Alice Waten violin star Australia & Russia

Judah Waten (1911-85), born in Odessa, was a famous author and leftist pol­i­t­ical activist in Melbourne. His mother Nechama was concerned to give all her children a musical education. Odessa was a Russian heartland for music, and many of the great violinists of the C20th came from Odessa, incl Nathan Mil­stein and David Oistrakh. Judah was my mother's beloved cousin.

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.

 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.

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.