Join us for the 39th Annual Easter Viol Workshop

Friday 30th March to Monday 2 April at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.
Read more here

We look forward to seeing you there!

We are delighted to welcome the distinguished and pioneering viol consort player Wendy Gillespie as our Overseas Tutor, Easter Viol School, 2017.

Wendy will offer a Choices class “Before the Fantasia” including a plain and easy guide to early notation. The theme of this year’s workshop is La Dolce Vita. All things Italian! In honour of Monteverdi’s 450^th birthday we will play his Ave Maris Stella from the Vespers, 1610. And we revel in Isaac’s Italian style with selections from his Missa La Bassadanza written during the 10 years he worked for the Medicis in Florence. We explore how Italian madrigals and Venetian polychoral works influenced the development of the English Fantasia. The school offers opportunities for players from beginners to advanced, including a Beginner Scholarship program.

Wendy Gillespie is a musician who teaches early bowed strings, historical performance, and early notation. She has performed all over the world with ensembles ranging from the Ensemble Sequentia to the English Concert, participating in more than 100 recordings for Linn, Harmonia Mundi, EMI, Virgin Classics and other recording companies. As a member of the viol consorts Fretwork and Phantasm, Gillespie has shared three Gramophone awards and several other cool prizes. In 2010, she received EMA’s Thomas Binkley Award, and in 2011, the Alumnae Achievement Award from her alma mater, Wellesley College. Wendy is Past President of the Viola da Gamba Society of America and now in her thirty-second year at the Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington Indiana, where she is a Professor of Music. She is very much in favour of books and enjoys marbling paper.

La Dolce Vita

Friday 14th – Monday 17th April 2017

Saint Sabina College, Strathfield, Sydney

More information

Download the flyer here: 2017 EVS enrolment

We are looking for some photos taken at the Easter Viol School, particularly of the dance class. If you have some, Suzanne Ferguson would like to use them for reviews written for the AVDGS journal and also the VDGSA journal. Please let us know!

Michal Prokop (http://michalprokop.com/)  moved to Australian two years ago.  He is based in Taree, NSW, and is a bespoke maker of historically based violins, violas, cellos and viols.  Michal will make an instrument to suit your needs and also undertakes repairs, bow restrings, etc.

Other makers in Australia are listed here.

The 2015 National Easter Viol School will be held in Canberra at the Australian National University School of Music from Friday 3 April to Monday 6 April.  The theme of the school will be The Viol in France.

Read more . . .

The Australian Viola da Gamba Society is currently revamping and updating our website.

Please be patient as we transition across our content.

Pop back soon to see the result of our hard work!

If you are looking for the old site, you can find it here:

http://archive.avdgs.org.au