Postcard from Cambridge: Kim Waldock

Kim, you managed to avoid much of Tasmania’s winter by making your annual pilgrimage to the UK. Tell us about the Cambridge Summer Music Festival and your latest trip. 

The summer months in Cambridge UK are glorious – mild weather (average 28 degrees), long evenings, streets lined with thousands of tourists exploring the historic town and the Cambridge Summer Music Festival. 

In 2022, when I was living in the area, I was invited to take over the delivery of the concerts in this festival. 

This year the festival included a total of 30 concerts and five other events in fourteen historic venues across the region over 28 days. We held educational events as well, including a young composer’s workshop day and piano and vocal masterclasses. 

Sounds fun but exhausting! 

Darn tooting it was exhausting – but also exhilarating, as it was a chance to hear some extraordinary performances in glorious, iconic venues. 

Some performances were unexpectedly magic – such as Ryan Corbett playing a Bach fugue on his piano accordion; or Mozart’s Magic Flute performed in a historic Long Barn to an audience of 300; or a Duke Ellington sacred work combining sacred traditions with gospel and jazz in Kings College Chapel. Other events were ‘mega’ – such as 3000 people dancing to a samba ensemble in the Botanical Gardens, and a cast of 250 performing the Verdi Requiem in Ely Cathedral (very loudly). 

Did you have a favourite performance of the festival? 

If I had to choose, I guess my favourite was the English Voices and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s performance of Bach’s St John Passion in Trinity College Chapel (pictured below). 

Whether it be emerging soloists or world renowned ensembles like the Academy of St Martin’s in the Field, the festival offered something for everyone. Most of the events sold out, thanks to the heavy tourist foot traffic in the area and loyal subscribers who travel across England to attend. 

Now that you are back in Tasmania, what are you most looking forward to about the TSO’s Season 2025? 

Apart from some truly sensational mainstage concerts and soloists like Joyce DiDonato who we regularly worked with at The Royal Opera House, I am looking forward to taking our schools concerts to regional areas. I’m excited to share the joys of orchestral music with little audiences, perhaps for the first time for many young students. And I’m also looking forward to our special Mini TSO concerts for Halloween and Christmas, with some local mini ballerinas.