“I grew up hearing stories of the legendary Jack Harrison from my family—his dance band, radio broadcasts, magnificent clarinet and harmonica playing, and his superb performances with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.
As a child, it was the enchanting clarinet duo towards the end of Mendelssohn’s ‘Hebrides’ Overture, played by Jack Harrison and Duncan Abercromby at a WASO concert, that made me fall in love with the sound-world of the clarinet. To my imagination, it had the quality of moonlight on silvery water.
I was fortunate that both these wonderful musicians subsequently became my teachers.”
Catherine McCorkill was born in Perth in 1962 and began studying the clarinet at the age of twelve, principally with Duncan Abercromby and, for a shorter period, with Jack Harrison. Her first professional engagements were with the WA Arts Orchestra during her final two years of school.
At seventeen, Catherine left Perth to study with Donald Westlake at the Canberra School of Music, having been offered direct entry into the second year of a performance degree. While still a student, she also taught in the CSM music education programmes and reached the Sydney finals of the ABC Concerto and Vocal Competition. She graduated with the Bernhard Neumann Prize and subsequently undertook postgraduate studies.
During a period performing with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Catherine won the Tasmanian state finals of the ABC competition. In 1984, she toured Europe as principal clarinet of the Australian Youth Orchestra on its landmark six-week tour.
Awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 1984, Catherine undertook fifteen months of advanced study in Europe and the United States. This included seven months with the distinguished German clarinettist Hans Deinzer, as well as lessons with leading London clarinettists John McCaw, Anthony Pay, Michael Collins and Jack Brymer; Guy Deplus in Paris; Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr in Michigan; and Gervase de Peyer in New York. She also pursued chamber music studies with Yvonne Loriod and Jacques Delannoy at summer schools in France.
On returning to Australia, Catherine was appointed Principal Clarinet of the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra in Brisbane. After four years, her growing interest in pedagogy led her to accept a lectureship in clarinet at the WA Conservatorium of Music in 1990, during Richard Gill’s tenure as Dean. She also performed with the Conservatorium’s resident wind quintet, Ensemble Vasse.
In 1993, Catherine moved to Melbourne to take up the position of Lecturer in Woodwind at the Victorian College of the Arts, where she enjoyed a rich musical collaboration with her colleagues. A particularly memorable performance, with Kirsten Williams, Michael Kieran Harvey and Nathan Waks, was Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time in the Great Hall of the National Gallery of Victoria. The composer’s celebrated fascination with “stained glass chords” found a striking visual counterpart in Leonard French’s magnificent stained-glass ceiling.
From 1995, Catherine was a core member of the Australia Ensemble, resident at the University of New South Wales, for two decades. She also enjoyed a long association with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, performing regularly as Principal Clarinet from 1994. These engagements took her throughout Australia and on numerous international tours.
Among her most treasured chamber music performances were Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet at London’s Wigmore Hall and at Sayles Hall, Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, with the Australia Ensemble. Memorable performances with the Australian Chamber Orchestra included concerts at Seiji Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood, Massachusetts; Cadogan Hall, London; and Dresden’s Frauenkirche. Catherine also fondly recalls many performances with the ACO, Australia Ensemble and Australian String Quartet in her home city of Perth, particularly in the beautiful acoustics of Perth Concert Hall and Winthrop Hall.
As a soloist, Catherine has appeared with most of Australia’s major orchestras. A particular highlight was her 1997 national tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, performing Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto on the modern basset clarinet. The performances were recognised by Limelight magazine as among the highlights of Australia’s classical music year.
Catherine appeared extensively for Musica Viva as both soloist and chamber musician, and was a featured artist at many of Australia’s leading music festivals, including the Huntington Estate Music Festival, Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Barossa Festival, Music in the Hunter, Bowral Festival, Four Winds, Canberra Festival and Moët & Chandon Festival. Many of these performances were collaborations with colleagues from the Australia Ensemble and Australian Chamber Orchestra.
She also toured nationally with the Australian String Quartet and Kathryn Selby’s ensemble, Selby & Friends.
Alongside her performing career, Catherine maintained a strong commitment to music education. She taught for many years at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, including as Lecturer in Clarinet, and was frequently invited to teach at the Australian National Academy of Music. At ANAM, she performed the Australian premiere of British composer, Thomas Adès’s The Origin of the Harp, for solo clarinet and chamber ensemble, conducted by Brett Dean.
As an advocate for contemporary Australian music, Catherine premiered numerous works with the Australia Ensemble, including compositions by Ross Edwards, Elena Kats-Chernin, Peter Sculthorpe, Martin Wesley-Smith, Andrew Ford and Elliott Gyger, as well as the Australian premiere of Thomas Adès’s Catch.
Her performance of Nigel Westlake’s Rare Sugar, a concertino for clarinet and chamber ensemble, received the 2008 APRA / AMC Classical Music Award for Best Performance of an Australian Composition.
In the latter years of her performing career, Catherine also held the position of Associate Principal Clarinet with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra.
In 2014, progressive difficulties with her hands brought Catherine’s professional performing career to a close, after thirty-five years devoted to music. Among its most enduring rewards has been the success of her former students, many of whom have established distinguished careers as educators and performers, including the brilliant clarinettist, Benjamin Mellefont, Principal Clarinet of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Professor at the Royal College of Music
Following her performing career, Catherine continued teaching music pedagogy at the Sydney Conservatorium and also worked in EAL/D English education with migrants, international students and refugees.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she increasingly directed her creative energies towards the visual arts, developing her practice in printmaking and oil portraiture.
In 2023, her large-scale portrait of Ivor Houston, the youngest person to walk solo and unaided from Fremantle to Bondi to raise funds and awareness for refugees, won the People’s Choice Prize at Blue Mountains Portraits. Catherine has also twice been a finalist in the Kennedy Prize and a semifinalist in the Darling Portrait Prize.
She completed a Master of Arts (Studio Art) at the Florence Academy of Art in 2023 and has held several solo exhibitions in Sydney and the Blue Mountains.
Catherine lives in the Blue Mountains with her husband, cellist Christopher Lockhart Smith, formerly of the Queensland Philharmonic and West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and who, for many years, played with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra in Sydney. They have two children and recently welcomed their first grandchild.