Artistic Director – Selby&Friends

Kathryn Selby began her piano studies at the age of seven.  She progressed rapidly began her studies with Nancy Salas at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She was heard on ABC radio by Mr. Bela Siki, then touring Australia for the ABC, and was invited by him to study at the University of Washington in Seattle. Kathryn travelled to Seattle twice a year for two years participating in master classes as well as performing at the University of Washington student concerts.

In 1976, at the age of 14 she was awarded the Winston Churchill Memorial Fellowship, being the youngest recipient of this honour to date. During the same year she travelled with Dame Joan Sutherland and Maestro Richard Bonynge to perform at the United Nations General Assembly in an Australian Government sponsored concert in aid of UNICEF.

While in the United States Kathryn auditioned to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and was awarded a full scholarship.  She began her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in 1977 with Eleanor Sokoloff, continuing her

studies with Maestro Max Rudolf in Philadelphia and with Claude Frank in New York. During her first year at the Curtis Institute she won the student competition to perform with the famed Philadelphia Orchestra.  That same summer she spent studying in England with the well known Alkan exponent Ronald Smith.

In 1980 she won the Bruce Hungerford Memorial award in New York and returned to Australia during the summer to perform with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and to give recitals for Musica Viva. She subsequently returned to Australia for the ABC in 1983, 1985 and 1987.  She won the Young Concert Artists Competition in New York as well as the Ferruccio Busoni Competition giving her a debut at the Carnegie Recital Hall.

In 1981 she won the “MOST PROMISING YOUNG ARTIST PRIZE” at the Sixth Van Cliburn International Competition in Texas. She spent the summer of 1982 at the Marlboro Music Festival, participating at the special invitation of Rudolf Serkin, often sharing Chamber Music recitals with this renowned artist. During the same year she won the Astral Foundation of New York career development grant and the Australia Council grant.

Kathryn graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music with the school’s Gold Medal and the prestigious Rachmaninoff prize. She was graduated Cum Laude and with the Horace Alwyn prize for music from Bryn Mawr College in 1985. That same year she was awarded the prize for Most Outstanding Performance of Chamber Music at the 7th Van Cliburn Piano Competition.  Kathryn received her Master of Music degree at the Juilliard School of Music where she studied with Rudolf Firkusny entering the Doctoral Program in Performance there in 1987.

Kathryn Selby performed with the American Chamber Orchestra at the John F Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts in Washington DC with the Endellion String Quartet; with the Tokyo Quartet; the Sydney String Quartet, and was a founding member of the Philadelphia Orchestra Chamber Group comprising the first chairs of the Philadelphia Orchestra.  She performed regularly with the De Pasquale Quartet, all members holding first chairs in the Philadelphia Orchestra.

In 1987 Kathryn Selby became the prize winner of the William Kapell Piano Competition and performed the Tchaikovsky piano concerto at the Kennedy Center in Washington with Sixten Ehrling conducting the National Symphony Orchestra. She subsequently performed with the National Symphony Orchestra on a number of occasions. During the same year she was appointed by Affiliate Artists as Xerox Artist for the 1988‑89 season.

Kathryn Selby has performed with the American Chamber Orchestra and was a founding member of the Philadelphia Orchestra Chamber Group. Those she has been guest artist with include the Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Saint Louis, San Francisco Philharmonic, Hartford Chamber Orchestra, the ACO, and the Sydney, Melbourne and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. She has performed at the Athens, Spoleto, Caramoor, Aspen, Marlboro, Sydney Mozart and Sydney Festivals.

She made her debut in London at Wigmore Hall to rave reviews and at Carnegie Hall prompting Harold C. Schonberg to claim that "She is a natural" in the New York Times.

Kathryn performed in Canada with the Calgary and Eric Philharmonic Orchestras.  She regularly performed with the Concerto Soloist Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Marc Mostovoy and Maestro Max Rudolf. She performed in Munich, Germany, and at the Athens Festival with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Spoleto Festival, Caramoor Music Festival (New York), Aspen Music Festival and the Sydney Mozart Festival.

Kathryn began the successful series "Selby & Friends" when she returned to Australia. At the same time she commuted to the USA for concert engagements.   Miss Selby recorded an all-Gershwin disc for the NAXOS label with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra in Bratislava and a solo piano recital disc for the ABC Classics label which only recently was re-released.

In 1989 Kathryn founded ‘Selby & Friends’, sponsored for four years by IBM Australia.  This was a dual concert series for children, presented at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, and adults at the Seymour Centre.  During this time she taught chamber music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music whilst also being Musician-in-Residence at Macquarie University in Sydney where she was responsible for bringing music onto the campus in various forms as well as performing in a series of concerts there each year. 

In 1993 she was the founding member of Macquarie Trio Australia, in residence at Macquarie University. Macquarie University appointed Miss Selby as the Director of MTA’s activities from its founding in 1993. Generously sponsored by Macquarie University, Macquarie Trio Australia until 2006 presented sold-out series at Macquarie University, a second Sydney Series at Verbrugghen Hall, a Melbourne Series and a Canberra Series at the National Gallery of Australia.    In 2003, the Trio expanded its activities to include a new subscription series in both Adelaide at Elder Hall, and in Brisbane at City Hall. MTA presented seven independent concert seasons around Australia each year until its end in 2006 as well as children’s concerts, masterclasses, workshops and more.  Miss Selby was responsible for all aspects of the management, direction, planning, strategy, sponsorship and promotion of MTA’s seven subscription seasons, community and school’s concerts. Macquarie Trio Australia was extremely active as a recording ensemble.  ABC National Radio recorded and broadcast the Trio’s subscription concerts each year.  Added to this, the ABC Classics label has recorded seven Macquarie Trio Australia CDs, two of which have been honoured on separate occasions with nominations in the Classical Music category of the ARIA Awards.   MTA has released CDs of Mendelssohn, Brahms, Beethoven, Dvorak, Schubert, Piazzolla and Australian compositions for piano trio.

Miss Selby has been a presenter of her own program on 2MBS-FM in Sydney and can also be heard currently as a sometime national presenter on ABC Classic FM.

Added to this, she was awarded the prestigious Australia Council Fellowship in 2006 which will see her work with talented young Australians around the country in workshops and masterclasses.

2007 sees Ms Selby recreating her Selby & Friends series for a national touring season to Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide, performing at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville, the Camden Haven Music Festival and as part of the new Utzon Room Series at the Sydney Opera House. She has also formed a new piano trio named TrioZ with Niki Vasilakis, violin and Emma-Jane Murphy, cello.  Ms Selby is Artist-In-Residence at St Andrews Cathedral School in 2007 and has recently become associated with the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney.