Musica Viva

Musica Viva Australia was founded in 1945 by Romanian born violinist Richard Goldner, with the aim of bringing chamber music to Australia. In 1945 Musica Viva was a string ensemble performing chamber music to small groups of European immigrants. In 2013, Musica Viva has become the largest chamber music presenter in the world.

Musica Viva also runs one of the largest music education programs in Australia, Musica Viva In Schools.

Mary Jo Capps has been the CEO of Music Viva since 1999. The Artistic Director is composer Carl Vine AO.

Musica Viva's heritage is grounded in the vision of one man - Richard Goldner - a Romanian-born violist who had trained in Vienna. Goldner arrived in Australia as a refugee in 1939 but maintained his strong connections with many of the most respected musicians in Europe.

Once asked what he expected when he arrived in Australia, his answer was simple. First he expected to save his life. Second, he soon realised that music was not a way of life in Australia in the way it was in Europe. Men generally did not attend concerts as it was considered 'sissy' - a perception that lasted until the GIs came from America.

Goldner persevered and soon after formed the Monomeeth String Quartet, which took its name from an Indigenous Australian word for peace and harmony.

Inspired by his life in Vienna and the enormous respect for his teacher Simon Pullman, he was determined to create a 'Pullman-like' ensemble in Sydney. Reading in 1944 of his great mentor's death in the Treblinka extermination camp in August 1942, Goldner's plans accelerated and he recruited 17 musicians and divided them into four string quartets (and piano). The quartets were trained individually before uniting as one group - Richard Goldner's Sydney Musica Viva.

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