Exciting contemporary audiences with the power of baroque music
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About Us
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For over 30 years Adelaide Baroque has fostered audiences for music of the baroque period through very well received concert programs, workshops and master classes. Our aim is to excite contemporary audiences with the power of baroque music.
Importantly, Adelaide Baroque has led the resurgence of interest in the presentation and promotion of historical performance practice nationally and internationally. Adelaide Baroque has been the training ground for many Australian musicians in the art of baroque performance practice through its workshops. Its commitment to best practice has seen Adelaide Baroque involved in nurturing the next generation of performers in an ongoing schools programs.
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AB's performances consistently achieve high critical acclaim; it has international recognition in the field; tours regionally, nationally and internationally; regularly collaborates with both Australia's leading and emergent baroque performers in concert; has sound and stable governance which conscientiously stages a full program of the highest artistic merit.
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Adelaide Baroque was incorporated as Baroque Music Promotions Inc. on 19th November, 1984 and the name was changed to Adelaide Baroque Inc. on 21st January, 1998.
The Committee
The Hon Anne Levy AO
Patron
Lynton Rivers studied recorder in Amsterdam with Marion Verbruggen and in Vienna with Hans Maria Kneihs as a recipient of an Australia Council grant. He tutors regularly at Australian Recorder Festivals and workshops, and has performed in Australia, UK, Sweden and China. Lynton is a lifelong teacher as well as a performer. As a teacher of the Instrumental Music Service of the Department of Education and Children’s Services, he has introduced generations of schoolchildren to the trials and joys of music performance. Lynton is also a tutor on the staff of the Elder Conservatorium of Music, and is chief recorder examiner for the AMEB. He is a principal founding member and key artist with Adelaide Baroque, and his recordings include Musica da Camera and Passion released by Adelaide Baroque.
Lynton Rivers
B Mus, Dip T
Chair
Frank May has been on the Committee of Management since its inception as an independent external member. A pharmacist and pharmaco-epidemiologist, he recently retired from a Faculty position at the Harvard Medical School, Boston. Frank is a practising organist and accompanist. His specialist brief on the Committee is both artistic and business advisor. Previous Board positions: 1985-1995 Deputy Chairman – Adelaide Children’s Hospital, Women’s & Children’s Hospital
Frank May
MAppSci, FISPE, ARCM, LRAM
Board Member
Jayne Varnish began her Bachelor of Music on the clarinet at the Elder Conservatorium but transferred in her final year to the recorder with Lesley Lewis. She studied recorder with Marion Verbruggen in Amsterdam, and with Hans Maria Kneihs, and has completed a Graduate Diploma in Education. Jayne has performed extensively with Compages, Viva Baroque!, Syntony, and Adelaide Baroque. Jayne has a strong commitment to music education, and is an experienced recorder teacher from primary to tertiary levels. She he has been a tutor and examiner at the Elder Conservatorium, and is a regular tutor for Adelaide Baroque and the Recorder Society of SA. Jayne’s long-term interest in Asian music has culminated in her current teaching of a Gamelan Orchestra, and she currently holds a music teaching position at Seymour College.
Jayne Varnish
B Mus, Grad Dip Ed
Board Member
Katrina Brown
B Mus, MA, Con.Rec.Dip, A.R.C.M,
Grad Dip Ed
Board Member
A graduate of the University of Adelaide, Katrina is a former state and national winner of the keyboard section of the ABC’s Instrumental and Vocal Competition. Katrina studied harpsichord, fortepiano and historical performance in London with Christopher Kite at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and with Kenneth Gilbert at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Further post-graduate studies were at City University (London) where she completed a Master of Arts Degree with distinction.
Prizewinner in the Raymond Russell Harpsichord Competition, the Broadwood Trust Fortepiano Competition and the Brugge International Harpsichord Competition, Katrina has given recitals as a soloist and chamber player in Europe, Hong Kong and Australia. Performances in Australia have included with the ASO, Salut! Baroque, Elysium Ensemble, Adelaide Baroque and the Barossa Music Festival. She is currently a teacher at Marryatville High School's Special Interest Music Department.
Anne Whelan
B Mus (Hons)
Board Member
Anne Whelan lived in NSW for 30 years and returns to Adelaide with renewed enthusiasm for Baroque Music performance in SA. Anne became interested in the harpsichord and baroque music while studying organ with the late David Rumsey. After completing her Honours degree in Music (harpsichord with Dr David Swale and the late Dr J.V Peters), she studied in Europe (1974 -1977) - at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland and with Ton Koopman in Amsterdam (1978-1979). ​While in Adelaide, Anne was a founding member of Adelaide Baroque from 1977-1985. Her work as the founding harpsichordist with Music da Camera (Adelaide) and Baroque Music Workshop contributed to the revival of music played on historical instruments in Adelaide and SA. As well as Baroque Music Workshops she taught at all CAEs, the University of Adelaide, and in NSW at the University of New England, MLC Burwood and PLC Pymble. Anne toured for Music Viva with Capella Corelli and played continuo for many visiting artists such as Anner Bylsma, the late Andrea von Ramm, Hans-Maria Kneihs, Gerald English and recorded for ABC FM.
