2026 Results
2026 Dates
Thursday 23 July – Friday 24 July
and Thursday 28 July – Friday 31 July
Unley Park Baptist Church
2026 Program
In addition to the rules specified in the String Division Syllabus and Program, competitors, teachers and parents are advised to read the Rules of the Competition 2026 carefully, as well as our most recent Stardom Music Upload Instructions.
2026 Adjudicators
Agnes Weinstein
Agnes Weinstein studied violin and viola at the Canberra School of Music before completing her Bachelor of Music at the University of Adelaide. She played full time in the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra as a violinist for 15 years before moving to Townsville where she taught violin and viola at James Cook University. She then moved to Wellington, New Zealand, where she played viola in the Wellington Symphony Orchestra, and taught in private schools. It was at this time Agnes began to develop her love of chamber music further, and continued to focus on this genre after returning to Adelaide. Here, she was President of the South Australian Branch of the Australian String Association for 9 years, and has specialised in baroque music. She teaches privately, can be heard regularly in the North Adelaide Baroque Hall, and examines for the Australian Music Examination Board.
Dr. Edith Salzmann
Dr Edith Salzmann is Lecturer in Cello and Associate Director of the Open Music Academy at the Elder Conservatorium. A student of János Starker, she brings a distinguished lineage to her work as both performer and pedagogue. She previously served as Acting Head of Cello at the University of Melbourne and held senior positions at the University of Auckland and the University of Canterbury.
Dr Salzmann performs widely across Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, appearing in recital and chamber music collaborations with leading artists.
Her recent recordings for Naxos Records include the complete chamber music of William Shield and chamber works by Ignaz Pleyel, complementing earlier releases on Atoll and Stradivarius featuring music by Ries and Zemlinsky.
A passionate advocate for musical development, she is Artistic Director of the Pettman National Junior Academy and the International Akaroa Music Festival in New Zealand. She is a sought-after guest professor and masterclass teacher worldwide. Her former students perform in major orchestras including the Kansas City Symphony, NZSO, Auckland Philharmonia, and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, and hold leading roles in music education.
Robert Nairn
Returning to Australia from the U.S. in 2017 Rob was appointed to a position at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, taking over as head of the Early Music department and director of graduate studies. In 2020 he was appointed Master Musician in Residence at the Elder Con and in 2023 to a Faculty position where he teaches double bass, coaches chamber music and runs an Early Music program.
He was previously a Distinguished Professor of Music at Penn State’s School of Music, on the Faculty of The Juilliard School in New York for 11 years and a Kulas Visiting Artist at Case Western Reserve University. He has lived and worked in Germany, England, Australia and the United States performing with such groups as the London and Oslo Philharmonic Orchestras; the Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestras; the English, Scottish and Australian Chamber Orchestras, the Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland, West Australian and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, the London Sinfonietta, the Halle Orchestra, the London Mozart Players and the Australian World Orchestra.
Rob is a specialist in historical performance, and has been principal bassist with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra since 2017 and a member of both Ironwood and Adelaide Baroque. He was principal bass of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society since 2003, and also principal bass of the Boston Early Music Festival and Juilliard Baroque. He has performed with the English Baroque Soloists, Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, Concerto Caledonia, Washington Bach Consort, Rebel, Florilegium, The Smithsonian Chamber Players, The Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra, Muffat Collective, Bach Akademie Australia, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
He has commissioned and premiered more than forty new works for solo double bass and chamber groups including concerti by Barry Conyngham, Elena Kats-Chernin and Doug Balliett, and he has given solo recitals in Europe, Scandinavia, China, the United States, and Australia.
He can be heard on over 60 commercial CDs and has recorded for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, EMI, Virgin, ABC Classics, and Channel Classics. His first solo CD ‘Tremor’ was released in 2022 on the U.S. Ablaze label.
Rob is a Past President of the International Society of Bassists from whom he received a Recognition Award for Historical Performance in 2009. He is a Howard Foundation Fellowship recipient from Brown University and DAAD German Government Scholarship recipient.
Sharon Grigoryan
Based in Adelaide, Sharon Grigoryan was the cellist with the Australian String Quartet from 2013-2020. As part of that group she has collaborated with artists such as the Goldner and Tinalley Quartets, Pieter Wispelwei, Sara Macliver, Slava Grigoryan, Pepe Romero, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Katie Noonan, Lou Bennett, William Barton, Konstantin Shamray, Caroline Almonte, and the Melbourne, Sydney, Tasmanian and West Australian Symphony Orchestras.
Born in Melbourne, Sharon studied at the University of Melbourne and the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) under David Berlin, Philip Green, and Howard Penny. From 2008-2012 Sharon held a position with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and in 2011 Sharon was a recipient of the MSO Friends’ Travel Scholarship which took her to Berlin to study with Professor Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt and Nicolas Alsteadt. Whilst there she performed with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Spira Mirabilis Chamber Orchestra.
Still an avid chamber musician, Sharon has enjoyed performing with artists such as Vilde Frang, Lawrence Power, Torlief Thedéen, Tipi Valve, Satu Vänskä, Richard Tognetti, Elizabeth Layton, Andrea Lam, Thalia Petrosian, Joseph Tawadros, Kristian Chong, and many others.
Sharon has performed as a guest with the Australia Ensemble and Australian World Orchestra, and has been invited to be guest principal cellist with most of the Australian Symphony Orchestras. Sharon was the Artistic Director of the “Barossa, Baroque and Beyond” music festival from 2013-2021. In 2019 Sharon curated a chamber music series, “Live at the Quartet Bar” as part of the Adelaide Festival Centre, and made her debut as a radio presenter on ABC Classic.
Apart from teaching the cello privately, Sharon has tutored ensembles such as the Melbourne Youth Orchestra, the Australian Youth Orchestra, is on staff at the University of Adelaide, and been a guest chamber music tutor at ANAM and the University of Melbourne.
Sharon formed the cello/guitar duo with husband Slava Grigoryan in 2014, and this has been a particularly joyful musical and personal collaboration for her. She is currently acting Principal Cello of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.
Rules
Competitors, teachers and parents are advised to read the Rules of the Competition 2026 carefully.
2026 Syllabus
String Division Convenor: Shu Yin Goh