2024 AUSTA Q Mini Conference

Ed Le Brocq is a musical adventurer, teacher, writer, broadcaster and transgender man. He was born on the White Cliffs of Dover and began playing music when he was six years old. He studied viola in Manchester, Berlin and London, and played professionally in the UK and Hong Kong. After a decade of performances throughout Asia, including for the Hong Kong Handover in 1997, Ed decided on a new path, literally, and travelled by bicycle from England to Hong Kong, with only a violin for company. The journey took him a year and went through Europe, Iran, Pakistan, India and China. The trip was eventually chronicled in Cadence, Ed’s first book and a national bestseller.

After immigrating to Australia in 2003, and after a character-building year scrubbing dishes in St Kilda, Ed eventually began broadcasting with ABC Classic FM. He spent many years hosting the cult hit breakfast programme and doing things like cycling to the source of the Ganges in his spare time.

After more than a decade in the ABC studios, Ed decided he needed to get out and about again and applied for a job teaching cello to street children and orphans at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Kabul. Eddie’s second book Danger Music is about this turbulent, life-changing year, where he survived the threat of bombs, kidnappings, beginner string players and hormone-charged teenagers. It was during this year that Ed finally accepted the man within and began his transition from female to male. Emma became Ed just before his fiftieth birthday. Better late than never.

Ed’s fifth book Sound Bites – Following the Bendy Path of Classical Music from Ancient Times to Today was released in August 2023.

You can also look forward to presentations by Bernardo Alvis, Natalie Sharp, Raquel Bastos, David Deacon, Gyorgi Deri, Loreta Fin AM, Jonny Ng, and others. The weekend will conclude with a Delegates Orchestra session directed by Michael Patterson. Full Schedule below.