Anna Goldsworthy
Dean of Elder Conservatorium of Music and School of Performing Arts, Adelaide University; Founding Pianist, Seraphim Trio
ANAM Artistic Director Designate (commencing 2027); ANAM Alum (Piano, Piano Trio Program 1998, Advanced Performance Program 1999); Guest Faculty (2011-present)
My first encounter with ANAM was in 1998, shortly after I had returned to Adelaide after studying in Fort Worth, Texas. My fledgling trio, Seraphim, had been accepted into ANAM’s piano trio program, but we found ourselves short of a cellist. Our ever-resourceful violinist, Helen Ayres, recruited a fellow student at the Australian Institute of Music, Tim Nankervis, and so I flew to Sydney to meet him and rehearse, before the three of us caught the overnight train down to Melbourne.
Looking back at the week that followed, I now see that it was the week in which everything happened. Not only was it the beginning of our life together as a trio, but it was also our first encounter with the figure who would become our guiding light: the violist and chamber music pedagogue Hatto Beyerle. Sadly, Hatto’s wife became critically ill as he flew to Melbourne, so he could only remain at ANAM for a short time before returning to Germany. But in our few stolen moments together, he opened so many doors for us that it was clear we needed to see him again. Over the eighteen years that followed, we travelled regularly to Hatto’s refurbished windmill in the Hanoverian countryside for exhaustive, day-long lessons in the language of chamber music — for which he never charged us a cent.
After Hatto’s departure, Jan and Beryl Šedivka came up from Hobart to take charge of the remainder of the program. At week’s end, I remember John Hopkins, or ‘Hoppy,’ calling all the participating ensembles into the council chambers to instruct us to take a walk to Albert Park Lake where — he announced with great gusto — the swans had given birth to cygnets. Exhausted from constant rehearsing, we took his advice. That night, we gave our very first performance together as an ensemble, performing the Mendelssohn D minor trio. It was a joyful and thrilling occasion; for some time afterwards, Hoppy reported that it had been a success because Seraphim had seen the cygnets.
I write this now on a plane from Melbourne to Adelaide, after a performance of the Mendelssohn C minor trio with my same partners-in-crime, Helen and Tim, twenty-eight years later. Hatto, Jan, and Hoppy are no longer with us, but their legacies remain. They are legacies not only of rigour, rhetoric, and expertise, but also of a reminder to see the cygnets.
Much has changed since then, in the wider world and in my own life, but the magic of ANAM has remained a constant, even as the institution has evolved and grown. It is an enormous honour for me to be stepping into the role of Artistic Director nearly three decades after this first formative encounter. ANAM is many things, but above all it is a portal to these kinds of transformations.
Anna Goldsworthy headshot by Alex Frayne