VCE String Masterclass, August 22

Presenter: Elizabeth Sellars

The VCE String Masterclass is now open for booking. Our string pedagogue for 2021 is Elizabeth Sellars. This masterclass is for students in Years 11 and 12 preparing for performance examinations. String students and string chamber groups are invited to apply. Year 11 IB performers are also welcome. Performers will have a minimum of 20 minutes each and more than one work may be presented. Students need to bring their own accompanist for works with piano. Performers must register with Janet Fernandes to receive a Trybooking link for this event. (See details below.)

VCE String Masterclass

Date: Sunday, August 22

Time: 2-4pm

Venue: Online

Fees: $40 per performer, one family member free. Registration is only required for performers.

Observers: Due to current COVID lockdown restrictions, this has now become a non-public event online.

Registrations and enquiries:

Janet Fernandes austavicvcestringmasterclass@gmail.com

Australian-born violinist Dr Elizabeth Sellars has enjoyed a distinguished career as both performer and teacher in Australia and abroad. Elizabeth is a prize-winning graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where she studied with David Takeno (violin) and the Takacs String Quartets (chamber music). Further significant influences included Sandor Vegh and Yehudi Menuhin with whom Elizabeth worked at Prussia Cove in Cornwall and at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad. During her time in London, Elizabeth was a winner of the inaugural John Tunnell Trust and the Royal Overseas League Ensemble Prize and Miller Trophy. As a soloist and chamber musician, she toured extensively in the UK, broadcast for the BBC, and performed throughout Europe and Asia with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Now resident in Australia, Elizabeth has appeared as guest Concertmaster and Principal Violin with the Tasmanian and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, Orchestra Victoria, and Australian Chamber Orchestra. As a sought-after chamber musician, she has appeared for Musica Viva and has collaborated with Ensemble Liaison, Wilma and Friends, Flinders Quartet and Elision Ensembles. Her performances have been published by Move, Naxos, ABC Classics, Toccata Classics and Tzadik and her CD The Messiaen Nexus (with Kenji Fujimura) won the 2014 Limelight Chamber Music Recording of the Year. Her most recent CD contributes the first complete recording of Pinto’s sonatas. Elizabeth continues to perform on radio and in festivals worldwide and is a founding member of Sutherland Trio with cellist Molly Kadarauch and pianist Caroline Almonte.

After sixteen years as Lecturer in Violin at Monash University, Elizabeth now teaches privately and at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. She is currently recording Australian horn trios with Quercus and plays on a Eugenio Degani violin made in Veneto in 1876.