AUSTA ACT Masterclass

A Masterclass led by John Ma

Date & Time: Sunday 7^th May, 2.00 pm – 4:30 pm (AEST)

Venue: North Belconnen Uniting Church, Conley St, Melba ACT

Cost:

Participant: $50

Observers: AUSTA Member: $20,  Non Member: $40, Student: $15

Online Registration: https://www.trybooking.com/CHNWH

Contact: austaact@gmail.com

This Masterclass is suitable for senior string students, AMEB Grade 5 and above and all string teachers.

This Masterclass is a wonderful opportunity for senior string students and teachers to experience the wealth of expertise John Ma brings to interpreting Baroque repertoire. Working with selected individual students, John will guide their understanding and interpretation of some of the standard repertoire, often presented in exams and performances at this level.

John Ma

John Ma is a Violinist/Violist and Viola d’amore player specialising in Early Music. He has performed in various roles with groups around the world including Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (NL), Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (UK), Academia Montis Regalis (IT), Bach Collegium Japan (JP), Musica Poetica (NL), Apollo Ensemble (NL), Fantasticus (NL), New Collegium (NL), Collegium 1704 (CZ), Helsinki Baroque Orchestra (FIN), B’Rock (BG), Trondheim Baroque Orchestra (NOR).

In Australia, John has appeared with groups such as Pinchgut Opera, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Australian Haydn Ensemble, Australian Bach Akademie, Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, Salut!, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, and Sinfonia Australis.

As a teacher and ensemble leader, he is keen to seek a balance between technique and exploration. A robust technique is meaningless if it does not form the basis for a playful exploration and communication with colleagues and audience.

John is an avid gamer, comic book reader, and tech-nerd. He retains an interest in scientific and mathematical developments and tries to stay up to date with the latest news and advances related to his previous studies. He is now based in Canberra where he has decades of learning the finer points of gardening and vegetable growing ahead of him.

An ENCORE screening of the AUSTA ACT Webinar: Shifting for Cello Players, What’s in it?

Presented by Megan Taylor

This webinar was recorded on 22/10/2022.

If you purchased tickets to the original webinar, no need to register again – you’ll be sent a link to watch the Encore recording.

The recording will be available to watch: Monday 6th November – Monday 13th November 2023.

Cost:

AUSTA Member: $10

Non Member: $15

REGISTER HERE 

Webinar details:

Mapping out a fingerboard is lifelong fun for cellists, including the travel between positions.

This workshop will be a forum where we discuss how to approach shifting from the earliest years of learning, right up what we do as professionals. We will look at how a good knowledge of the underlying mechanisms of shifting give us certainty and style, and how we provide a left hand base for the bow to operate on in an unencumbered way. What artistic and historical considerations do we consider to help us make choices about the mechanism and style we decide to use? What are all the mechanisms we use at different musical points? How do we organise the bow in relation to shifts?

What have anticipation, ground force, momentum and gravity to do with it? How do our bodies work? How does an understanding of anatomy help the specifics of shifting?

Megan Taylor

Megan Taylor was educated at the NSW Conservatorium of Music High School. beginning cello studies with John Painter.

After spending 1O years in London studying with Raphael Wallfisch and Stefan Popov, and working in a freelance capacity with many ensembles, Megan moved to Copenhagen to study with the European Suzuki Group, beginning a lifelong passion for learning about teaching. After returning to Sydney Megan worked with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and many touring groups such as the Royal Ballet and The Bolshoi Ballet orchestras. She undertook her Teacher Training for Alexander Technique in Sydney and began teaching Alexander Technique in Sydney including training other teachers at the Centre for Alexander Technique Studies. She taught cello at many schools in Sydney and ran many large workshops for cellists and study workshops for teachers with her colleague Pip Jackson (Philippa Harding).

Megan then moved to Canberra to undertake a B Mus (Perf) with Lois Simpson, graduating in 1994. She has been teaching both cello and Alexander in Canberra since then.

Megan has been a cello tutor at Youth Orchestras in Europe, Sydney and Canberra. She considers cello classes or tutorials essential for learning and developing the young cellist, given the highly specialised nature of the fingering system, patterns idiosyncratic for different composers, and the traditions and learning passed down through generations. That is the best fun!