Stephanie McCallum
Encyclopedia
Stephanie McCallum is a classical pianist
. She has recorded works of Erik Satie
, Ludwig van Beethoven
, Charles-Valentin Alkan
, Franz Liszt
, Robert Schumann
, Carl Maria von Weber
, Albéric Magnard
, Pierre Boulez
, and Iannis Xenakis
among others.
and Gordon Watson at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music
. After further study with Ronald Smith
in the UK, she gave a debut concert at the Wigmore Hall
in 1982. Returning to Australia in 1985, she became a founding member of contemporary ensembles austraLYSIS
and the Sydney Alpha Ensemble. She has performed as soloist with most of the major Australian symphony orchestras and in ensembles with the Australian Chamber Orchestra
, ELISION Ensemble
and The Australia Ensemble. In a 1985 Wigmore Hall
recital, she gave what is believed to be the first ever complete public performance of Alkan
's Three Studies, Opus 76 (for the Left Hand, for the Right Hand, and for the Hands Reunited). In 2000, she gave the world premier of Elena Kats-Chernin
's Displaced Dances for Piano and Orchestra (which was written for her) with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra
and has subsequently performed this work with the Adelaide and Sydney Symphony orchestras. As well as performing and recording, she continues teaching at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music
as Associate Professor in piano.
, and also the first recording of what is believed to be the last piano piece that Beethoven wrote, never before published or even catalogued (the piece was edited by Stephanie's husband, the musicologist, Peter McCallum). She has made a particular specialty of virtuosic nineteenth century music, making a specialty of Alkan, and of contemporary solo and ensemble music. Her performances of Xenakis's Herma, and Brian Ferneyhough
's Lemma Icon Epigram have received critical acclaim. She has released CDs of the music of Liszt, Weber, Alkan, Schumann, Magnard, Pierre Boulez
, Xenakis and of contemporary Australian composers. Stephanie McCallum is the only pianist to have recorded both the major and the minor key studies (Opus 35 and 39) of Alkan. In addition to Alkan and Pierre Boulez
, she has recorded much other music by French composers: Erik Satie
, Albéric Magnard
, Vincent d'Indy
, Maurice Ravel
and Guy Ropartz.
Her solo CDs include
Stephanie McCallum is an Associate Professor in piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music
.
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
. She has recorded works of Erik Satie
Erik Satie
Éric Alfred Leslie Satie was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde...
, Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Charles-Valentin Alkan
Charles-Valentin Alkan
Charles-Valentin Alkan was a French composer and one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of his day. His attachment to his Jewish origins is displayed both in his life and his work. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of six, earning many awards, and as an adult became a famous virtuoso...
, Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
, Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
, Albéric Magnard
Albéric Magnard
Lucien Denis Gabriel Albéric Magnard was a French composer, sometimes referred to as the "French Bruckner", though there are significant differences between the two composers...
, Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
, and Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis was a Romanian-born Greek ethnic, naturalized French composer, music theorist, and architect-engineer. He is commonly recognized as one of the most important post-war avant-garde composers...
among others.
Life
Stephanie McCallum studied with Alexander SverjenskyAlexander Sverjensky
Alexander Borisovich Sverjensky was a Russian-born Australian pianist and teacher....
and Gordon Watson at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Sydney Conservatorium of Music
The Sydney Conservatorium of Music is one of the oldest and most prestigious music schools in Australia...
. After further study with Ronald Smith
Ronald Smith
Ronald Sam Smith was an English classical pianist, composer and teacher, born in London. He entered the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 16 with the Sir Michael Costa Scholarship for composition...
in the UK, she gave a debut concert at the Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
in 1982. Returning to Australia in 1985, she became a founding member of contemporary ensembles austraLYSIS
Roger Dean (musician)
Roger Thornton Dean is a British-Australian musician, academic, biochemist and cognitive scientist.He is married to poet, writer, musician and academic Hazel Anne Smith.-Music:...
and the Sydney Alpha Ensemble. She has performed as soloist with most of the major Australian symphony orchestras and in ensembles with the Australian Chamber Orchestra
Australian Chamber Orchestra
The Australian Chamber Orchestra was founded by cellist John Painter in 1975. Richard Tognetti was appointed Lead Violin in 1989 and subsequently appointed Artistic Director....
, ELISION Ensemble
ELISION Ensemble
The ELISION Ensemble is a chamber ensemble specialising in contemporary classical music,concentrating on the creation and presentation of new works....
and The Australia Ensemble. In a 1985 Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
recital, she gave what is believed to be the first ever complete public performance of Alkan
Siegfried Alkan
Siegfried Alkan was a German composer.Alkan was born in Dillingen, Saarland , the son of Johannes Alkan and Johanna Bonn in a family of merchants and musicians. Through his mother he was a distant cousin of the composers Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Fanny Hensel and Giacomo Meyerbeer...
's Three Studies, Opus 76 (for the Left Hand, for the Right Hand, and for the Hands Reunited). In 2000, she gave the world premier of Elena Kats-Chernin
Elena Kats-Chernin
Elena Kats-Chernin is an Australian composer.Elena Kats-Chernin was born in Tashkent , and migrated to Australia in 1975.-Europe:...
