30/08/2013
Artist Feature - Fortepianist Julie Haskell
Julie Haskell began her performing career with a debut piano recital at the age of 13 at a University of Melbourne lunchtime concert. At this stage, she had already won many prizes and had gained her Associate Diploma with the Australian Music Examinations Board. At 15 she was then State winner of the ABC Instrumental and Vocal Competition (now known as the Young Performer Awards) and throughout this period she made many concerto, solo, and television appearances and was the winner of numerous prestigious awards and prizes.
Early piano studies in Melbourne were with Jean McQuarie and Dr Diana Weekes, and she was also a scholarship holder with the Australian College of Education for seven years from the age of ten, enabling her to participate in weekly classes at The University of Melbourne. She later went on to study at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague with Theo Bruins and at the Tilburg Conservatorium with Jacques de Tiége. Most recently, she graduated from the University of Adelaide with a PhD, where she was also the winner of a Stranks Travel Fellowship.
Julie has been on the piano staff at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, The University of Melbourne for many years. She also teaches at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School (VCASS) and has a busy private piano studio, teaching students of all ages and levels. She is well-established as one of Melbourne’s leading piano teachers of young pianists. Julie is very keen to promote good teaching practice, and frequently presents masterclasses, workshops and lectures to piano teachers and examiners, and particularly enjoys working with students in regional centres.
Julie’s performance experience is vast and has included many solo and duo-piano recitals, radio broadcasts and concerto performances. As a chamber-musician, she has collaborated with many leading Australian and Dutch instrumentalists and singers. For many years she also worked as an orchestral pianist with the Melbourne Symphony and Brabants Orkest.
As a collaborative pianist, Julie accompanied for many years at The University of Melbourne, and the Australian National Academy of Music, and was also frequently engaged as an official accompanist for competitions. She works as an examiner for the Australian Music Examination Board and has adjudicated more than 30 eisteddfods and competitions around the country.
Julie has worked in many voluntary roles throughout the years. She was a Director of the Musical Society of Victoria for nine years, ran the Waverley branch of the MSV, and is now the centre secretary for the Malvern/Caulfield Centre. She is a Victorian representative on the national committee of the Australian Piano Pedagogy Conference and first became a VMTA councillor in 1999. Julie also convened the very successful 2011 VMTA summer conference.
Julie’s newest interest lies in the field of fortepiano and historical performance practice. Her doctoral studies culminated in a month spent recording on several Viennese and English fortepianos at Cornell University in the USA in 2010. She is rapidly become a leading expert in the field of classical performance practice in Australia and has given several concerto, solo and chamber music concerts on early instruments in Australia and Italy. Julie is building a collection of historical pianos, the newest acquisition being an 1825 Broadwood grand piano to be housed in her new piano studio in South Melbourne.
