In the lead-up to accomplished young conductor Sam Allchurch making his debut as Music Director of Sydney Chamber Choir this Saturday, March 30th, classikON chatted with him about his pathway to conducting, programming music about music, inclusivity in classical music,…
Instruments & Musicians
Profile | Bree Van Reyk
Bree van Reyk is an Australian percussionist, drummer, composer and sound artist. She has toured and recorded extensively throughout Australia and around the globe with the likes of Paul Kelly, Holly Throsby, Sarah Blasko, Lior, Katie Noonan, Darren Hanlon, the…
Profile | Lamorna Nightingale
Lamorna Nightingale is a core member of the new music group – Ensemble Offspring and appears regularly with Sydney’s finest orchestras and chamber groups. In 2015, Lamorna produced and performed as a soloist in the Australian Premier Performance of Sciarrino’s…
Profile | Kieran Welch
Kieran Welch is a violist, curator, event producer, DJ, teacher and writer. Regularly performing across Australia as part of the indie-chamber septet Nonsemble, Kieran also curates the Brisbane-based concert series ‘Dots+Loops’, exploring the spaces in between a classical concert and…
Profile | Anthony Albrecht
Anthony Albrecht is a Novocastrian cellist and recent graduate of The Juilliard School in New York City, completing a Master of Music in Historical Performance while studying with Phoebe Carrai. During his degree Anthony performed under William Christie and Nick…
Profile | Cellist: Geoffrey Gartner
Geoffrey Gartner is a Sydney-based performer who specialises in chamber music and works for solo cello. He performs a repertoire extending from the baroque to the newest works of today, many of which have been written for him. Always the…
Profile | Violinist: Anna McMichael
Anna McMichael is an Australian born violinist who returned to live in Australia in 2010 after 17 years in Europe performing in many of the major ensembles and orchestras.
Profile | Pianist & Vocalist: Frances Madden
Frances captivates her audiences with her genuinely warm stage presence together with a voice and style that is uniquely her own.
Musician | Kate Worley
Kate Worley is the recipient of the Nora Baird audition bursary at the Queensland Conservatorium. Entering her 2nd year of study under the tutelage of Michele Walsh.
Profile | Alicia Crossley
One of Australia’s leading recorder players performing a wide variety of repertoire from renaissance dance tunes to contemporary electro-acoustic works.
Profile | Jane Sheldon
Jane Sheldon specialises in the performance and creation of new chamber music. She has appeared with acclaimed ensembles across the globe, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera, Boston Camerata, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Synergy Percussion, Talea Ensemble, the Australian…
Profile | Saxophone: Nick Russoniello
One of Australia’s most gifted emerging saxophonists, creating a unique place with exciting new repertoire for the saxophone. Inaugural winner of the Fine Music 102.5 Kruger Scholarship will mean he can record an album in the station’s new studio with…
Profile | Michelle Leonard
Michelle Leonard OAM is the founder, Artistic Director and Conductor of Moorambilla Voices. This nationally awarded program seeks at its core to give country kids a rare opportunity to sing, dance and create incredible performances with artists of the highest…
Profile | Mezzo Soprano: Margaret Plummer
Margaret Plummer gained a Bachelor of Music (Studies) in 2005 from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Prior to studying at the Sydney Conservatorium, Margaret attended The Australian National University’s School of Music studying Jazz Vocal Performance in 2000. While in…
Profile | Violinist: Robin Wilson
A sought after teacher, his students are prizewinners of many important regional, national and international competitions, including recently the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition. Previously he lectured in violin, chamber music and pedagogy at the Australian Institute of Music while…
Profile | Violinist: Rachael Beesley
Violinist, Rachael Beesley is one of Australia’s most versatile and dynamic performers. Based in The Netherlands over the last 14 years, she has established an exciting career as concertmaster and soloist with the finest European orchestras specialising in Early Music.…
Profile | Violinist: Alice Evans
Alice Evans was born in Perth and began to learn the violin at the age of five. At fifteen she became a student at the Western Australian Conservatorium of Music, from which she graduated with the degree of Bachelor of…
Profile | Viola: Nicole Forsyth
Nicole Forsyth’s interest in chamber music spans four centuries. Nicole appears on disc and broadcast with these groups for ABC Classics/ABCFM. Festival appearances include Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Castlemaine, Queensland, and with Ironwood, for the Peninsula Summer Music Festival, Victoria. Nicole…
Profile | Cello & Viol: Daniel Yeadon
Daniel Yeadon has a worldwide career as a cellist and viola da gamba player; his repertoire ranges from Renaissance to contemporary. His regular chamber music collaborators in Australia include Neal Peres Da Costa, Genevieve Lacey, Ironwood, Romanza, Kammer, Elision and…
Profile | Harpsichord: Neal Peres Da Costa
Neal Peres Da Costa specialises in performance on historical keyboard instruments of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. He lectures at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in the Musicology and Keyboard units and is Chair of the Early Music Unit.…
Profile | Percussionist: Claire Edwardes
Claire Edwardes is an internationally renowned award-winning percussionist. As a soloist and the co-artistic director of Sydney based Ensemble Offspring Claire programs and performs to the highest level, some of the most innovative and cutting-edge music being presented in the…
Profile | Flute: Janet McKay
Janet McKay is a prize-winning flautist committed to the performance and development of new music. As a solo artist, Janet has performed recitals in London, Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and Brisbane. She also undertook a 5-city solo tour of the USA…
Profile | Percussionist: Leah Scholles
