The International Akaroa Music Festival 2027

05/10/2026

14/08/2026

https://www.akaroafestival.org.nz

04/08/2026

'It is worth remembering that although cello playing is constantly evolving, there is value in looking to the past for inspiration'

Cellist Edith Salzmann takes a fresh look at techniques from 19th century. Link in comments 🎻

📷 Courtesy University of Adelaide

21/07/2026

Masterclass Cello with Edith Salzmann
at New Zealand’s premiere residential Summer School and Concert Series
http://www.akaroafestival.org.nz/
�Edith Salzmann is an internationally active cellist, chamber musician and educator based in Australia and New Zealand. She is Lecturer in Cello at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide, and Artistic Director of the International Akaroa Music Festival and the Pettman National Junior Academy.
Originally from Germany, Edith studied in Detmold and Bloomington (USA) with the legendary cellist János Starker. She has held teaching positions at the University of Canterbury, the University of Auckland and now the University of Adelaide.
As a chamber musician, Edith performs regularly throughout Australasia, Europe and Asia. Recent recording projects for Naxos Records include first recordings of chamber music by William Shield, Beethoven/Hummel arrangements of Beethoven symphonies, Ignaz Pleyel string quintets and Ferdinand Ries quartets. She collaborates frequently with leading Australian and New Zealand artists and ensembles, and has appeared in festivals and concert series and presented masterclasses across Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
Her research interests include nineteenth-century cello performance practice. She completed a PhD entitled Performing the Cello Works of Friedrich Kiel in Context and Practice: A Portfolio of Premiere Recordings and Exegesis. Her research will also be featured in an article in The Strad.
Edith is passionate about mentoring young musicians and developing innovative chamber music programmes. Under her direction, the International Akaroa Music Festival has become an important platform for emerging artists, combining intensive performance training with collaborations between internationally renowned performers, teachers and students.

20/07/2026

Masterclass Violin with Elizabeth Layton
at New Zealand’s premiere residential Summer School and Concert Series
http://www.akaroafestival.org.nz/
�Elizabeth Layton enjoys a varied career performing recitals and chamber music throughout Australia and New Zealand. She appears regularly as guest concertmaster with major symphony orchestras and combines performance with her position as Head of Classical Performance at the Elder Conservatorium, University of Adelaide.
Elizabeth was Associate Leader of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Concertmaster of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (1997-2010). She has broadcast regularly for the BBC as soloist and director and appeared as guest director of the Scottish Ensemble, Manchester Camerata and Ambache Ensemble.
As winner of the UK Concert Artists Trust Competition, Elizabeth made her UK concerto debut with the Philharmonia and appeared as soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Bournemouth Symphony, English Sinfonia, Calgary Philharmonic, City of Barcelona Symphony, Lahti Symphony and many others. Festival appearances include Bath, Edinburgh, Harrogate, Cheltenham, Valencia, Gstaad and numerous music societies.

19/07/2026

Masterclass Violin with Mark Menzies
at New Zealand’s premiere residential Summer School and Concert Series
http://www.akaroafestival.org.nz/��Described in the Los Angeles Times as an ‘extraordinary musician’ and a ‘riveting violinist’, Mark Menzies’ career as a viola and violin virtuoso, chamber musician and pianist, conductor and advocate of contemporary music, and composer, has seen performances in Europe, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and across the United States.
Menzies’ compositions are increasingly played across the globe, with recent premieres in The Netherlands, Italy, Los Angeles, San Diego and Christchurch, where the CSO performed Song of the birds for solo violin, and strings. Featured guest performer/composer at the 2018 SICPP (Summer Institute of Contemporary Performance Practice at the New England Conservatory), performances included Menzies’ glad alemandes (with Stephen Drury, piano), flutter (with Rachel Beetz, piccolo), and six little quartets (with students of the masterclass programme).
Not a ‘career-composer’, Mark Menzies has never-the-less been commissioned and requested by an array of soloists and ensembles: Fisher/McIntosh viola/harpsichord duo; Gayle Blankenburg, pianist; San Diego New Music and the soundON festival; cLoud Collective; 175 East; Wild Up, a Los Angles-based new music ensemble; ensemble proton, bern (Switzerland); Cantori Domino, a choir in Santa Monica; the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra; the Formalist Quartet.

