Aria contenders

And now, two chamber ensembles made up of graduates and teachers from the University of Melbourne – Flinders Quartet and Latitude 37 – are reaping the rewards of hard-earned success, with both groups having been nominated for the 2011 ARIA Fine Arts Award for Best Classical Album.

“Everyone loves the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition,” says cellist with the Flinders Quartet and University of Melbourne alumna, Zoe Knighton.

“It has been a platform for many groups and, subsequently, many more have formed. Melbourne does seem to be the home of chamber music in Australia and to be honest, in my opinion there can never be too much.”

Latitude 37’s viola de gamba specialist Laura Vaughan believes it is because Melbourne is a market catering for more personalised music.

“Melburnians seem to prefer a more intimate style of music making. We have found audiences are fascinated by different, non-standard instruments,” Ms Vaughan says.

Formed in 2000, Flinders Quartet features three graduates from the University of Melbourne – Ms Knighton teaming up with violinists Erica Kennedy and Matthew Tomkins. The violist is Canberra-trained Helen Ireland, who now teaches at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, alongside Mr Tomkins and Ms Knighton.

The group toured extensively over the past decade, despite the demands of family and professional qualifications.

“Everything is a bit of a juggling act, but in the end we love playing together. It’s an absolute joy,” Ms Knighton says.

Having returned from a three-state concert tour late last year, the quartet began an ambitious program in March. Vince Jones appeared as a guest artist during their first recital, ‘Intimate Letters’ – a concert series featuring, among other pieces, a world premiere of Calvin Bowman’s Michael Leunig-inspired ‘The Curly Pyjama Letters’.

Latitude 37 took several years to form.

Trained at the then-Faculty of Music, Ms Vaughan met violinist and Victorian College of the Arts alumna Julia Fredersdorff at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague. The Melburnians soon encountered New Zealand harpsichordist Donald Nicolson, who was busy establishing himself in the Baroque and Early Music movement.

The trio embarked on their own careers, but the germ of an idea remained long after all three members left Europe and returned home. A tour of New Zealand and a gig in Tauranga led to the trio’s name – a latitudinal point common to both Melbourne and the North Island town.

Ms Vaughan believes Australia provides the group with unique performance opportunities.

“There is a surprising atmosphere, considering the sparse population. We have a phenomenal opportunity to go our own way and create our own music. There is a real culture of musical experimentation.”

Neither group would have found its way into the recording studio without significant outside help.

Flinders Quartet’s nominated album – Fandango – was made in conjunction with Queensland guitarist Karin Schaupp. The album’s centrepiece is Boccherini’s ‘Fandango Quintet’, recorded by ABC Classic in early 2011.

The quartet was introduced to Ms Schaupp by a long-time collaborator, Genevieve Lacey, in 2010. Ms Knighton remarks that the relationship quickly developed.

“We had such a great time with Karin – the rest was history, and we were soon recording an album together.”

The album – Flinders Quartet’s second – could not have occurred without generous support from a host of patrons.

“Donors have been critical to us,” Ms Knighton says. “We simply could not have recorded the album without the help of our benefactors, or the ABC.”

Ms Vaughan admits that for Latitude 37, their self-titled album ran to a “pretty tight budget.”

“Being our first album, we put our heart and soul into it. The ABC were extremely helpful with the recording process.”

The resultant album features a number of classic baroque works, focusing on stile antico and stile moderno music of 17th-century Italy and Spain. Many of the trio’s interpretations were original, for which Ms Vaughan says Latitude 37 has received gratifying feedback.

“We were amazed by the industry recognition and success. It seems audiences find baroque music very listenable,” she says.

The trio recently collaborated with David Chisholm, a Melbourne composer currently writing a specially commissioned work on the ill-fated Kursk, the Russian submarine that sank in the Barents Sea following an on-board explosion in 2000.

“It is a highly original piece, which features some very haunting frameworks,” Ms Vaughan says.

Local and unique, Flinders Quartet and Latitude 37 reflect the outstanding chamber musicians produced by the University. For Ms Vaughan, this is a point of immense pride.

“It brings a lot of happiness to see our peers doing well. The Faculty [now Conservatorium] of Music has developed some outstanding musicians.”

http://vcam.unimelb.edu.au/