Deborah Lander
Assistant Professor of Viola

Degrees:
PhD, University of Newcastle (Australia)

At UK Since 2008

Phone: 859-323-0676

Email: debviola@gmail.com

"Her healthy nut brown tone and engaging style are a joy to the ear" - The Strad

“This is a kick-ass viola section”
-Keith Lockhart, Conductor, Boston Pops, in rehearsal with the UKSO, 2011

Deborah Lander is native to Sydney, Australia, however her career as chamber musician, soloist, and pedagogue has taken her to the world’s major concert halls and Universities.

Dr. Lander became a member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra whilst a student with Winifred Durie in Sydney. Following graduation, she travelled to London, where she was invited by Sir Neville Marriner to become a member of his prestigious ensemble the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. With them, she recorded extensively and performed in the world’s major concert halls, including Royal Festival Hall, the Concertgebouw, the Musikverein, the Mozarteum, Teatro de Colon, and Carnegie Hall. In addition to her commitments with “the Academy”, Dr Lander was a member of the Romney Trio and was principal viola with the London Bach Orchestra.

As soloist, Dr. Lander has performed with the Sydney Symphony, London Bach, Townsville Festival, Ku-ring-gai Symphony, University of Newcastle Symphony and Chamber, and the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestras. She was a prize winner at Tunbridge Wells and in the Park Lane Group’s ‘Young Artists and the 20th Century’ Competition, and has been recitalist in England (most notably at the Purcell Room, South Bank), Europe, the USA, Canada and throughout Australia. She has given lecture/recitals at 3 International Viola Congresses and the 9th International Conference for New Directions in the Humanities.

Dr. Lander has long been an advocate of the commission and performance of new music, and has given premieres of works written for her by Elena Kats-Chernin, Daryl Pratt, Mark Isaacs, Margery Smith, Colin Spiers, Jackie Orszaczky, Robert Sherlaw Johnson and Julian Milone. She was a member of the contemporary chamber ensemble Sydney Alpha, with whom she also gave many premieres.

Her CD of works written for her, VIOLA VIBES, was released in Oct 2006.

Symphony orchestra experience includes many performances with the Philharmonia Orchestra (London) and guest principal positions with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Lander holds a PhD from the University of Newcastle and is the author of the Australian Music Examinations Board’s Viola Syllabus and Technical Work Book. In 2005, she was the host of the Australian and New Zealand Viola Society’s International Viola Conference in Newcastle.

Dr Lander joined the faculty at the University of Kentucky in 2008. Prior to that she held the tenured viola position at the University of Newcastle (Australia) for 11 years, and has served on the string faculties of the Sydney Conservatorium and the Australian Institute of Music. She has given master classes in London and throughout the USA and Australia. Her students are contributing to the advance of the viola as pedagogues and players world wide, most notably in the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Halle Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Opera.