Adam Summer School – tutors

New Zealand String Quartet

Helene Pohl (First violin), Douglas Beilman (Second violin), Gillian Ansell (Viola), Rolf Gjelsten (‘Cello)

The New Zealand String Quartet is New Zealand’s premier chamber music ensemble, performing a wide range of repertoire in centres throughout the country. Since its formation in 1987, the group’s dynamic style and vivid interpretations have won the hearts of audiences on four continents, filling an ever expanding international schedule with tours to North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Committed to performing New Zealand music, the quartet regularly programmes and records a wide variety of works by New Zealand composers. The New Zealand String Quartet is Quartet-in-Residence at Victoria University, and together with Michael Houstoun, initiated the setting up of the annual Adam Summer School.

Diedre Irons (piano)

Diedre Irons was born in Winnipeg, Canada. She graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and was subsequently invited by her teacher, Rudolf Serkin, to join the faculty of that prestigious conservatory; she taught there for the next seven years.

She moved to New Zealand in 1977 and has since performed regularly with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonia and the Christchurch Symphony, toured many times under the auspices of Chamber Music New Zealand, and recorded extensively for Radio New Zealand.

Diedre Irons was awarded an MBE for services to music in 1989 and received the degree Doctor of Music (honoris causa) from Brandon University in Manitoba, Canada. Senior lecturer in piano at the University of Canterbury from 1992-2003, she recently retired from her position as head of classical performance at the New Zealand School of Music to perform full-time. In 2011 she was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit.