Piers Lane AO, who lives in London, is one of Australia’s most renowned and engaging performers. In demand worldwide as soloist and collaborative artist, highlights include a performance of Busoni’s mighty piano concerto at Carnegie Hall, premieres of Carl Vine’s second piano concerto and double piano concerto (with Kathryn Stott) Implacable Gifts, both written for him, and annual solo recitals at Wigmore Hall. His 2023 engagements included appearances in Dubai, New Zealand, Portugal, the UK, the USA and throughout Australia. As Artistic Director of the Sydney International Piano Competition since 2015, he chaired the jury of the 2023 edition and recently adjudicated the Horowitz Kyiv-Geneva Piano Competition, the Michael Hill Violin Competition in New Zealand and the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Vevey. He is responsible for recent Piano+ initiatives like the 2021 Online Piano Competition, the Piano Lovers’ amateur competition and Composing the Future.
Piers was Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music from 2007 to 2017 and directed the annual Myra Hess Day at the National Gallery in London from its inception in 2006 until 2014. He has recorded more than 70 CDs and has written and presented over 100 programs for BBC Radio 3. In 2022 he was presented with the Sir Bernard Heinze Award for service to music in Australia.
Adelaide 2026 Patron, Eleonora Sivan is a Russian Australian piano pedagogue who received her early music education at the Special Music School attached to the Leningrad Conservatory. Later at the Conservatory, she was taught by a professor from the Anna Essipoff School, amidst musical icons like Shostakovich, Khachaturian and Richter. She was teaching and performing from an early age, and completed post-graduate studies in Musicology, assisting her professor for many years.
Arriving in Adelaide in 1981, Eleonora was Senior Lecturer in Piano at Elder Conservatorium, The University of Adelaide for 23 years. She cultivated a school of pianism with her protégés and encouraged their lifetime connections to music. She has prepared countless students for concerts, exams, and competitions; prepared and mentored many postgraduate students for their higher degrees; and mentored many teachers to support their careers.
Eleonora’s musical drive is imaginative and inspirational, influencing creative and academic activity during her decades in Australia: concerts, festivals, conferences, and a number of works. By 1989 Eleonora had already inspired a novella, Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy AM, and Prof. Anna Goldsworthy’s memoir, Piano Lessons (2010), both adapted for the stage. Larry Sitsky AO composed an extended piano suite, The Golden Dawn (2010), dedicated to Eleonora Sivan and pianists from her school, followed by a solo piano work, Nocturne Magique based on a Fioratura motive from the spelling of Eleonora Sivan. Eleonora’s pedagogical methodology was the subject of Debra Andreacchio’s PhD thesis in 2023.
Eleonora has had a cascading influence on the music community and piano teaching with her premise that music blossoms from invisible seeds planted within our imagination.
Born in the region of Frankfurt/Main, Konrad Engel grew up in a mainly scientifically oriented family. However, it became clear during his early childhood that music would be his vocation someday. Over the years, more than a dozen scholarships, awards and many prizes at international competitions reinforced that impression: most importantly, the German National Music Competition, Bach-Competition Leipzig and a first prize at the international Chopin-Competition Hanover.
Konrad’s concert career – now almost 40 years of stage experience – took him all over the northern hemisphere, across Europe, Asia and the US. As a soloist he performed with numerous renowned orchestras and at several international festivals. His repertoire has never excluded any style or period and included all kinds of keyboards from cembalo to fortepiano and various historic grand pianos.
Over the last two decades he has discovered his great passion for teaching and has focused his career on education. After his first experiences in teaching at the municipal music school in Hanover, a lectureship at the University for Arts Bremen in 2011 was an important leap.
From 2012 to 2018 he held a substitutional professorship at Hanover Music University, and in 2017 he received a full professorship at Hanns Eisler University Berlin and the honour to become head of piano department at Musikgymnasium C.P.E. Bach. He held this position until 2023, when he focused on his work with students at university and further development of the curriculum in bachelor and master studies.
Now among Konrad’s students are many prize-winners at international competitions, but most importantly some of his first alumni have already started being successful teachers themselves, passing on the flame of musical passion to their students.
