Iola Shelley
Position
Piano accompanist for School of Music and Pettman Junior Academy
Qualifications
BMus (Hons) Bristol
BA (Hons) Bristol
LRAM
ARCM
Room
102, 39a Creyke Road
Contact Details
Phone: +64 3 3668931
iola@xtra.co.nz
Postal address:
School of Music
University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch 8140
New Zealand
Background
Welsh-born Iola Shelley was educated in the UK and enjoyed a remarkable early career as a solo pianist, becoming the youngest student to be awarded Piano Performance Diplomas at the Royal Academy & the Royal College of Music, London.
In New Zealand, she changed her specialisation to chamber music and accompanying and became a founding member of the Camerata Chamber group. The Camerata went on to establish the Christchurch Conservatoire as its teaching base.
As a chamber-music pianist and accompanist she has performed in recital & recording with many of the world’s leading instrumentalists & singers, including violinists Alfredo Campoli and Ronald Woodcock, violist Rainer Moog, cellists Lluis Claret, Alexander Ivashkin, Lawrence Lesser, Leslie Parnas and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, flautists Michel Debost, Susan Milan, Alexa Still and Anthony Ferner, clarinettist Mark Walton and singers Dame Malvina Major, Viktoriya Dodoka, Jared Holt and Teddy Tahu Rhodes. Her recent CDs include High Spirits with Mark Walton and Rachmaninov Songs withViktoriya Dodoka.
She has been official accompanist of The Adam International Cello Festival and Competition since its inception:-
“Mention should also be made of Leslie Parnas’s accompanist Iola Shelley, who assisted many of the competitors as well, with unfailing support, sensitive musicianship, and impressive technique” - Robert Markow in Strad Magazine 2006.
Iola Shelley is also official accompanist for The National Concerto Competition and The Sealord Aria Contest, and tutor/pianist for the annual NBR NZ Opera Summer School.
An additional focus on orchestral music saw her appointed as Artistic Director of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and a member of the inaugural board of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Ltd.
She has also been an international examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.