AUSTA ACT: Workshop For Teachers with John Ma
Event Details
AUSTA ACT
Workshop For Teachers with John Ma
Date & Time: Sunday 30th November 2025, 2.00-5.00pm
Venue: Orana Steiner School – Unwin Street Weston
Cost: Members $40, Non-Members $60, Tertiary Students $20 with student ID on the day
Online Registration: www.trybooking.com/DFODM
Contact: austaact@gmail.com
Would you like to know more about historically informed interpretations of repertoire for string instruments? Then bring your instrument and join us for this AUSTA ‘hands on’ practical workshop for teachers.
With expert guidance from John Ma, we will explore aspects of music from the Baroque and Classical era and see how some of these techniques emerged in the Romantic period and beyond. If you would like to know more about ornamentation, improvisation and notation in an historical context, or how harmony, pulse and bow use affect interpretation then this is the workshop for you!
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.