In his sparse free time Konrad Engel is interested in many other subjects, such as astronomy and technology but also visual arts, history and philosophy – never to forget about classic cars. His motto couldn’t be described better than in Eisler’s words: “Who seeks to understand music only, won’t understand music at all.”
Professor Anna Goldsworthy is Dean of the Elder Conservatorium of Music and Performing Arts at the new Adelaide University. In 2027 she will be taking up the position of Artistic Director of the Australian National Academy of Music and dividing her time between Adelaide and Melbourne.
As a pianist, Anna performs extensively throughout Australia and internationally, as a soloist and chamber musician. She is a founding member of Seraphim Trio, whose recordings include the ARIA-award-winning Thirteen Ways to Look at Birds for Decca, with Paul Kelly. Musical highlights of 2025 include performances with Seraphim Trio throughout the UK and Germany; a residency at the Conservatorio di Musica Santa Cecelia in Rome; release of the recording Radiante by Seraphim Trio for ABC Classics; appearances at the Adelaide Festival; and collaborations with some of Australia’s most distinguished musicians such as violinist Andrew Haveron and bass-baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes.
As a writer, Anna was awarded Newcomer of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards for her debut memoir, Piano Lessons, released in Australia, North America, Germany, Korea and Vietnam, and shortly to appear in China. She is the author of several works for the stage, including the libretto of the Graeme Koehne’s opera A Christmas Carol.
Anna has directed numerous festivals, including the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, the Coriole Music Festival, and the Music and Mountains Festival in Queenstown, New Zealand. In 2024, she delivered a Boyer Lecture for ABC radio and television, on the future of classical music.
Anna Goldsworthy has degrees from the University of Adelaide, Texas Christian University and the University of Melbourne. Her significant mentors have been Eleonora Sivan and Ronald Farren-Price in Australia, and Hatto Beyerle in Hanover. She has also studied in Moscow with Lev Naumov, and in the Advanced Performers Program at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM).
Nicholas Mathew is a British-born pianist and writer. He is Professor of Music and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at the University of California, Berkeley.
Professor Mathew regularly appears as a recitalist and chamber performer in the United States, Great Britain, and Australia. A widely published scholar and critic, he is one of the world’s leading authorities on the history of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music, especially Beethoven, Haydn, Viennese musical culture, and historical performance practices. Professor Mathew is a frequent public speaker, to both general and specialist audiences, on musical and artistic matters.
Professor Mathew is a regular contributor to the BBC in Britain and the ABC in Australia and has engaged in collaborative projects with musical institutions including the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, and chamber groups such as the Takacs Quartet. He is one of the founding members of the Chamber Music Collective, an experimental group of historically inspired artists and teachers based across the United States.
Professor Mathew was educated at Oxford University and the Guildhall School of Music, London. He went on to receive his doctorate in music from Cornell University in New York State, where he studied historical pianos with the renowned American fortepianist Malcolm Bilson. His books include Political Beethoven and The Haydn Economy.
Pianist, Pamela D. Pike, PhD, is Spillman Professor of Piano Pedagogy and Associate Dean of Research, Creative Practice & Community Engagement at Louisiana State University, where she directs the group piano and piano pedagogy program. Winner of the university’s top research award (Senior Rainmaker) in 2025 and top graduate teaching award in 2019, she has also won undergraduate and statewide teaching awards in Arkansas and Louisiana. Pike is a Yamaha Master Educator, a Foundation Fellow of Music Teachers National Association, and a member of the College of Examiners for the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto). As an active researcher of pedagogical topics, including sight reading, deliberate practice, group teaching, adult learning, and career sustainability, she is a sought-after speaker and clinician. Pike has published peer-reviewed full-length books, book chapters, research articles, and practitioner articles. She is editor-in-chief of the Piano Magazine, co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Piano Research, and is author-professor of the Great Courses curriculum, How to Play Piano video series. Her two solo-authored books from Routledge are The Adult Music Student: Making Music throughout the Lifespan (2022) and Dynamic Group Piano Teaching: Transforming Learning Theory into Teaching Practice (2017).
