leeds, doing research on late nineteenth-century German piano performance, supervised by Professor Clive Brown.
Shunske Sato
Shunske Sato is a violinist known for his distinctive and engaging performances on both modern and historical instruments. Equally in demand as concertmaster, chamber musician, soloist and teacher, the diversity of his activities reflect his versatile and resourceful nature.
Resident in The Netherlands, Shunske serves as concertmaster of Concerto Köln and the Netherlands Bach Society, and is often invited as a guest concertmaster for ensembles such as the Freiburger Barockorchester and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. In 2013 he was invited to join the faculty of the Amsterdam Conservatory, where he teaches violin in the context of historical performance practice.
He has performed as soloist with American and European orchestras such as the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bavarian Radio Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and National Symphony Orchestra, as well as with orchestras in Japan such as the NHK Philharmonic and Osaka Century Orchestra. Shunske has recorded violin concertos by Haydn and Mozart with Orchestra Libera Classica under the baton of Hidemi Suzuki, and in 2011 gave the first performance of Paganini’s second violin concerto on historical instruments with the Academy of Ancient Music. His discography is extensive and most notably includes works for solo violin by Telemann, Paganini and Eugène Ysaÿe.
In the roles of both soloist and concertmaster Shunske has worked with numerous conductors, including Ivor Bolton, Richard Egarr, Christopher Hogwood, and Kent Nagano.
In 2010 Shunske was awarded Second prize and the Audience prize at the 17th International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig. He also won the Young Concert Artists award at the age of 12, the youngest ever to date.
Born in Tokyo, Shunske immigrated to the US at the age of four. He studied at the Juilliard School in New York, Conservatoire National de Région in Paris and Hochschule für Musik und Theather in Munich. His teachers include Chin Kim, Dorothy DeLay, Masao Kawasaki, Gérard Poulet, Eiichi Chijiiwa and Mary Utiger.
Anna Scott
Anna Scott is a pianist interested in challenging understandings of canonic composers and their works in-and-through provocative acts of performance. She completed simultaneous B.Sc. (Medicine) and B.Mus. (Performance) degrees at Dalhousie University in Halifax, a Performance Diploma at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto, and an M.Mus. (Performance) degree at McGill University in Montreal. In December 2014 she was awarded a practice-led PhD in early-recorded Brahms pianism by Leiden University (NL), under the supervision of Daniel Leech-Wilkinson and the late Bruce Haynes. In demand as a solo and collaborative pianist, Anna also teaches and supervises M.Mus. and PhD students at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (NL), she is on the coordination team of the DocArtes Doctoral Programme at the Orpheus Institute (BE), and she is the lead investigator of a project researching the reflexivity of artistic research and conservatory training, supported by the Orpheus Institute and based at the Lemmensinstituut (BE).
John Snijders
John Snijders was born in Heemskerk (the Netherlands) in 1963. He studied at the Royal Conservatory The Hague with Geoffrey Madge (piano), Stanley Hoogland (fortepiano) and Louis Andriessen (composition).
In 1985 he won first prize at the Berlage Competition for Dutch chamber music. He performed as soloist with a.o. the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, The Brussels Philharmonic, The Hague Philharmonic, Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Radio Chamber Orchestra and Dutch Radio Symphony Orchestra. From 1988 until 2013 he was a member of the Nieuw Ensemble Amsterdam. In 1986 he founded the Ives Ensemble, of which he continues to be pianist and artistic director. Since 2013 he is a member of the contemporary music groups Ensemble7Bridges and E7B Soundlab.
Both as a soloist and with these groups he has performed extensively at most major music festivals in Europe such as Festival d’Automne (Paris) Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK), Edinburgh Festival (Edinburgh), Wien Modern (Vienna), Ars Musica (Brussels), Musica (Strasbourg), Settembre Musica (Turin), Biennale di Venezia (Venice).
In 2008 he was awarded the Muziekgebouw Prize 2008 for the performance of NYConcerto for piano and chamber orchestra by Richard Rijnvos.
Since 2013 he is head of Music Performance at Durham University (UK).
Several composers wrote pieces especially for him such as Gerald Barry, Christopher Fox, Richard Rijnvos, Rodney Sharman, Richard Ayres and Clarence Barlow.
Snijders is especially interested in establishing connections between contemporary music and contemporary visual arts. Other focus areas include the music of Morton Feldman and John Cage, music of extended duration, and sound art.
Emlyn Stam
Violist Emlyn Stam is active as a chamber musician, soloist, orchestral musician and performance researcher in the Netherlands and throughout Europe. For seven years he was assistant principal violist of the Residentie Orkest in The Hague under Neeme Järvi. Other orchestral work has included appearances is as a guest principle with Philharmonia Orchestra, the BBC Welsh National Orchestra and the Toulon Opera. Emlyn Stam has made numerous appearances for Dutch radio and television, he has appeared as a soloist with the Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra d’Espinho (Portugal) and the Schönberg Ensemble. He has also performed at numerous festivals such as the Kuhmo Festival in Finland, Sound of Stockholm, Connect Festival, Giverny Chamber Music Festival, International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht and Grachtenfestival Amterdam. Chamber music performances have included concerts with the Parkanyi Quartet in the Concertgebouw and regular appearances with the Ysaÿe Trio of which he is a founding member. The trio released their first c.d. in 2013 on the DRC label. Emlyn is a founding member of the New European Ensemble as well as the ensemble’s Artistic Coordinator.
Emlyn finished his Bachelor’s degree in June 2006 and his Master’s in September 2008 at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague having studied with Ferdinand Erblich and Vladimir Mendelssohn. Further studies have included masterclasses with Pinchas Zukerman, Michael Tree, Yuri Bashmet, Roberto Diaz, Tabea Zimmerman, Kim Kashkashian and Gerald Stanick. Emlyn also plays the Viola d’Amore. He is currently studying for his doctoral degree at the Orpheus Institute in Gent researching historically recordings of the viola and string chamber music.
Miguel Arturo Valenzuela Remolina
Originally from Mexico City, got his Degree in Piano at the National School of Music (ENM) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), with Professor Aurelio León Ptacnick, and later a Master degree in Higher Education and Doctorate degree in Music, both also at the UNAM. At the end of each of these studies he was graduated with honours. As full time professor in the areas of Music Theory and Ear Training (ENM), he divides his time among teaching, solo performing, musical direction, composition and research. He received his training in the area of ear training from leading German specialist Roland Mackamul. Among the awards he has received, are a First place in the Piano Contest held at the ENM (1982), and three first places in national contests of choral composition (1986 and two in 2001). In 2001 he also received the National University Award for Young Scholars, in the fields of Artistic Creation and Dissemination of Culture.
Robin Wilson
Regarded as one of Australia’s leading pedagogues, Robin Wilson is Head of Violin at the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne. He also teaches at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney. Previously, he held appointments as Lecturer in Violin and Pedagogy at Sydney and Queensland Universities and The Australian Institute of Music. As a member of Ironwood he tours nationally and internationally, performing at major venues and festivals throughout Australia, the US and the UK and has recorded for ABC Classics, Vexations840 and VDE-Gallo. He tours nationally as a member of the Australian Octet, is the former Leader of the ARCO Chamber Orchestra, and has appeared as guest violinist with numerous leading Australian ensembles. His solo discography includes two discs of violin encores and the complete Schubert Sonatas for Violin and Piano (Decca and Ode Records). Holding a PhD from the University of Sydney on the historically informed performance of Brahms’s music, Robin’s research was awarded the prestigious 2014 Geiringer Prize from the American Brahms Society. He has lectured and performed at major universities and international conferences throughout Australia, USA and the UK.
Ronald Woodley
Ronald Woodley is Professor of Music, Head of Research, and Director of the Centre for Music and Performance at Birmingham Conservatoire; previous academic posts have included the Royal Northern College of Music, Universities of Newcastle, Lancaster and Liverpool, and Christ Church, Oxford. Much of his research lies in the area of late medieval music theory and notation, especially the writings of the fifteenth-century theorist Johannes Tinctoris, but he has also worked and published in areas of twentieth-century music, such as Prokofiev, Ravel and Steve Reich. He is active professionally as clarinettist and pianist, and has particular performing interests in chamber and song repertories of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and contemporary music.