Glen Weir
B Ec, FCPA, FCIS, FAIM, MAICD
Board Member
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Simone Slattery
B Mus (Hons), PhD
Board Member
Glen has a passion for music along with painting, drawing and travelling.
Glen has qualifications in accountancy and economics and has had a diverse career, mainly in the public sector, which has included financial management, trade practices, investments, legislative reviews and economic development. Glen is presently on the Crawford Fund SA Committee. Previous positions include the Board of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
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Glen sees his role on the Committee as ensuring Adelaide Baroque continues to play fine music to growing audiences and provides opportunities for current and emerging musicians of baroque music.
Australian violinist Simone Slattery is one of the country’s most versatile young musicians and performers, with a passion for music from a wide range of eras. Her performances nationally and internationally, on both modern and baroque violin, have received critical acclaim.
Simone has appeared as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician throughout Australia and overseas, and regularly performs with ensembles including the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Antipodies, the Australian Haydn Ensemble, Ironwood Ensemble, Adelaide Baroque, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra seventeen88, Academia Arcadia, Ensemble Galante, and the Bowerbird Ensemble, which she co-founded in 2013. Simone studied violin at the Elder Conservatorium of Music and the Australian National Academy of Music, and was recently awarded a performance-based PhD from the University of Adelaide as an Australian Post-graduate Award candidate, creating editions and recordings of the little known violin works of Ernest Bloch.
Rob Nairn
Board Member
Rob recently returned to Australia to
a position as Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne where he teaches Double Bass, Violone, coaches chamber music and directs the Baroque Ensemble. He was previously a Distinguished Professor of Music at Penn State University and on the faculty of the Juilliard School.
He has performed with the London and Oslo Philharmonics, Pittsburgh and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestras, English, Scottish
and Australian Chamber Orchestras, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, London Sinfonietta, Halle Orchestra, London Mozart players and the
Australian String quartet. He is principal bass of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston, MA, and is a member of the Australian World Orchestra. He has performed with
the Boston Early Music Festival, Juilliard Baroque, English Baroque Soloists, Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, Concerto Caledonia, Washington Bach Consort, Rebel, Florilegium, the Orchestra of the
Age of Enlightenment, Ironwood, and Adelaide Baroque.
He has recorded for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, EMI, Virgin, ABC Classics, and Channel Classics.
Collaborations and Commissions
Adelaide Baroque maintains a commitment to its commissioning program
and innovative cross-artform projects
Adelaide Baroque's commissioning program has resulted in new works for old instruments by some of South Australia's leading composers performed in original productions featuring cross art form collaborations.
We commissioned noted composer Tristram Cary for a series of songs for "Catches and Rounds". The program also featured music from 17th Century England performed by "Musica da Camera" and readings from social and political tracts of the period read by accomplished Adelaide based actor Paul Blackwell.
We also commissioned respected composer Quentin Grant for our "Psyche" program which again featured a collaboration between "Musica da Camera" and Paul Blackwell reading from his own script on the story of the goddess Psyche. More recently we commissioned Natalie Williams to write Four Seasons based upon Vivaldi's popular work. Natalie has gone on to achieve international fame abroad. And for our "Cityscape" program we commissioned acclaimed Adelaide composer Anne Cawrse.
Adelaide Baroque’s lead ensemble has performed with leading national and international baroque musicians in their concerts. In recent years they have included:
Musicians
Ben Dollman (violin)
Simone Slattery (violin)
Lucinda Moon (violin)
Davide Monti (violin, Italy)
Rachael Beesley (violin)
Madeleine Easton(violin)
Emily Dollman (violin)
Emma Woolcock (violin)
Janet Anderson(violin)
Bianca Muggleton (violin)
Kate Morgan (cello)
Catherine Finnis (cello)
Marion Middenway (cello, Paris)
Anthony Albrecht (cello, UK)
Anton Baba (cello)
Anna Webb (viola)
Heidi von Bernewitz (viola)
Michael Robertson (viola)
Laura Vaughan (viola da gamba, Melbourne)
Alison Crum (viola da gamba, UK)
Miriam Morris (viola da gamba, Melbourne)
Ruth Wilkinson (viola da gamba, Melbourne)
Robert Nairn (violone)
Tessa Miller (soprano)
Emma Horwood (soprano)
Sally-Anne Russell (mezzo soprano)
Stefanie True (soprano)
Robert McFarlane (tenor)
Kate McFarlane (soprano)
Thomas Flint (bass)
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Katrina Brown (harpsichord)
Anne Whelan (harpsichord)
Rosalind Halton (harpsichord, Newcastle)
John O’Donnell (harpsichord, Melbourne)
Hans Maria Kneihs (recorder, Vienna)
Jane Downer (oboe ,UK)
Anne Gilby (oboe)
Antony Chesterman (oboe, Sydney)
Jackie Newcomb (bassoon)
Early Dance Consort (Sydney)
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