Peter John Tregear OAM is an Australian musicologist, author and performer.
Tregear's first academic appointment was as a lecturer in music at the University of Queensland in 1999. In 2000 he took up a Lectureship in music at Fitzwilliam and Churchill Colleges, Cambridge, as well as serving as a fellow and Director of Music at Fitzwilliam College, an appointment that "brought new energy" to the musical life of the college. [1] He returned to Australia in 2006 to serve as Dean of Trinity College, University of Melbourne, where he successfully mounted a case for the construction of the College's 'Gateway Building' which included performing arts facilities; [2] and later served as executive director of the Academy of Performing Arts at Monash University. [3]
In 2012 Tregear was appointed Professor and Head of the School of Music at the Australian National University and charged with resolving public and professional discontent that had erupted over the university's imposed job cuts and curriculum changes. Tregear reorganised the degree programs and appointed leading scholar-performers to the school, including Paul McMahon, David Irving and Erin Helyard. [4] By early 2015, however, it had become clear that the university had reneged on its commitment to a foundational level of staffing in the school, and was not providing the school with adequate budgetary information. [5] Tregear "found the University management hostile to his attempts to rebuild confidence in the School". [6] Announcing his resignation in August 2015, ANU's Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young nevertheless acknowledged that he had been "a strong advocate for music education in Australia and at ANU" and had "worked tirelessly to build on the School of Music's vision, to promote creative life on campus and in the Canberra community". [7]
Tregear subsequently took up a teaching fellowship at Royal Holloway, University of London. [8] In 2019 he returned to Australia and was appointed Dean of St Mark's College, Adelaide. In November 2020 he became the inaugural director of Little Hall at the University of Melbourne. [9] He is currently a principal fellow of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, and an adjunct professor of music at the University of Adelaide. [10]
As a conductor, Tregear has co-founded two ensembles (IOpera [11] and The Consort of Melbourne, [12] ) and mounted several world or local premieres and revivals of historic and neglected operatic repertoire, including the first modern revival of Samuel Arnold and George Colman's 1787 anti-slavery comic opera Inkle and Yarico , the first UK performance of Max Brand's opera Maschinist Hopkins at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 2001, [13] [14] the complete revival of Anna Amalia's Erwin und Elmire in Gotha, Germany [15] and the Australian premieres of Jonny spielt auf [16] and Rothschild's Violin [17] in Melbourne. With The Consort of Melbourne he has conducted performances with the Kronos Quartet (Melbourne Recital Centre), [18] and The Rolling Stones (Rod Laver Arena). [19] [20] As a singer, Tregear has performed as a soloist with groups such as Ensemble Émigré, [21] Melbourne Opera, [22] and The Nash Ensemble. [23] In April 2024 Tregear mounted and conducted a bicentennial performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa Solemnis at St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne. [24] [25]
Tregear has published extensively on the composer Ernst Krenek and the operatic culture of the Weimar Republic, and on twentieth-century Australian music history, especially the music of Percy Grainger and Fritz Hart. [26] He is also a regular contributor to The Conversation , [27] the Australian Book Review , [28] Limelight , [29] and Classic Melbourne [30] as a critic and commentator.
Tregear was described by the Times Higher Education in 2021 as a "transparency advocate" [34] for his work campaigning for universities to be more open and accountable about their finances and integrity processes. [35] [36] [37] He has also argued against ministerial interference in the work of the Australian Research Council. [38] Tregear is a founding member of the advocacy group Academics for Public Universities. [39]
Tregear won the Australian Green Room Award for Best Conductor (Opera) for 2008 for IOpera's production of Elwin and Elmire. [40] He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2020 Queen's Birthday Honours "for service to music education and professional societies". [41]
The Missa solemnis in D major, Op. 123, is a Solemn Mass composed by Ludwig van Beethoven from 1819 to 1823. It was first performed on 7 April 1824 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, under the auspices of Beethoven's patron Prince Nikolai Golitsyn; an incomplete performance was given in Vienna on 7 May 1824, when the Kyrie, Credo, and Agnus Dei were conducted by the composer. It is generally considered one of the composer's supreme achievements and, along with Bach's Mass in B minor, one of the most significant Mass settings of the common practice period.
Raffaele Marcellino is an Australian composer.
The Elder Conservatorium of Music, also known as "The Con", is Australia's senior academy of music and is located in the centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It is named in honour of its benefactor, Sir Thomas Elder (1818–1897). Dating in its earliest form from 1883, it has a history in professional training for musical performance, musical composition, research in all fields of music, and music education. The Elder Conservatorium of Music and its forerunners have been parts of the University of Adelaide since the early 1880s. The current Director is Professor Anna Goldsworthy.
The Faculty of Fine Arts and Music is a faculty of the University of Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia. It is located near the Melbourne City Centre, with its main campus at Southbank on St Kilda Road, housing the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. Part of Music also operates from the Parkville campus of the University of Melbourne.
Richard James Gill was an Australian conductor of choral, orchestral and operatic works. He was known as a music educator and for his advocacy for music education of children.
Lisa Kinkead Gasteen AO, is an Australian operatic soprano, known for her performances of the works of Wagner. She won the Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 1991. She did not perform between 2008 and 2011, due to neuro-muscular spasms in her neck.
Musica Viva, also known as Musica Viva Australia, is a national organisation in Australia dedicated to chamber music.
Geoffrey Lancaster is an Australian classical pianist and conductor. Born in Sydney, he was raised in Dubbo, New South Wales before moving to Canberra. He attended the Canberra School of Music where he studied piano with Larry Sitsky. He also studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, graduating with a Doctor of Philosophy, and also completed a master's degree at the University of Tasmania. In 1984, he moved to Amsterdam to study fortepiano with Stanley Hoogland at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. In 1996 he was a professor at the Royal College of Music in London, following which he worked at the School of Music at the University of Western Australia. He was a professor of the ANU School of Music from 2000 until 2012. Now based in Perth, he is Professor of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts at Edith Cowan University.
The Zephyr Quartet is a string quartet based in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1999, they have been recognised with awards and have collaborated with international musicians.
Piers Lane is an Australian classical pianist.
Sylvia Gwendoline Victoria Fisher was an Australian operatic soprano whose stage career was made in England, who was especially distinguished in German opera, and who created the role of Miss Wingrave in Benjamin Britten's Owen Wingrave in 1971. Fisher was made a Member of the Order of Australia in the 1994 Australia Day Honours, for "service to the arts, particularly opera".
Paul Dean is an Australian clarinetist, composer and conductor
Marshall McGuire is an Australian harpist, teacher, conductor and musical administrator.
Zane Banks is an Australian guitarist from Sydney, who plays both classical and electric guitars in a variety of musical genres. Banks premiered the 1-hour long solo electric guitar work, Ingwe, by composer Georges Lentz.
Peter Musson was a bassoonist and bassoon teacher. He was a principal bassoonist in the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Senior Lecturer in bassoon at the Queensland Conservatorium and was a soloist and member of chamber music ensembles.
Caitlin Hulcup is an Australian mezzo-soprano, who has performed both in Australia and internationally, particularly in Europe.
Mary Finsterer is an Australian composer and academic.
Carl Crossin OAM is an Australian choral conductor, educator and composer. He is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the University of Adelaide. He was a director of the Elder Conservatorium of Music in the University of Adelaide in 2010–2014.
George Philip John Engisch (1882–1972), later English, was an Australian tenor soloist, composer and conductor. His two symphonies of the early 1930s represent the late-Romantic style just like the better-known late symphonies by Alfred Hill.
Katy Abbott is an Australian composer. Abbott writes music for orchestra, chamber ensemble and voice. Her work reflects her interests in contemporary Australian cultures and often explores notions of home, place, humour and connection.
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