Alice and her beloved violin
Limelight
In Australia Judah married Hyrell McKinnon and had a child, Alice (1947-2022). Judah was a famous novelist, but music was part of their life every day. Hyrell and Judah were proud when Alice began to fulfil her promise as a violinist.
After studying with Eberhard Feltz at Berlin's Hochschule für Musik, Alice gained a master's degree from Moscow Conservatory teachers, David Oistrakh and Valery Klimov. She had chamber music coaching from Moscow’s Borodin String Quartet
Before returning to Australia, Waten taught at Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts and Chetham's Specialist Music School in Manchester. And she was actively involved in many teaching seminars: Luxembourg Conservatory with Daniel Shafran and Igor Ozim, and Juilliard School.
Back in Australia, she became a founding member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra in 1975 and held the Principal 2nd Violin for 10 years. In this era she undertook extensive tours across Europe, Australasia and Asia. She held various principal roles and leaving an indelible mark on Australia's musical landscape as a performer. But her interest in training young violinists was a constant ambition from early in her own career.
After studying with Eberhard Feltz at Berlin's Hochschule für Musik, Alice gained a master's degree from Moscow Conservatory teachers, David Oistrakh and Valery Klimov. She had chamber music coaching from Moscow’s Borodin String Quartet
Before returning to Australia, Waten taught at Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts and Chetham's Specialist Music School in Manchester. And she was actively involved in many teaching seminars: Luxembourg Conservatory with Daniel Shafran and Igor Ozim, and Juilliard School.
Back in Australia, she became a founding member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra in 1975 and held the Principal 2nd Violin for 10 years. In this era she undertook extensive tours across Europe, Australasia and Asia. She held various principal roles and leaving an indelible mark on Australia's musical landscape as a performer. But her interest in training young violinists was a constant ambition from early in her own career.
Australian Chamber Orchestra rehearsal
Alice playing the violin in the centre chair, aco
At the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Alice rose to be Associate Professor, together with Norwegian Ole Bohn and Romanian Reiner Schmidt after an international search involving 130 applicants. Among Waten’s students were some of Australia's most notable violinists Richard Tognetti, VC artist Suyeon Kang and Dr Robin Wilson. Wilson is now himself a pedagogue for the new generation of young Australian violinists, including VC Rising Star Christian Li. And she taught Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Co-Concertmaster Sophie Rowell and Anne Horton, both of them members of the Australian String Quartet. Sydney Symphony Orchestra Associate Concert-master Sun Yi and Principal Second Violins Marina Marsden and Kirsty Hilton.
Richard Tognetti wrote that young violinists require a mentor, both a musical instructor and psychologist. He first entered Alice’s class in 1977 at 11. He was suitably challenged; little did he know about the rigorous Russian Violin School and her Russian language skills.
Alice brought discipline, historical sense, sarcastic wit, real love and support, perfect for both cocky teenagers and affected musicologists. As his curiosity grew, Tognetti decided to try to learn from the musicology department. In time Alice helped him to get to study with the celebrated Slav violinist & pedagogue Igor Ozim at the Bern Conservatory, another very strict teacher from the RVS. His praise for Tognetti was always about how well Alice had taught him.
Alice brought discipline, historical sense, sarcastic wit, real love and support, perfect for both cocky teenagers and affected musicologists. As his curiosity grew, Tognetti decided to try to learn from the musicology department. In time Alice helped him to get to study with the celebrated Slav violinist & pedagogue Igor Ozim at the Bern Conservatory, another very strict teacher from the RVS. His praise for Tognetti was always about how well Alice had taught him.
teaching in the Strings Dept, Sydney Conservatorium
The Strad
Back at home she held teaching positions in Melbourne at the Australian National Academy of Music and was seen as a devoted, tireless and fierce pedagogue, awesome and terrifying at the same time. She possessed a hawk-like precision when it came to spotting something that needed to be fixed. She was the driving force behind countless Australian musicians throughout the world, still committed to this art.
In 2022 Alice Waten sadly died at 75. For years, Waten had held positions at prominent Australian institutions including Australian National Academy Of Music and the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney. Her legacy lives on in the careers of her students performing and teaching in Australia and around the world, finding success both as orchestral musicians and as soloists. Waten had a profound impact on them; she was a liberator of spirits, a courageous creativity and intense motivator, and they in turn continue to foster the musical growth of further generations.
In 2022 Alice Waten sadly died at 75. For years, Waten had held positions at prominent Australian institutions including Australian National Academy Of Music and the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney. Her legacy lives on in the careers of her students performing and teaching in Australia and around the world, finding success both as orchestral musicians and as soloists. Waten had a profound impact on them; she was a liberator of spirits, a courageous creativity and intense motivator, and they in turn continue to foster the musical growth of further generations.
