Curt Thompson

Double Stopping: How Migration Shaped the Careers of Australia’s Celebrity Violinists.

This presentation highlights the recent publication of a 12-chapter book (8 authors contributing) published by Bloomsbury NY on a dozen violinists of international importance that came to, from or through Australia. This is part of a major research initiative called the Australian National Violin Project and it is based at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, although it most certainly involves the conservatories of Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and the University of London. While it doesn’t fit into a particular category, it is of national and international importance as a research project.

This presentation will highlight the major contributions of the Australian violinists Johann Kruse, Daisy Kennedy, Dorcas McClean, Ernest Llewelyn, Beryl Kimber, Henri Verbrugghen, Tossy Spivakovsky, Richard Golden, Robert Pikler, Nathan Gutman and Alma Moodie.

About Curt Thompson

Curt Thompson is Associate Professor and Head of Strings at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, and founder and director of the Mimir Chamber Music Festival, held annually in Fort Worth and Melbourne. He has appeared as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Salle Gaveau in Paris and Shanghai Concert Hall. He can be heard on the Naxos, Tall Poppies and Move labels, including his landmark recording of Charles Ives’ violin sonatas which received ‘Top 10’ listings in The New York Times and Gramophone magazine. His research interests include early twentieth-century American music, violin pedagogy and violinists and violin culture in Australia. His teachers include the violinists Nelli Shkolnikova, Sergiu Luca and Rostislav Dubinsky.