Brass players have always been expected to make music in a very diverse range of styles and performance situations. In the 21st century that expectation has continued and is widening at a rapid rate.
To be relevant in this day and age, we aim to develop player's skill levels in terms of sound, technique, and range, and to enable them to work in many different contexts. There is focus on orchestra, film, recording, TV, opera, ballet and to understand a range of styles from Renaissance and Baroque through to the 21st century.
Students gain experience performing in many different solo and ensemble situations and they work specifically towards preparing for auditions and recitals. Confidence in performance in all students is our main aim.
Head of Brass
Robert Sims (Trumpet)
Phone: +61 3 9685 9413
Roger Davies (Trombone)
Phone: +61 3 9685 9415
Sessional Staff
Trumpet - Greg Spence, Tristram Williams
French Horn - Trinette McClimont
Trombone - Michael Bertoncello, Ken McClimont
Tuba - Sue Bradley, David Martin, Fabian Russell
Repertoire Guitar students are given the opportunity to develop skills of performing various styles of notated music on guitar. Students will enhance ensemble playing, sightreading and analytical skills through the Specialist Related Studies subject, improve preparation and performance skills and gain performance experience. In Performance Workshop students will develop practical concepts of sound, colour, dynamics, articulation, resonance as they relate to style and projection of musical intentions through Individual Lessons.
Students are given opportunities to perform publicly by way of the various activities and concerts. Collaborations are a large part of the student experience at the VCA and can often continue in professional life after students graduate. Students are also encouraged and challenged to find their own 'voice' through the course. The course structure of the Individual Lessons is intended to provide enough balanced guidance and freedom to allow this to happen.
Head of Guitar
Anthony Field (Guitar)
Phone: +61 3 9685 9426
Sessional Staff
Owen Thomson
As an art form, music combines and exalts all others. It is a way of painting landscapes with sound, of drawing shapes with melodies, of carving monuments with articulation, of telling stories through juxtapositions of characterised phrases and gestures, it is poetry in nuance and drama in dynamics. As a science, music yields its secrets through logic and analysis, through precise study and exhaustive research. As a discipline music demands commitment, self-awareness, self-control, athleticism, and the motivation to devote large blocks of time to study and rehearse. Keyboard staff are dedicated to helping students acquire all of these tools essential to the mastery of the instrument as extensions of their own bodies, to facilitate fully liberated expressiveness, to create beautiful sound tapestries that ultimately communicate the music's inner meaning, and to gain insights into their inner worlds. The pathway to these depths leads to our own hearts.
Our commitment to the music of our own time has resulted in a formal relationship with the Practical Composition Stream wherein the second year pianists collaborate with second year composers on the creation of new work to be premiered in the pianists' end-of-year recitals. Pianists have the opportunity to perform in the annual Sound Out concert featuring composer's orchestra premieres of new works for large forces involving piano.
Students are led in these endeavours by one of the world's foremost interpreters of the music of the twentieth centuries, American pianist Dr Donna Coleman, renowned for her recordings of the music of Charles Ives and of the composers associated with the ragtime tradition in the United States and elsewhere, and for her unique Dancing With the Piano philosophy and approach to music making.
Head of Keyboard
Dr Donna Coleman (Piano)
Phone: +61 3 9685 9312
Staff
Elizabeth Mitchell (Head of Honours, Piano)
Phone: +61 3 9685 9436
Glenn Riddle (Coordinator, Foundation Program Music Performance, Piano)
Phone: +61 3 9685 9406
Sessional Staff
Michael Kieran Harvey (Distinguished Visiting Artist); Professor Max Cooke, Len Vorster, Priscilla Alderton (Harpsichord)
Head of Opera
Dr David Kram (Conductor)
Phone: +61 3 9685 9430
Percussion staff at the VCA seek to equip student percussionists for a career in music, by assisting their technical development and providing them with a variety of playing opportunities. It also offers them exposure to a broad range of music, a solid base knowledge about percussion and information about the music profession and the arts world in general.
The basis of students' technical development occurs in the individual lessons with their Principal Study teacher, chosen from one of the number of top professional percussionists who make up the sessional staff.
