The International Akaroa Music Festival 2027

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The International Akaroa Music Festival 2027

New Zealand's premiere residential Summer School and Concert Series

If you have never experienced an extended live-in music festival, be prepared to work hard, have fun, and play better than you thought you could. Our students come from all over New Zealand, Australia and from abroad, and the friendships made here are ones that last. Mix work with and pleasure in Akaroa, the gem at the heart of the remarkable Banks Peninsula.

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”.

15/07/2026

Masterclass Clarinet with Lloyd Van’t Hoff
at New Zealand’s premiere residential Summer School and Concert Series
http://www.akaroafestival.org.nz/
�Lloyd Van’t Hoff is an award-winning clarinetist, artistic director, educator, recording artist and conductor. He has been lauded for his “life-affirming music making” (Limelight Magazine) and “spectacular brilliance, charisma and sensitivity” (Tasmanian Mercury).
Born in Darwin, Australia, Van’t Hoff came to prominence as the winner of the Grand Prize and Sir Charles Moses Trophy, along with the Triffitt Prize, at the 2015 Symphony Australia ABC Young Performers Awards. He now performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician at festivals around the world and with many of Australia’s leading symphony orchestras. He is a founding member of Arcadia Winds and Artistic Director of the critically acclaimed Ensemble Lumen.
Van’t Hoff is Head of Woodwind at Adelaide University’s Elder Conservatorium, where he teaches clarinet and chamber music, directs the Conservatorium’s Wind Orchestra, and new music ensemble, The Elder Music Lab. He has presented masterclasses across Europe, North America, and Asia, and also serves as Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music’s Pathways Program. Lloyd has recently been appointed appointed the Artistic Director of Adelaide Youth Orchestras.
As a recording artist, his debut solo album Johannes Brahms: Music for Clarinet and Piano was praised for its “interpretations that live in the memory for their verve and deep musicianship”; he appears on the ARIA Award-winning album Conversations with Ghosts alongside Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly, and his recent album My Place with duo partner Lisa Moore received a five-star review in Limelight, noting the duo’s “great charm and chemistry.” A graduate of Yale University, the Australian National Academy of Music, and the Oueensland Conservatorium of Music, Van’t Hoff is an endorsed performing artist for Buffet Crampon, Légère, and Gleichweit.

14/07/2026

Masterclass Piano with Michael Endres
at New Zealand’s premiere residential Summer School and Concert Series
http://www.akaroafestival.org.nz/
�German Pianist Michael Endres performs worldwide as soloist and chamber music partner. He gained a Master’s degree at the Juilliard School in New York under Jacob Lateiner and studied with Peter Feuchtwanger in London. He has won prizes such as the Concours Geza Anda (Zurich) and First & Special Prizes at the International Schubert Competition (Germany) among others.
His extensive prizewinning discography of 29 CD’s includes the prestigious Diapason d’or (France) which he was recently awarded for the third time and the Choc du Musique which he has won twice. His solo recordings include cycles of the complete sonatas by Mozart, Schubert, Weber and the rarely heard English composer Arnold Bax, the complete works of Ravel and Gershwin as well as works by Schumann. Endres covers a wide repertoire including seldom played composers like Leopold Godowsky, Gabriel Faure, Charles Ives and Eduard Tubin.
Leading US critic Richard Dyer from the Boston Globe called him ”one of the most interesting pianists recording today”, the New York Times wrote: ”the performances with pianist Michael Endres were revelatory” and the Gramophone Magazine stated: ”he is an outstanding Schubert interpreter”. Michael Endres plays at festivals in Europe, America and Asia including Newport (USA), Beethoven Fest Bonn and Salzburg Festival, and has performed at the Berlin Philharmonie, Musikverein Vienna and Suntory Hall Tokyo, to name a few.
He accompanied legendary Baritone Hermann Prey for many years and partnered the Berlin Philharmonic soloists, the Artemis and Fine Arts String Quartets. He has a distinguished teaching career as Professor of Piano at the Cologne, the ”Hanns Eisler Hochschule” in Berlin, University of Canterbury, New Zealand and since March 2014 the “Barrat Due” Institute in Norway.

13/07/2026

Masterclass Piano with Anna Goldsworthy
at New Zealand’s premiere residential Summer School and Concert Series
http://www.akaroafestival.org.nz/
�Professor Anna Goldsworthy is Director of the Elder Conservatorium of Music at the University of Adelaide, and an award-winning pianist, writer, and festival director.
As a pianist, Anna performs extensively throughout Australia and internationally, as a soloist and collaborator. She is a founding member of Seraphim Trio, whose most recent recordings are the ARIA-award-winning Thirteen Ways to Look at Birds for Decca, with Paul Kelly, and the ABC Classics set Trio Through Time for ABC Classics.
As a writer, Anna was awarded Newcomer of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards for her debut memoir, Piano Lessons, released in Australia, North America, Germany, Korea and Vietnam, and shortly to appear in China. Her most recent book, the novel Melting Moments, was released in 2020. She is the author of several works for the stage, including the libretto of the Graeme Koehne’s opera A Christmas Carol, premiered by Victorian Opera in December 2022. Her stage play, Welcome to Your New Life was premiered by the State Theatre Company of South Australia in November 2023.
Anna has directed numerous festivals, including the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, the Coriole Music Festival, and the Music and Mountains Festival in Queenstown, New Zealand. In 2024, she delivered a Boyer Lecture for ABC radio and television, on the future of classical music. Highlights for 2025 include performances throughout Australia and Europe with Seraphim Trio; appearances at the Adelaide Festival; the launch of the Elder Conservatorium’s new staff ensemble, Lumen, under the artistic directorship of Lloyd Van’t Hoff; and collaborations with a number of Australia’s most distinguished musicians, including Andrew Haveron and Teddy Tahu Rhodes.

Address

Rue Jolie
Akaroa
7520

Website

https://www.akaroafestival.org.nz/

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