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24 comments:
Music is so important in our lives. Proven to improve prefrontal synapse networking
Via Dr Joe.
The papers comprise family correspondence, general correspondence, handwritten and typed drafts, notebooks of articles and book reviews, newspaper cuttings, invitations and printed material. There are also papers relating to Waten's membership of the Literature Board of the Australian Council for the Arts, his Presidency of the Melbourne Centre of International P.E.N. papers on his membership of the Communist Party of Australia and Socialist Party of Australia. Correspondents include Alice Waten, Alan Marshall, Christina Stead, Kylie Tennant, Katharine Susannah Prichard, Nettie and Vance Palmer, Hal Porter, Beatrice Davis, Geoffrey Dutton, Kenneth Slessor, Manning Clark, Dymphna Cusack, Frank Hardy and others.
The teachers and mentors deserve as much praise and honour as the pupils who rose to prominence because of them.
roentare
that is so true. Imagine if we get on with our lives, without ever writing singing or playing music. Even adults with very ordinary voices still get pleasure from joining in Beatles, Mamas and Papas, Rolling Stones etc.
Dr Joe
I knew Judah Waten was one of the best connected people in Australia during his era, but it must have also had a huge impact on daughter Alice's life. Imagine coming home from school and finding Nettie and Vance Palmer, Manning Clark or Frank Hardy in your kitchen, sharing tea with dad.
jabblog
absolutely! The teachers and mentors were critically important to their pupils in the earlier years of their careers. Imagine the financial and familial sacrifices the established musos made, in order to help get their pupils to the top.
And I wonder who paid for all of Alice's long overseas stays - her parents, her university, her Symphony Orchestra?
People like her are amazing, being able to play an instrument not something I am able to do
She was a very impressive woman, and sadly died at a not so old age.
Jo-Anne
Russian families must have insisted on their cultural values, even when they lived in Australia. Mum and her two sisters learned piano, I did ballet and my first cousin female did violin. But note my brothers and male first cousins did none of the arts at all.
And note for Alice it was always a career; for us it was a weekend activity.
Rather partial to the violin, Hels. Making playing and teaching is such a gift, one that she sure did have it seems.
what a remarkable life she had and to have achieved it all from the far end of the planet . You must be very proud of her . It makes me think of all the destruction going on in Ukraine now and what that means for the worlds cultural future . Did Alice have children herself ?
I would have loved to give my children musical education. The best I could do was let them listen to whatever music they liked and to have them listen to what I liked too. Later, my two oldest grandchildren had piano lessons and got quite good at it.
Andrew
The Watens were one of the most gifted, famous families I have ever written about. And as well as gifted, Alice was dedicated to her overseas learning, her career in Australia and her students across the world.
But I would be lonely without a partner.. although she may have thought it would be unfair to ask a partner to take second place in a relationship.
Margaret
Even though the violin was a popular instrument, it was apparently not easy to play very well. But Alice said the violin didn’t give the younger player any help, particularly in mastering the correct intonation without frets and developing bowing techniques. The piano, on the other hand, offered more immediate gratification to younger players.
mem
Alice spent half of her life studying, working and teaching overseas.. fluent in Russian in particular, but also in German and English. She had no children of her own, but she shared her dad's fame and royalties across Eastern Europe. It always helped having a father who was famous in the countries she studied and worked in :)
River
me too, especially since my older son had a fantastic voice, participated in a choir and enjoyed playing the guitar. But I am not sure that learning individual instruments in his generation as it admired as it was in ours.
Thank you for telling about your mother's cousin. It's interesting that she was born in Odessa. It was Russia's city at that time.
Irina
My late mother loved Odessa and Simferopol. It was the centre of culture, literature and history for most of my maternal family.
An amazing woman and teacher. How lucky those who had her as a teacher. Her lagacy lives on with her students.
diane
Alice Waten lived forever in debt to her teachers and mentors, and wanted to do the same for her own students and mentees. She never forgot the importance of studying violin with Valery Klimov and David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatoire of Music in the late 1960s, graduating with a Masters of orchestral instruments. Their legacy goes on, as does hers.
Never heard of her. Always interesting to read some interesting posts !
What a beautiful tribute you have written to both Alice and Judah. I hope that you are feeling better Hels!
Gattina
If my mother and her sisters not gone to each of Alice Waten's performances in the Australian Chamber Orchestra etc, I too would not have known very much about her.
Mandy
my family were all active socialists from the Russian Revolution on, and then worked very hard for the Labour Party in Australia. Judah in particular was open to criticism for his politics, so the honour paid to both Judah and Alice was somewhat mixed. However most cultural experts thought the Waten family was totally talented.
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