NATIONAL ONLINE SPRING ACADEMY AN ‘INVIGORATING TRIUMPH’

Anthea Cottee and Professor Neal Peres Da Costa

Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra recently completed the National ONLINE Spring Academy for its talented Young Mannheim Symphonists. 

The exciting, immersive online seminar took place from Monday 27 to Tuesday 28 September and involved dozens of participants aged 12-22 – all logging on from NSW, Victoria and Queensland.

Directed by the Orchestra’s co-artistic directors Rachael Beesley and Nicole van Bruggen, students explored historically informed performance (HIP) and performance psychology in tutorials, masterclasses and mentoring sessions – all featuring guest speakers and principal musicians from the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra.

Rachael & Nicole began the proceedings each day with sessions entitled Investigating Primary & Secondary Sources – A Research Guide to enable students to understand more about the process of research and expand their concept of performance led research. They shared short videos and written responses from many of the Orchestra’s academically inclined musicians describing their doctoral research and process of investigating Primary & Secondary sources and included inspiring short biographies of their career paths. Students then learnt how these musicians envisaged their research and how this influences the performance and understanding of HIP today and into the future.

The Academy welcomed back internationally respected experts – guest speakers Anthea Cottee – psychologist and cellist who shared practical advice on Motivation & Peak Performance and Prof Neal Peres Da Costa, who gave a brilliant talk on cutting-edge research into Classical and Romantic performance practices. Conductor Dr Mario Dobernig introduced insights specifically designed for the 2022 YMS National Winter Academy repertoire, including listening to recordings and providing historical context to the repertoire.  

The live masterclasses by Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra’s Principal Musicians enabled the students to perform live or submit a recording of a Classical or Romantic work (on modern instruments). Q&A mentoring sessions with the co-artistic directors and the guest speakers followed throughout the Academy. 

The National ONLINE Spring Academy was a unique opportunity for students to gain confidence, knowledge, inspiration and expertise to empower them to begin making informed musical decisions on their own.

Applications/auditions for the 2022 Young Mannheim Symphonists programs close 31 October, 2021.

http://www.arco.org.au/yms-2022

Featured image : Co-Artistic Directors Rachael Beesley and Nicole van Bruggen