Titles of presentations:
- Keynote presentation: The Adult Piano Student: Facilitating Creative Learning Throughout Adulthood
- Workshop for Teachers: Inventive, Engaging and Effective Sight-Reading Strategies for Beginning and Intermediate Piano Students
- Presentation: Transformative Benefits of and Innovative Pathways into Research for Piano Teachers
Dr. Jason Sifford, NCTM is a freelance pianist, teacher and composer with a wide range of abilities and interests. He maintains a private teaching studio in Iowa City and is in demand as an adjudicator and clinician, lecturing on such diverse topics as classical performance practice, jazz pedagogy, technical development in young pianists, composition, and music technology. He also maintains a regular performance schedule on the classical stage and as music director for local theater productions.
As a composer, Jason is primarily interested in music for young pianists. He has written four solo collections and several pop arrangements for Willis Music, and his music is featured in several state festival syllabi, the bulletin for the National Federation of Music Clubs, and the Royal Conservatory of Music (Canada).
Dr. Sifford is also an active member of several music organizations and has served on the boards for the City Circle Theatre Company, the Iowa Music Teachers Association, and is currently the West Central Division Director for the Music Teachers National Association.
Carly McDonald is an Australian piano teacher, consultant, and presenter who brings energy and insight to both early music education and the business of teaching. She is the founder of Novar Music, a vibrant community established in 2005 that now supports 22 teachers across four South Australian locations. Carly has combined a love of music education with a commitment to helping teachers develop the skills they need to thrive as small-business owners.
Alongside her studio work, Carly is the author of the blog Creative.Piano.Professional, which provides resources for piano teachers around the world. She is the Australasian Ambassador for Piano Adventures, co-editor of the I Want To Play That! piano series, and since 2022 has served as Piano Education Consultant for Yamaha Music Australia. In each of these roles, she combines pedagogical expertise with practical strategies that support both teachers and students.
Carly is passionate about building creative, connected, and sustainable teaching communities. Her work champions strong musical foundations, innovative teaching practices, and collaboration across the arts, helping students and educators alike to grow, and discover wherever music may take them.
Samantha Coates is an internationally regarded author, composer, presenter and piano pedagogue, with almost four decades of experience in both private and group piano teaching. She is the creator of BlitzBooks, a music education series which has captured the imagination of students and teachers across many continents, and has transformed the teaching of sight reading, music theory, and the use of rote teaching in the piano studio.
Samantha holds a Bachelor degree in piano performance, and now specialises in pedagogy, with the particular goal of equipping her students with recreational music-making skills. She is passionate about helping the wider piano teaching community and regularly presents her own webinars and live sessions on a wide range of pedagogical topics.
Samantha also enjoys giving volunteer piano recitals at aged care facilities, in which she tailors her programs to maximise the residents’ memories and emotional connection. She loves dark chocolate, staring at the ocean, going for long walks, and shamelessly crying through Disney movies.
Australian pianist Angela Turner enjoys a multifaceted career as pianist and lecturer. Broadcast as soloist and chamber musician, Angela has enjoyed a focus upon chamber music in recent years, most notably with the Lyrebird Trio who were winners of all piano trio prizes at the 2013 Asia Pacific Chamber Music Competition. Angela’s engagements have included appearances at Melbourne Recital Centre, Sydney Opera House, Ukaria, ABC, Kawai Keyboard Series, Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Musica Viva, and various festivals including Port Fairy, 4MBS, Coriole, Mackay, Tyalgum and the Australian Piano Duo Festivals.
Since 1998, Angela has been on staff at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, lecturing across a range of practical and academic subjects at pre-tertiary, tertiary and post-graduate levels. She currently leads the Intermediate Piano program for the Young Conservatorium, and lectures in piano at the University of Queensland. A sought-after adjudicator, presenter and editor, Angela is the Principal Consultant for the AMEB’s forthcoming Piano Series 19 grade books. Her “Exploring” piano repertoire series is published by Hal Leonard.
A graduate and Conservatorium medallist of the Queensland Conservatorium, Angela completed her Master of Music on exchange at the Royal College of Music, London. She is indebted to her former teachers, Yonty Solomon, Natasha Vlassenko and Joyce Bennett.
Other presenters will be included
A complete list of APPC 2026 presenters and sessions will be published.