Violist Alice McIvor received a Dame Malvina Major Foundation Wellington Arts Excellence Award in 2014 before heading to Canada to study at the prestigious Glenn Gould School in Toronto.
“I recently graduated from the Glenn Gould School with my Artist Diploma in Viola. Under tutor Steven Dann, I was given great opportunities to work with brilliant violists including Kim Kashkashian, Ettore Causa and Hsin-Yun Huang. The Glenn Gould School offers master classes for strings almost every week with visiting artists. I attended and performed in the most fascinating masterclasses throughout both years of my studies. I also performed in several chamber music masterclasses. I worked with wonderful musicians of the Dover, Julliard & St Lawrence quartets with my string quartet, Tahi Quartet, and with my piano quartet, Pacific Quartet, I was fortunate to work with the Ying Quartet, and be mentored by Andres Diaz & Peter Longworth. With such such orchestral opportunities in New Zealand with the NZSO, NYO and NZSM Orchestra, I was curious as to how RCO would compare. We had two wonderful seasons of music-making in which I performed as both assistant and then principal violist. We performed acclaimed concerts with Sir Roger Norrington and a great season finale concert in Koerner Hall under the baton of Leon Fleisher.
I successfully won an internship with Early Music Ensemble ACRONYM in May of 2015. I worked with them in New York City for five months including during the recording of two successful albums in Boston. It was a wonderful window in the world of Baroque, which encouraged me to explore the era and take Historical Performance in my second year at the Glenn Gould School.
In August 2015 I returned to New Zealand with several concert opportunities. I performed alongside Gregory Squire (NZSO) with a concert of violin and viola repertoire in the Hawkes Bay Orchestra series. I also performed a weekend of concerts as a soloist with Concord Strings including the Telemann and Stamitz Concerti as well as Bach’s Brandenburg 6. I also gave a recital with NZSM’s Stephen Clothier as part of the Around the Piano series. It was a wonderful and busy visit, full of music.
After a beautiful summer spent road-tripping the USA, I married a man from Ada, Minnesota (about a month ago!). I now find myself based in the midwest of the USA exploring musical opportunities in Minnesota and North Dakota including an audition for the Fargo Symphony next month. I hope to return to New Zealand in February 2017 for more wonderful musical opportunities. It will be nice to return home after what feels like a long time abroad.
Again, thank you to the Dame Malvina Major Foundation for making my studies possible and granting myself and so many other young artists, such a wealth of opportunity.”
