‘You cannot have

Delayed gratification is sometimes the best kind. Which is why this Musica Viva Australia tour – Karin Schaupp & Flinders Quartet – will be such a treat a year after it was initially meant to run. Brisbane-based Karin Schaupp is one of the most outstanding guitarists on the international scene and she performs widely around the world as a recitalist, concerto soloist and festival guest. She has a unique stage presence, a natural charm and vivacity and undeniable passion for the instrument. And she’s not shy about sharing the secrets of her success with her students at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University. Her PhD dissertation – Moved to Tears: An Exploration of How Acting Techniques Can Transform Classical Instrumental Music Performance – is sure to become a classic reference for musicians, and she is an inspiration to her students. The performative aspect is something that has been neglected, Schaupp says, particularly in the classical music world, and it is her mission to change that by teaching … and performing.

Flinders Quartet is one of Australia’s most loved chamber music ensembles. Schaupp and Flinders Quartet are old friends, having performed and recorded together before, albeit with an earlier iteration of the group featuring two of the current retinue. The 2011 release on ABC Classic label of Fandango, one of the fruits of that collaboration, was nominated for an ARIA Award. It featured Boccherini’s Guitar Quartet Fandango, and two movements from that work will finish this concert program with a flourish.

‘You cannot have too much fandango,’ Schaupp says. ‘I cannot count how many times I have played that piece and it has a real treat in store with Zoe Knighton playing the castanets. We need castanets.’

The tour may be a year later than planned, due to the pandemic, but as founding Flinders Quartet member Zoe Knighton points out, that has given the musicians time to work with Paul Kildea and the Musica Viva Australia team to create something special.

‘This program has taken the longest time to curate of anything we have done,’ Knighton says. ‘Everyone wanted to get it just right and we took a number of paths before we settled on what we now have. It’s nice that Fandango is included because that’s the piece that brought Karin Schaupp and Flinders Quartet together. So, it’s a logical inclusion but in the first iteration of the program it wasn’t there.

Is it too obvious? We asked ourselves that question. But we are playing it because we want to play it and we just love doing it.’ memory of her late daughter: a celebration of life and music. It will be a particularly poignant performance and one that Schaupp describes as ‘a privilege’.