Emily Worthington
Historical clarinettist and musicologist Emily Worthington studied at the Royal College of Music (MMus 2006), the Abbaye aux Dames de Saintes (Advanced Studies diploma in Classical and Romantic performance practice on historical clarinets, 2009) and the University of York (BA 2004 and DPhil 2013). Her doctoral research into wind playing styles in early-20th century London orchestras was supported by a collaborative doctoral award from the AHRC and Music Preserved.
Emily is in demand as a specialist in historical clarinets, and has worked with orchestras across the UK and Europe, including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music, The Gabrieli Players, The King’s Consort, Spira Mirabilis, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie and Le Concert Spirituel. She has previously been selected for young artists’ residencies at the Festivals of Saintes and Utrecht. Emily co-directs Boxwood & Brass, a harmoniensemble specialising in wind music of the Classical and early-Romantic periods.
As a researcher, she held a Junior Fellowship at the Royal College of Music 2007–9 and an Edison Visiting Fellowship at the British Library 2013–14, as well as being selected to participated in the BBC New Generation Thinkers workshops 2014. Emily now teaches at Morley College and lectures on a freelance basis for various UK universities and conservatoires.
Daniel Yeadon
Daniel Yeadon is exceptionally versatile as a cellist and viola da gambist, performing repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to contemporary in many major venues and festivals throughout the world. He is currently a member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) and has been a regular guest principal cellist with Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and English Baroque Soloists. He is now a resident of Australia, where he performs regularly with Ironwood and participates in a wide range of chamber music collaborations.
Originally from the UK, Daniel read physics at Oxford University and studied historical performance at the Royal College of Music in London. For many years Daniel was a member of the renowned period instrument ensemble Florilegium and later joined the Fitzwilliam String Quartet.
Daniel has made many award-winning recordings, including an ARIA winning disc of sonatas by J.S. Bach with Richard Tognetti and Neal Peres Da Costa; the J.S. Bach sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord with Neal Peres Da Costa; J.S. Bach cantatas and Brandenburg concertos with John Eliot Gardiner and English Baroque Soloists, in addition to many critically acclaimed recordings with Ironwood, Florilegium and the Fitzwilliam Quartet.
Daniel is a lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and has a key role in the education team of the ACO. He is currently undertaking a PhD focussing on the group learning experiences of students on period instruments in tertiary music institutions.
Annie Yim
Pianist Annie Yim is based in London and performs throughout the UK, Europe and Canada. Her playing has been described as ‘radiantly coloured’, and ‘thoughtfully articulated’ (The Times). She is founder of the Minerva Piano Trio, who, as Park Lane Group Young Artists, made their Purcell Room debut at the Southbank Centre in 2014. Annie has been studying with Joan Havill and Dr. Christopher Wiley at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and City University London. Having successfully defended her doctoral thesis on Schumann and Brahms, Annie is currently planning a performance symposium at the Guildhall School based on her doctoral research. Her research was shortlisted for the 2014 Karl Geiringer Scholarship in Brahms Studies by the American Brahms Society. She has been recipient of the Cordwainers’ Musical Scholar award in recognition of her outstanding achievement and contribution to City University London. Annie has worked in masterclasses with renowned musicians as Richard Goode and Angela Hewitt. She completed her Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours at the University of British Columbia while studying with Robert Silverman.
Brent Yorgason
Brent Yorgason is an Associate Professor at Marietta College in Ohio, where he teaches music theory, music history, jazz history, and world music. His research interests include the study of expressive asynchrony in piano performance, theories of meter, and meter perception. He has presented research at numerous regional, national, and international conferences, including the Society for Music Theory, the College Music Society, and the International Conference on Nineteenth-Century Music. He also serves as the Managing Editor of Music Theory Online and is the official moderator for SMT’s online discussion forum, SMT Discuss. Brent earned his Ph.D. in music theory from Indiana University in 2009. His dissertation, from which this presentation derives, is entitled “Expressive Asynchrony and Meter: A Study of Dispersal, Downbeat Space, and Metric Drift.”