Weekly percussion classes provide performance and collaborative opportunities and the chance to further develop practical and critical skills. These skills are further enhanced by participation in a range of ensembles active within the School. As well as percussion ensemble and other chamber ensembles, students are able to participate in orchestral rehearsals, performances and occasional recording projects.
In March 2006, VCA Percussion hosted the Youth Masterclass In Percussion, as part of the cultural festival of the Commonwealth Games. The event culminated in a concert at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl attended by over 12,000 people.
Head of Percussion
Peter Neville (Percussion)
Phone: +61 3 9685 9414
Sessional Staff
John Arcaro, Guy du Blet, Sergei Golovko, Graeme Leak
String staff at the School of Music have produced numbers of outstanding string players who have achieved important positions in the music world both nationally and internationally, enhancing the reputation of the VCA as the premiere arts training institution in Australia.
The course offers students comprehensive training focusing on solo, chamber music, and orchestral studies to become well rounded and highly skilled practising musicians.
Students are encouraged to realise their full potential and achieve their individual goals in a nurturing and caring environment, assisted and guided by staff members who are themselves active performers.
The course also offers students opportunities to perform in various venues within the College as well as in the community. The School regularly invites national and international visiting guest artists for masterclasses and concerts providing inspiring opportunities to study with master musicians.
Head of Violin
Miwako Abe (Violin)
Phone: +61 3 9685 9422
Marco van Pagee (Head of Orchestral Studies, Viola)
Phone: +61 3 9685 9435
Sessional Staff:
Cello: Molly Kadarauch, Zoe Knighton, Joesphine Vains, Tim Walden
Double Bass: Stephen Reeves
Violin: Zoe Black, Rochelle Bryson, Mark Mogilevski, Nelli Shkolnikova, Elizabeth Sellers, Wilma Smith, Joanne Wallwork
Classical singers in the twenty-first century are facing a very different world to that of their predecessors. To carve a niche for themselves in their highly competitive enviroment of professional singing, young artists need to be highly motivated, fluent musicians, physically and emotionally strong, with a sound vocal technique and an awareness of their strengths and weaknesses in relation to the workplace they wish to enter.
In practical Vocal studies, emphases are placed on the integration of the physical by and breath with the world of sound; acknowledgment of the importance of emotional and mental balance in the creation of sound; maintenance of a connection to creative purpose- that spark which ignites the desire to sing and perform. Students will learn skills that will enable a young singer not only to negotiate their way, but also creatively flourish in the professional world of classical singing.
Singers in the course have many performance opportunities through workshops and concerts. There is also a strong collaboration with other disciplines such as Practical Composition and Orchestral Studies, as well as outside organisations. These collaborations provide valuable practical experience, allowing the singer access to a variety of instrumentation and a broad range of compositional styles.
Head of Voice
Anna Connolly (Voice)
Phone:+61 3 9685 9431
Staff
Stephen Grant (Voice)
Phone: +61 3 9685 9433
Sessional Staff
Carrie Barr, Monique Brynell, Vivien Hamilton, Brian Hansford, Robert Stewart, Merlyn Quaife
Languages
Stephen Grant (German), Nancy Calo (Italian), Robert Stewart (French, Phonetics)
Feldenkrais
Stephen Grant
Woodwind students are accepted into the course on the flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and saxophone. As the course is very much performance-based, the students are expected to demonstrate a high level of performance ability and potential on their chosen instrument at their incoming audition, and dedicate themselves to the art of performance whilst in the three-year undergraduate course.
Many performance opportunities are offered such as solo playing, chamber music, improvisation, cross-arts projects, orchestral and big band performance. Most classes are small and the students receive a great deal of attention from staff. This is the defining element that makes the VCA an outstanding institution for emerging artists - the time and care spent by professional practicing artists in the nurturing of each student.
Head of Woodwind
Derek Jones (Flute)
Phone: +61 3 9685 9440
Eve Newsome (Oboe)
Phone: +61 3 9685 9440
Robert Schubert (Clarinet)
Phone: +61 3 9685 9421
Sessional Staff
Flute: Alan Hardy, Sylvie Leprohon-Robinson, Mardi McSullea
Oboe: Stephen Robinson
Bassoon: Lucinda Cran
Saxophone: Lachlan Davidson, Ian Godfrey, Michael Lichnovsky
