Musica Viva Australia
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Musica Viva Australia is the oldest independent performing arts organisation in Australia and the world's largest entrepreneur of chamber music.[citation needed] It was formed in 1945 in Sydney by violinist Richard Goldner. As of 2006, the Artistic Director is composer Carl Vine.
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[edit] Overview
They presented more than 2,500 concerts in 2005, in Australia and South East Asia.
Over the years, Musica Viva has adopted a more broadly defined repertoire of chamber music which includes ensemble music in the great European tradition and also ensemble music from culturally diverse backgrounds, fusion styles and jazz.
[edit] Concerts and Programs
- National Concert Series - presenting "the world's finest chamber musicians" to audiences around Australia.
- Concerts are staged in: Adelaide; Brisbane; Canberra; Melbourne; Sydney; Newcastle; Perth and Hobart.
- In 2006, the series featured: Andreas Scholl, Jerusalem Quartet, Macquarie Trio Australia, St Lawrence String Quartet, Utrecht String Quartet, Borodin Quartet, Julian Rachlin & Itamar Golan, Paul Lewis (pianist), and Yvonne Kenny.
- Coffee Concerts - an intimate, morning concert series in Sydney and Melbourne featuring Australian soloists and ensemble artists.
- Twilight Concerts - an early-evening Spring concert series in the surrounds of Frensham school in the Southern Highlands of NSW.
- Huntington Estate Music Festival - a regional festival featuring international artists at Huntington Estate Winery.
- Ménage - a concert series of chamber music aimed at Gen X/Y audiences featuring new works at unusual inner city venues.
- Musica Viva In Schools - a music education program, annually reaching 400,000 school students through the presentation of 2,300 concerts, workshops, artists-in-residence and masterclasses around Australia and in Singapore. "The program is based on three key elements for success in music education: motivated students, well-resourced teachers and the experience of live music".
- CountryWide - a regional touring program of public concerts, family concerts, workshops and residencies reaching more than 18,000 rural Australians each year.
- Export - presenting Australian musicians to international audiences; in association with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
- Café Carnivale - a Sydney music series of more than 75 concerts annually, presenting a diverse program of world music in "relaxed and intimate venues".
[edit] History
Musica Viva's heritage is grounded in the vision of one man - Richard Goldner - a Romanian-born violinist who had trained in Vienna. Goldner arrived in Australia as a refugee in 1939 but maintained his strong connections with many of the most respected musicians in Europe.[citation needed]
Once asked what he expected when he arrived in Australia, his answer was simple. First he expected to save his life. Second, he soon realised that music was not a way of life in Australia in the way it was in Europe. Men generally did not attend concerts as it was considered 'sissy' - a perception that lasted until the GIs came from America.[citation needed]
Goldner persevered and soon after formed the 'Monomeeth String Quartet which took its name from an Indigenous Australian word for peace and harmony.
Inspired by his life in Vienna and the enormous respect for his teacher Simon Pullman, he was determined to create a 'Pullman-like' ensemble in Sydney. Reading of his great mentor's death at Treblinka in 1944, Goldner's plans accelerated and he recruited 17 musicians and divided them into four string quartets (and piano). The quartets were trained individually before uniting as one group - Richard Goldner's Sydney Musica Viva.
The first concert of Sydney Musica Viva was presented at Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music on 8 December 1945. Let down by Sydney's notoriously unreliable war-time power supply, the concert took place in darkness save the headlights of several cars parked in the doorway of the auditorium and some hurricane lamps in the foyers.
