Keyboard - Staff
Chair and Senior Lecturer
Paul Rickard-Ford, (Pedagogy and Piano), BMus(Hons) Melb PGCAS
RCM GCAM UTS
Associate Professor
Gerard Willems, (Piano), DSCM(Performer)(Hons) DSCM(Teacher)(Hons)
Senior Lecturers
Daniel Herscovitch, (Piano), DSCM(Performer)(Hons)
DSCM(Teacher)(Hons) Reifeprufung Meisterklassendiplom Munich
Stephanie McCallum, (Piano), DSCM(Performer) with Merit
DSCM(Teacher) ARCM LRAM
Lecturers
Clemens Leske (Piano), BMus Julliard
Natalia Sheludiakova (Piano), DipMus (Teach) BMus Ukraine MMus Moscow
Phillip Shovk (Piano), MA Moscow
Part-time staff
Natalia Andreeva (Piano), MMus St Petersburg
Lyall Duke (Piano)
Nikolai Evrov (Piano), DipMus Sofia
Joshua Tsai (Piano), BMus Johns H Balt LRSM
Alexandra Vinokurov (Piano), DipMus SCM Moscow
Chair
Paul Rickard-Ford, (Pedagogy and Piano), BMus(Hons) Melb PGCAS, RCM GCAM UTS
After completing his BMus at the Melbourne Conservatorium, Paul Rickard-Ford was awarded the Clarke Scholarship to undertake postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music, London where he gained the ARCM and the Dannreuther Prize for the most outstanding concerto performance.
He has won many major competitions and awards in Australia, including Commonwealth winner of the 1983 ABC’s Instrumental & Vocal Competition, and in 1984 was invited to perform before HRH the Duchess of Kent in a recital at the residence of the American Ambassador in London. He returned to Australia in 1985 to undertake performing engagements with the ABC and returned to the UK for further study in 1986 as the inaugural David Paul Landa Memorial Scholar. In 1988 he received an “Australia Achiever” award for his achievements in music and was presented with the award by the Prime Minister at a special reception in Sydney during the Bicentennial celebrations.
At the end of 1988 Paul returned to the UK where he gave recitals in London at St. James’s, Piccadilly, Leighton House and a series of recitals at Colnaghi Galleries as well as performing at various festivals throughout England. He remained in London until 1994 when he was appointed as a Lecturer in Piano at the Sydney Conservatorium. He is in demand as a recording artist, recitalist, examiner, adjudicator and master teacher throughout Australia. In 2000 he was invited to give masterclasses at the Beijing Central Conservatory and the Shanghai Conservatory and gave recitals at the Australian Embassy in Beijing and the Shanghai Concert Hall.
In recent years he has been a frequent performer on ABC Classic FM and has recorded Liszt’s complete “Annees de Pelerinage”, 2 all Schumann recitals, an all Chopin recital and several “Sunday Live” programs, all of which were broadcast nationally.
He is an acknowledged leader in the field of Professional Development for piano teachers and has been Artistic Director of the Sydney Conservatorium’s annual Summer and Winter Piano Festivals since their inception 10 years ago. Paul’s students have achieved great success at competitions and examinations throughout Australia and overseas and he has five times won the AMEB’s Teachers’ Shield for the most outstanding results. He was appointed Lecturer in Piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of music in 1994 and in 2006 was appointed as full time Lecturer in Pedagogy and Piano.
Presently he is undertaking a PhD in Music Performance at the Elder School of Music in Adelaide on the late piano works of Schumann which will be completed by the end of 2008. In 2008 he was appointed as a Federal Examiner for the AMEB and has recently toured Malaysia giving masterclasses for the Sydney Conservatorium. Paul Rickard-Ford presently serves as Senior Lecturer in Pedagogy/Piano and Chair of the Keyboard Unit.
Associate Professor
Gerard Willems(Piano), DSCM(Performer)(Hons) DSCM(Teacher)(Hons)
Gerard Willems is one of Australia’s finest concert pianists and leading Beethoven scholars. He is the first Australian and Dutch pianist to record the complete Beethoven Sonata cycle and Beethoven Concertos on CD for the ABC. The recordings of the Sonatas have been awarded the ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Award) in 1999 for Volume 1 and again in 2000 for the complete set as the Best Classical Album of the year. The Concerto recordings were performed by Sinfonia Australis conducted by Antony Walker.
As a child in Tilburg, Holland, he toured Europe as a chorister and was awarded a professional scholarship for piano from the Brabant’s Conservatorium. With his family, Gerard migrated to Australia in 1958 where he entered the Sydney Conservatorium and graduated with High Distinction, studying with Gordon Watson. After winning many prizes at national competitions including the Queen Victoria Piano Competition Prize, he pursued advanced keyboard studies with Greville Rothon, Claudio Arrau’s assistant in Munich.
He settled in Amsterdam for several years where he made his debut in London in 1974, in Munich in 1977 and in Amsterdam in 1978 and returned to live in Sydney in 1981. Subsequently he has toured extensively throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand and in December 2000 completed a tour of Israel with the Israel Camerata, playing Beethoven Concerto No.4, in Rehovot, Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv.
In 1981 he joined the staff of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where he served as Chair of the Keyboard Unit until 2008. He has performed with all the major orchestras, toured for the ABC nationally and for Musica Viva. He has appeared at the Sydney and Adelaide festivals, with ensembles such as the Australia Ensemble.
In 1982 he recorded Liszt’s Concerto in E flat with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra on the occasion of the anniversary of the Sydney Conservatorium. His concerto repertoire ranges from the classical works of Mozart and Beethoven through to 20th century works such as Bernstein’s “Age of Anxiety” and Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”. He has worked with such conductors as Sir Bernard Heinze, Nicholas Braithwaite, Douglas Gamley, John Lanchbery, Avner Biron and Patrick Thomas.
He established his own piano trio, “Mozartrois”, with whom he has recorded the complete Piano Trios of Mozart for CD in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House in 1991 for the Tall Poppies label to commemorate the bicentennial of Mozart’s death. He has recorded for Dutch, French, Israeli and Australian radio and has recorded for various labels such as BMG, WEA and Philips.
Gerard has also appeared in lieder recitals and chamber music concerts with singers such as Laures Elms, Ron Stevens, Jennifer McGregor, Beverly Bergen, the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, violinists Karen Adam and Ronald Thomas and violist Esther van Stralen.
In 2001, as the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Music Scholar, awarded by the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust, he researched Early Music training throughout the USA and Europe. In 2003 he was awarded a Centenary Medal for Services to Music.
In 2004, he appeared at the Adelaide Festival in recitals of Beethoven Sonata’s and works by Andrew Ford and Mary Finsterer. Last year, his DVD of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto won the World Music DVD prize in New York.
Senior Lecturers
Daniel Herscovitch (Piano), DSCM(Performer)(Hons)
Senior Lecturer Daniel Herscovitch is a concert pianist and recording artist whose repertoire ranges from Bach to Carter. A lecturer in piano since 1996, Herscovich is also the coordinator of the postgraduate performance students at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He also lectures in piano pedagogy and chamber music.
Herscovitch studied at the Conservatorium under pianist Alexander Sverjensky and later, continued his studies with Rosl Schmid at the Musikhochschule in Munich. During his twelve years in Germany he performed extensively throughout Europe and at many international festivals. Herscovitch continues to maintain a busy performance schedule. He has appeared as concerto soloist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, has toured for Musica Viva and performed at the festivals of Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. He is currently
preparing for a series of concerts and masterclasses in the USA.
Daniel Herscovitch has recorded many works ranging from Mozart to Smalley. His recording of the Mozart/Grieg complete works for two pianos on the ABC Classics label was a world premiere as were also many of was a world premiere as were many of his recordings of contemporary works. Other CDs have been released on CSM, Tall Poppies and Continuum and ABC Classics. A CD of Australian music for two pianos is due to be released later this year and he will shortly be recording a CD of piano trios for the Tall Poppies label.
Stephanie McCallum (Piano), DSCM(Performer) with Merit DSCM(Teacher) ARCM LRAM
Stephanie McCallum is an acclaimed pianist and a Senior Lecturer in Piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She has enjoyed a career of over 25 years, appearing on over 35 CDs (including 11 solo albums) and in hundreds of live solo and concerto performances. Playing a repertoire from the eighteenth to the twenty first century she is especially noted for her performances of virtuosic music of the nineteenth century, particularly the music of Liszt and Alkan, and also for her advocacy of demanding contemporary solo and ensemble scores. She joined the faculty at the Conservatorium in 1985.
McCallum studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Alexander Sverjensky and Gordon Watson then in England with Ronald Smith. Her debut at Wigmore Hall debut in 1982 attracted critical acclaimed, and she has appeared extensively as a soloist in the United Kingdom, France and Australia, and has toured Europe with The Alpha Centauri Ensemble. Recently she presented lecture recitals at the Royal College of Music and the Purcell School, London.
A noted exponent of contemporary music, McCallum was a founding member of the contemporary ensembles AustraLYSIS and Sydney Alpha Ensemble and was joint artistic director of the latter since its inception. She has also performed with such groups as the Australian Chamber Orchestra, ELISION and The Australia Ensemble, and been concerto soloist with the Sydney, Queensland, Adelaide, Canberra and Tasmanian Symphony orchestras and at many festivals Sydney Festival, and performed in Brighton, Cheltenham, Huddersfield, and Sydney Spring Festivals. In 2007, McCallum performed Elena Kats-Chernin’s first piano concerto, Displaced Dances–a work written especially for her–with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins in the Opera House Concert Hall. McCallum gave the world premier performance of this work in 2000 with the Queensland Symphony.
McCallum’s prolific recording career includes the music of Liszt, Weber, Alkan, Magnard, Boulez, Xenakis and of contemporary Australian composers. Her most recent release is a recording of piano solo music by Satie on ABC Classics.
For complete discography and reviews please visit Stephanie McCallum's personal website: www.stephaniemccallum.com