Stephanie McCallum
Stephanie McCallum (born Sydney, Australia, 3 March 1956) is a classical pianist. She has recorded works of Erik Satie, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Franz Liszt, Carl Maria von Weber, Albéric Magnard, Pierre Boulez, and Iannis Xenakis among others.
Life
Stephanie McCallum studied with Alexander Sverjensky and Gordon Watson at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. After further study with Ronald Smith in the UK, she gave a debut concert at the Wigmore Hall in 1982. Returning to Australia in 1985, she became a founding member of contemporary ensembles AustraLYSIS and the Sydney Alpha Ensemble. She has performed as soloist with most of the major Australian symphony orchestras and in ensembles with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, ELISION and The Australia Ensemble. In a 1985 Wigmore Hall recital, she gave what is believed to be the first ever complete public performance of Alkan's Three Studies, Opus 76 (for the Left Hand, for the Right Hand, and for the Hands Reunited). In 2000, she gave the world premier of Elena Kats-Chernin's Displaced Dances for Piano and Orchestra (which was written for her) with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.
Repertoire and recordings
McCallum has made a particular specialty of virtuosic nineteenth century music, particularly Liszt and Alkan, and of contemporary solo and ensemble music. Her performances of Xenakis's Herma, and Brian Ferneyhough's Lemma Icon Epigram have received critical acclaim. She has released CDs of the music of Liszt, Weber, Alkan, Magnard, Pierre Boulez, Xenakis and of contemporary Australian composers. Stephanie McCallum is the only pianist to have recorded both the major and the minor key studies (Opus 35 and 39) of Alkan. Her performances and recordings of the music of Alkan are part of a wider interest in French music. In addition to Alkan and Boulez, she has recorded music by Erik Satie, Albéric Magnard, Vincent d'Indy, and Guy Ropartz.
Her solo CDs include
- Gymnopédies: the Exquisite Piano Music of Erik Satie, ABC Classics (2007)
- Alkan: Douze Etudes dans les tons mineurs [Twelve Studies in the Minor Keys], opus 39 (including Symphonie, Concerto and Overture for solo piano, and Le Festin d'Esope), ABC Classics (2006)
- Liszt: from the Years of Pilgrimage, ABC Classics (2003)
- The Liszt Album, ABC Classics (2003) (including the B minor Sonata)
- Perfume: the exquisite piano music of France, ABC Classics (2001)
- Weber: the Complete Piano Sonatas and other works, ABC Classics (1998)
- Illegal Harmonies: the Twentieth Century Piano, ABC Classics (1997)
- Alkan & Magnard, Tall Poppies (1996)
- Notations, Tall Poppies (1994)
- Alkan, Twelve Studies in the Major Keys, opus 35 , Tall Poppies (1994)
- Alkan, Concerto for solo piano (from op. 39), Chants opus 70 [first recording] (1990).
Stephanie McCallum is a Senior Lecturer in piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.