This installment of Musica Viva's Masterclass series brings Arcadia Winds to UQ. We are thrilled to be partnering with Musica Viva to provide inspiring learning experiences to developing musicians.
Arcadia Winds
Awarded a fellowship at the Australian National Academy of Music upon their formation in late 2013, they became Musica Viva Australia’s inaugural FutureMakers musicians from 2015–17. They have brought their brand of energetic, joyful and spontaneous performance to festival stages in almost every state and territory in the country; concert halls across mainland China; and listeners around the world through broadcasts of the BBC Proms Australia chamber music series. And they have revelled in musical partnerships with internationally renowned performers including the Australian String Quartet; piano virtuosi Lambert Orkis, Paavali Jumppanen and Anna Goldsworthy; and woodwind masters Ole Kristian Dahl and Thorsten Johanns.
A desire to celebrate and promote Australian music has led Arcadia Winds to commission and perform works by composers such as Elliott Gyger, Natalie Williams, Andrew Ford, Lachlan Skipworth, Kate Neal, Peter de Jager, Sam Smith and Elizabeth Younan. In 2017, they recorded Lachlan Skipworth’s Echoes and Lines on their debut self-titled EP, released in partnership with ABC Classics and Musica Viva. Equally focused on inspiring a love of, and participation in, wind music in the next generation, Arcadia Winds developed an hour-long show for the Musica Viva In Schools (MVIS) program. Entitled The Air I Breathe, it showcased the magical transformation of breath into music to thousands of school children from 2017–20.
Musica Viva
In 2025 Musica Viva Australia will deliver live performances, masterclasses,
competitions and coaching across all seven states and territories in Australia, touching the lives of over 150,000 people from primary school students to professional musicians and from emerging artists to lifelong audiences.
It's a long way from Vienna, and a long way from Australia of 1945, where Central European refugees Richard Goldner and Walter Dullo put together an ensemble of displaced musicians to perform Beethoven’s Grosse Fugue. There were no thoughts of touring international soloists or culturally diverse teaching ensembles at that time; no national competitions, emerging artist development or systemic music education initiatives: just a group of musicians sharing their profound love for a multifaceted artform which had shaped their lives.
In the eight decades since, Goldner and Dullo’s initiative has become the largest chamber music organisation and the largest music education provider in the world.
As they approach the 80th anniversary of the first concert of ‘Richard Goldner’s Sydney Musica Viva’ they are taking a moment to see where Musica Viva is now. Much has changed across eight decades but Goldner and Dullo’s original instinct, to build a community around their deep love of music, is a constant. Indeed, it continues to define their stated purpose, to connect all Australians to something bigger than themselves: to powerful music which awakens the spirit.