's Displaced Dances for Piano and Orchestra (which was written for her) with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra
Queensland Symphony Orchestra
The Queensland Symphony Orchestra is an Australian orchestra, based principally in Brisbane in the state of Queensland.The QSO played its first concert on 26 March 1947, with the orchestra consisting of 45 musicians, conducted by Percy Code. John Farnsworth Hall was recruited from the Sydney...
and has subsequently performed this work with the Adelaide and Sydney Symphony orchestras. As well as performing and recording, she continues teaching at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Sydney Conservatorium of Music
The Sydney Conservatorium of Music is one of the oldest and most prestigious music schools in Australia...
as Associate Professor in piano.
Repertoire and recordings
Stephanie McCallum has released 13 solo CD albums, and her recordings of the music of Liszt and her popular CDs of French piano music have recently been re-released as boxed sets. Her recording of all of Beethoven's Bagatelles for piano, contains the published sets of Bagatelles, Opus 33, 119 and 126, individual pieces such as the popular Für EliseFür Elise
Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor for solo piano, commonly known as "Für Elise" , is one of Ludwig van Beethoven's most popular compositions. It is usually classified as a bagatelle, but it is also sometimes referred to as an Albumblatt.- History :The score was not published until 1867, 40 years after...
, and also the first recording of what is believed to be the last piano piece that Beethoven wrote, never before published or even catalogued (the piece was edited by Stephanie's husband, the musicologist, Peter McCallum). She has made a particular specialty of virtuosic nineteenth century music, making a specialty of Alkan, and of contemporary solo and ensemble music. Her performances of Xenakis's Herma, and Brian Ferneyhough
Brian Ferneyhough
Brian John Peter Ferneyhough is an English composer. His music is characterized by the extensive use of complex rhythmic tuplet notation which features in all his works...
's Lemma Icon Epigram have received critical acclaim. She has released CDs of the music of Liszt, Weber, Alkan, Schumann, Magnard, Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
, Xenakis and of contemporary Australian composers. Stephanie McCallum is the only pianist to have recorded both the major and the minor key studies (Opus 35 and 39) of Alkan. In addition to Alkan and Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
, she has recorded much other music by French composers: Erik Satie
Erik Satie
Éric Alfred Leslie Satie was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde...
, Albéric Magnard
Albéric Magnard
Lucien Denis Gabriel Albéric Magnard was a French composer, sometimes referred to as the "French Bruckner", though there are significant differences between the two composers...
, Vincent d'Indy
Vincent d'Indy
Vincent d'Indy was a French composer and teacher.-Life:Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy was born in Paris into an aristocratic family of royalist and Catholic persuasion. He had piano lessons from an early age from his paternal grandmother, who passed him on to Antoine François Marmontel and...
, Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
and Guy Ropartz.
Her solo CDs include
- Scenes from Childhood. Piano music of Robert Schumann, ABC Classics (2010)
- Für EliseFür EliseBagatelle No. 25 in A minor for solo piano, commonly known as "Für Elise" , is one of Ludwig van Beethoven's most popular compositions. It is usually classified as a bagatelle, but it is also sometimes referred to as an Albumblatt.- History :The score was not published until 1867, 40 years after...
. Bagatelles for piano by Ludwig Van Beethoven, ABC Classics (2008) - Gymnopédies: the Exquisite Piano Music of Erik SatieErik SatieÉric Alfred Leslie Satie was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde...
, ABC Classics (2007) - AlkanCharles-Valentin AlkanCharles-Valentin Alkan was a French composer and one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of his day. His attachment to his Jewish origins is displayed both in his life and his work. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of six, earning many awards, and as an adult became a famous virtuoso...
: Douze Etudes dans les tons mineurs [Twelve Studies in the Minor Keys], opus 39 (including Symphonie, Concerto and Overture for solo piano, and Le Festin d'Esope), [2 CDs] ABC Classics (2006) - LisztFranz LisztFranz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
: from the Years of Pilgrimage, ABC Classics (2003) - The Liszt Album, ABC Classics (2003) (including the B minor Sonata)
- Perfume: the exquisite piano music of France, ABC Classics (2001)
- Carl Maria von WeberCarl Maria von WeberCarl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
: the Complete Piano Sonatas and other works, [2 CDs] ABC Classics (1998) - Illegal Harmonies: the Twentieth Century Piano, ABC Classics (1997)
- Alkan & MagnardAlbéric MagnardLucien Denis Gabriel Albéric Magnard was a French composer, sometimes referred to as the "French Bruckner", though there are significant differences between the two composers...
, Tall Poppies (1996) - Notations, Tall Poppies (1994)
- Alkan, Twelve Studies in the Major Keys, opus 35 , Tall Poppies (1994)
- Alkan, Concerto for solo piano (from op. 39), Chants opus 70 [first recording] (1990).
Stephanie McCallum is an Associate Professor in piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Sydney Conservatorium of Music
The Sydney Conservatorium of Music is one of the oldest and most prestigious music schools in Australia...
.