The Masterclass Series at Elder Hall attracts the finest musicians and is an outstanding opportunity for the Conservatorium’s highly-talented students.

This year’s Masterclass Series is set to be our most inspiring ever, with jazz, strings, vocal, piano and woodwind, and a special attraction with staged play-reading – a first for Elder Hall.

This series is presented in association with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

Download the 2013 Masterclass Series Brochure

Celebrated a cappella vocal group The Idea of North are a quartet of musicians, serious about their music without taking themselves too seriously. They have a beautifully distinct sound and style and cross many musical genres: jazz, folk, gospel, pop, classical, comedy.

They continue to produce many award-winning recordings including their 2010 release Feels like Spring, a collaboration with jazz great James Morrison, which won the 2010 ARIA award for Best Jazz Album.

Their passion for singing connects with all ages, back- grounds and cultures and their education program has become an integral feature of the group’s musical journey.

They work regularly with schools, universities and other educational institutions, choirs, musical ensembles and with people who love to make music!

Special Discounts available for School groups. For enquiries and bookings, contact Claire on 8313 5925 or claire.oremland@adelaide.edu.au

Canadian violinist James Ehnes has established himself as one of the foremost violinists of his generation.

Gifted with a rare combination of stunning virtuosity, serene lyricism and an unfaltering musicality, Ehnes is a favourite guest of orchestras worldwide including the Boston, New York, London Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, DSO Berlin and the NHK Symphony Orchestras, a regular guest at Wigmore Hall in London and an avid chamber musician.

Ehnes has an extensive discography and has won many awards for his recordings including a 2008 Gramophone Award for his live recording of the Elgar Concerto, a 2008 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance for the Korngold Violin Concerto and a 2008 JUNO award for Best Classical Album of the Year.

“The arrival of violinist James Ehnes lofted the evening to a higher plane... thanks to the beauteously radiant tone and razor-sharp tuning Ehnes brought to it.” - Daily Telegraph, 30 November 2012

James Ehnes will perform Britten’s Violin Concerto with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in the Adelaide Town Hall on Friday 24 May at 8:00pm and Saturday 25 May at 6:30pm. Subject to availability Masterclass ticket holders are also entitled to a 2 for 1 ticket offer to attend this ASO performance. To book, contact BASS on 131 246 with special password (available after booking your masterclass).

Bass Stephen Bennett has sung with Scottish Opera, Opera New Zealand, Victorian State Opera, Lyric Opera of Queensland, State Opera of South Australia, Western Australian Opera and Opera Australia.

His operatic roles have included Don Giovanni, Leporello, Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte, Sarastro in The Magic Flute, Publio in Clemenza di Tito, Mephistopheles in Faust, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, and Claggert in Billy Budd for which he won the Victorian Arts Centre Green Room Award for Best Operatic Artist in a Featured Role.

In recital and for radio broadcast, Stephen has sung Schubert’s song cycles Die Winterreise and Schwanengesang, Brahms’ Four Serious Songs, Poulenc’s Chansons Gaillardes, and many other recitals.

He appears on ABC Classics recordings of Semele of Handel, Fairy Queen of Purcell and Dardanus of Rameau.

Stephen Bennett has been on staff at the Australian National University School of Music since 2005.

Stephen Bennet will perform Beethoven's Symphony 9 "Choral" with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in the Adelaide Festival Theatre on Friday 31 May at 8:00pm and Saturday 1 June at 8:00pm. Subject to availability Masterclass ticket holders are also entitled to a 2 for 1 ticket offer to attend this ASO performance. To book, contact BASS on 131 246 with special password (available after booking your masterclass).

MASTER CLASS

Between October 1971 and March 1972, legendary opera singer, Maria Callas, gave 23 master classes for singing students at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.

In playwright Terrence McNally’s extraordinary theatrical tribute, Callas takes centre-stage one more time. By turns temperamental, vain, insightful and infuriating, she passes on a lifetime of experience.

We witness La Divina’s passion and commitment, and realise the singularity of her gift, as she coaxes, prods and inspires her students into giving the performances of their lives, while revealing her own.

As she slips off into memories, we experience her days at La Scala, her marriage to Batttista Meneghini, and her great, doomed love for international shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis.

But the dazzling theatricality comes from Callas’ emotional explosions, her cutting wit, and the soaring music, as each student sings an aria that exposes La Divina’s vulnerabilities... and her genius.

Winner of Broadway’s 1996 Tony Award for Best Play, Master Class combines music and drama to give us a glimpse of what it takes to make great and glorious art.

A staged play-reading with singing.

Directed by Rob Croser, Artistic Director of Independent Theatre.

Kathryn Fisher, one of Adelaide’s best-loved actresses, will read the part of Callas.

Past and present Conservatorium students Jessica Dean, Teresa La Rocca and James Nicholson read and sing the roles of Madame Callas’ “victims”.

Accomplished repetiteur Mark Sandon plays the accompanist.

French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie has been hailed as “one of perhaps half a dozen pianists who it is worth dropping everything to go and hear” (Daily Telegraph, London).

He studied with Yvonne Hubert (a pupil of the great French pianist, Alfred Cortot), in Vienna with the Beethoven specialist, Dieter Weber, subsequently with Schnabel disciple Leon Fleisher, and was also deeply influenced by the distinguished violinist and chamber music teacher Joseph Gingold.

Born in 1959 in Montreal to a non-musical family, Louis Lortie gave his first public performance at the age of thirteen with the Montreal Symphony. He has since gone on to perform frequently with leading orchestras, conductors and in the most prestigious recital series.

His recordings cover repertoire from Mozart to Stravinsky, including a set of the complete Beethoven sonatas. His recording of Beethoven’s Eroica Variations earned him an Edison Award. His disc of works by Schumann and Brahms was named one of the best CDs of the year by BBC Music Magazine, which also named his disc of Chopin etudes one of 50 Recordings by Superlative Pianists.

...a great and rare opportunity for audience and participants alike...

Louis Lortie will perform in Beethoven's Piano Concerto with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in the Adelaide Festival Theatre on Friday 6 September at 8:00pm and Saturday 7 September at 6:30pm. Subject to availability Masterclass ticket holders are also entitled to a 2 for 1 ticket offer to attend this ASO performance. To book, contact BASS on 131 246 with special password (available after booking your masterclass).

Nicholas Daniel’s long and distinguished career began when, at the age of 18, he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. Today one of the UK’s most distinguished soloists, he has been heard on every continent, and has been a concerto soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors. He has become an important ambassador for music and musicians in many different fields and an important force in the creation and performance of new repertoire for oboe.

An active chamber musician, Nicholas is a founder member of the Haffner Wind Ensemble and the Britten Oboe Quartet and enjoys a long history of collaboration with artists including the pianist Julius Drake and the Carducci and Lindsay string quartets. He is oboist to the California- based chamber ensemble Camerata Pacifica and is Artistic Director of the Leicester International Festival.

Nicholas Daniel continues to work with the Britten Sinfonia as oboist and as conductor and appears regularly at many international and British festivals.

This masterclass is presented in association with the 2013 Australasian Double Reed Society Conference.

Nicholas Daniel will perform the Australian premiere of James MacMillan's Oboe Concerto with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in the Adelaide Festival Theatre on Friday 13 September at 8:00pm and Saturday 14 September at 6:30pm. Subject to availability Masterclass ticket holders are also entitled to a 2 for 1 ticket offer to attend this ASO performance. To book, contact BASS on 131 246 with special password (available after booking your masterclass).