Rate My Professor Stephanie McCallum

Stephanie McCallum is Associate Professor in piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music of the University of Sydney, where she studied with Alexander Sverjensky and Gordon Watson before undertaking advanced studies in England with Ronald Smith. An internationally acclaimed pianist, she has performed extensively as a soloist in Australia, France, and the United Kingdom, touring Europe with The Alpha Centauri Ensemble and appearing at festivals such as Sydney, Brighton, Cheltenham, Huddersfield, and Adelaide. She has collaborated with major Australian orchestras including the Sydney Symphony, Queensland Symphony, Adelaide Symphony, and Australian Chamber Orchestra, as well as ensembles like Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Elision, and the Australia Ensemble. A champion of contemporary music, McCallum was a founding member of AustraLYSIS and Sydney Alpha Ensemble, serving as joint artistic director of the latter, and gave the world premiere of Elena Kats-Chernin's piano concerto Displaced Dances with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in 2000. Her performances of virtuosic nineteenth-century repertoire, particularly Liszt and Alkan, have been described as titanic and awe-inspiring.

McCallum's discography encompasses over forty recordings, including twenty-two solo CDs, marking numerous firsts such as the complete sets of Alkan's Douze études dans les tons mineurs Op. 39 and Grands études Op. 35, the first pianist to record both; all five books of Alkan's Recueils de chants; Beethoven's complete bagatelles, featuring the premiere recording of his last unpublished piano piece in F minor; Weber's complete piano sonatas; Liszt's The Liszt Album and From the Years of Pilgrimage; Schumann's Scenes from Childhood and Fantasie Op. 17; Satie's Gymnopédies; Guy Ropartz piano music; and Alexandre Boëly's piano music on an 1853 Erard. She has also recorded rare French repertoire, contemporary Australian works, and music for four hands on period instruments with Erin Helyard. Her advocacy has significantly impacted the performance and recording of neglected piano literature, earning critical praise and an ARIA nomination for Best Classical Album in 2001 for Perfume. McCallum delivers lecture-recitals, including at the Royal College of Music and Purcell School in London.