18/07/2026

Masterclass Viola with Caroline Henbest
at New Zealand’s premiere residential Summer School and Concert Series
http://www.akaroafestival.org.nz/

Caroline Henbest is a violist and Feldenkrais practitioner. She is currently Head of Viola at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) and is based in Melbourne. Born in England, she came to Australia in 1993 to be Principal Viola in the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) following studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Guildhall School of Music. These days she performs as a chamber musician and soloist across Australia and is violist in the Imaginista Quartet and Transfigured Trio. She has recently recorded string quartets and string trios by William Shield for Naxos with the Dorrit Ensemble. Since leaving the ACO she has regularly acted as guest principal with many Australian orchestras as well as the NZSO.

17/07/2026

Teddy Tahu Rhodes has rapidly established an international career on both the opera stage and concert platform. He has performed with the opera companies of San Francisco, Austin, Washington, Philadelphia, Dallas, Cincinnati, Houston, New York, the Hamburg Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper/Munich, Theatre du Chatelet/Paris, in Vienna, Welsh National Opera and Scottish Opera.
Recent seasons include Escamillo (Hamburg, Théatre du Chatalet/Paris, Munich, Bilbao, Metropolitan Opera, Opera Australia), Don Giovanni (Opera Australia, West Australian Opera), Scarpia – Tosca (West Australian Opera), Emille de bec – South Pacific (Opera Australia Australian Tour) and King of Siam – The King and I (Opera Australia Australian Tour). Teddy debuted the roles of Méphistophélès – Faust (Opera Australia, SOSA and West Australian Opera), the title role in Sweeney Todd (Victorian Opera), a concert tour From Broadway to La Scala (Australia, and NZ), Scarpia –Tosca (WA Opera, Opera NZ) and William Tell and I Capuleti ei Montecchi (Victorian Opera).
In 2019 Teddy joined Victorian Opera to perform Titurel: Parsifal, Opera Australia to perform Lord Sidney: Il viaggio a Reims (Sydney and Melbourne), Enrico VIII: Anna Bolena (Sydney) and Méphistophélès: Faust (Melbourne) as well as an Australian tour, From Broadway to La Scala. In 2020 Teddy returns to Opera Australia to sing Méphistophélès: Faust (Sydney), The Auckland Philharmonia, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Sydney Philharmonia Choir.
Awards include an ARIA, two Helpmann Awards, a Limelight Award, a Green Room Award plus a MO Award.
Teddy Tahu Rhodes’ ABC Classics’ discography includes Fauré’s Requiem and Le naissance de Vénus, Handel’s Messiah, Musical Renegades (on CD/DVD), solo discs including Mozart Arias, The Voice, Vagabond, The Bach Arias, Mozart Requiem, Serious Songs, You’ll Never Walk Alone (with David Hobson), Teddy Tahu Rhodes – Mahler, From Broadway to La Scala (with David Hobson, Greta Bradman and Lisa McCune), There was a Man Lived in the Moon and I’ll Walk Beside You. He also appears on the CD/DVD recording of The Little Prince for Sony International/ BBC, on CD/DVD Haley Westenra Live, DVD of Peter Grimes at the Metropolitan Opera for EMI Classics, the Metropolitan Opera’s Carmen (DVD and shown in cinemas world-wide) and Chandos’ Love for Three Oranges.

16/07/2026

Workshop Recorder with Wolfgang Kraemer
at New Zealand’s premiere residential Summer School and Concert Series
http://www.akaroafestival.org.nz/

Born in Germany at the Triangle of France. Luxembourg and Germany, Wolfgang Kraemer studied at the Conservatory of Luxembourg.
He taught recorder at music schools in Saarland and was the director of the “Musiktage Merzig” Festival, Germany - including masterclasses and concerts and from 1995 – 2004 he was director of the Jugendmusikschule Untere Saar-Hochwald.
In 2004 Wolfgang moved to New Zealand where he became a part time lecturer in recorder and chamber music at the University of Canterbury from 2004 to 2011.
Wolfgang’s students are multiple prize- winners of both national and international competitions.
In 2006, he became the director of “The Pettman National Junior Academy of Music” a scholarship programme for highly talented young musicians, and since 2007 he is directing the “International Akaroa Music Festival”.