Leah Scholes adores playing percussion, and aside from working with orchestras and chamber groups she gets very excited about her involvement in a variety of projects with puppeteers, circus artists and other creative folk. She delights in travel, baking, discovering…
Profile | Flutist: Lina Andonovska
Australian flautist Lina Andonovska leads an active and diverse career that sees her performing from the Barbican Centre (UK), the Sydney Opera House, the National Centre for Perming Arts (China) to the town squares of East Timor. Most recently, Lina…
Profile | Pianist: Sonya Lifschitz
A sought after soloist, chamber musician, and pedagogue, Sonya’s interests are increasingly growing in the direction of aesthetic diversification in respect to performance practices and concert culture in Australia. In recent years she has commissioned and premiered numerous large-scale works…
Profile | Pianist: Chris Cartner
Chris Cartner was still a teenager when he was appointed Organ Scholar at Rochester Cathedral in the UK. He went on to graduate in classical piano performance at Trinity College of Music in London, before completing his training under the…
Profile | Pianist: Kathy Selby
Hailed by the Australian press as a ‘formidable talent’ and most recently, ‘Australia’s pre-eminent chamber music pianist’, Miss Selby is the Artistic Director of both the popular nationally touring Selby & Friends concert series and the A Little Lunch Music…
Profile | Cellist: Rachel Scott
Rachel Scott studied with David Pereira in Canberra and Robert Cohen in London. She has played as a soloist and chamber musician in the United Kingdom, Serbia, Albania, Finland, Hungary and Germany. She is now resident in Sydney. Upcoming projects…
Profile | Violinist: Skye McIntosh
She has a wide range of experience with historical performance having worked with many distinguished baroque/classical specialist performers such as Catherine Mackintosh, Stefano Montinari, Neal Peres De Costa, Danny Yeadon, Elizabeth Wallfisch, Monica Huggett, Richard Egarr, Catherine Mackintosh and Lawrence…
Profile | Frank Pam
Frank Pam came to Australia from Vienna as a small child. He graduated M.A., B.Ed. from the University of Melbourne and has had a varied career in education and music for over 40 years. From an early age Frank has…
Profile | Pianist: Kristian Chong
His competition successes include the Symphony Australia Young Performers Award (keyboard) and the Australian National Piano Award. Concerto highlights have included Rachmaninoff 3rd with the Sydney Symphony, the Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini in Beijing, and Britten with…
Profile | Pianist: Brieley Cutting
Brieley is a pianist, student and piano teacher as well as being Artistic Director of DeClassified Music. She was also Artistic Director of the Commercial Road Chamber Music Series (2011/12), the precursor to DeClassified Music. During the week, Brieley can…
Profile | Soprano: Sarah Ann Walker
Sarah Ann Walker, a New Zealand Soprano, was a Young Artist with Pacific Opera where she performed 1st Lady from Mozart’s The Magic Flute in the 2011 production, and previously a Young Artist with NBR New Zealand Opera where she…
Profile | Harpsichord: Diana Weston
Diana Weston is a musician and doctor living in Sydney. Since gaining her Masters in Music in 2008 with a study of harpsichord continuo styles, she has been involved with many musical activities and projects including festivals and concerts, operas…
Profile | Cellist: Thomas Rann
Sydney-based cellist, Thomas Rann is Artistic Director and Cellist of Australia Quartet, UTS Piano Quartet in Residence. Following studies in the UK (Guildhall School), Switzerland (International Menuhin Music Academy) and Australia (ANAM and Sydney Conservatorium) with teachers including Raphael Wallfisch,…
Profile | Guarist: Karin Schaupp
Karin Schaupp is one of the most outstanding guitarists on the international scene, her playing hailed by the German press as “so perfect, so complete, that it seems like a miracle”. In her teens she won prestigious international prizes in…
Profile | Violinist: Myee Clohessy
Myee began learning the violin at the age of ten with Ernest Llewellyn, OBE. Within eight years she had won 1st Prize at the QYO National Youth Concerto Competition and had joined the Australian Chamber Orchestra. However, in 1989 Myee…
Profile | Viola: Stefan Duwe
Stefan started playing at the age of six with Hedwig Thierfelder in Osnabruck, Germany. His teachers include Marcel Charpentier, Konrad Grahe and Emile Cantor. Stefan completed his Bachelor of Music in 1992 at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen. He has…
Profile | Violinist: Kerry Martin
Kerry Martin currently works with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra and casually with the Sydney Symphony. Kerry received a . She was the First Prize Winner of the New Zealand National Concerto Competition in 2001 and a prize-winner at…
Profile | Cellist: Rowena Macneish
Rowena Macneish is currently a contracted member of the Sydney Symphony cello section, a position she has held since participating in their Fellowship Program in 2005. After graduating from the Sydney Conservatorium, Rowena was awarded a scholarship to attend the…
Profile | Viola: Shelley Soerensen
Soerensen is performing regularly with the Australian Opera Ballet Orchestra, and has performed as Principal Violist on numerous occasions. Shellley also performs with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, with whom she has appeared as a soloist. She graduated with First Class…
Profile | Violinist: Marianne Broadfoot
Marianne has been a member of the Sydney Symphony first violin section since 2008. She is currently completing her PhD in Music Performance at the Sydney Conservatorium under full scholarship studying with Wanda Wilkomirska. She received her Bachelor of Music…
Profile | Clarinetist: Megan Clune
Megan Alice Clune is a freelance clarinetist and writer from Sydney, Australia. Megan is the editor of World’s Only magazine, a magazine about contemporary art and music and the MUSICAL ALASKA concert series, a monthly night of contemporary music at…
Profile | Cellist: Anna Martin-Scrase
Anna has completed a Bachelor of Music Performance at the University Mozarteum, where she studied with Astrid Sulz, Michael Tomasi and Heidi Litschauer. She has attended master classes with Detlef Mielke, Michael Beckmann and Reinhard Latzko. Whilst in Austria, Anna…
Profile | Pianist: Simon Tedeschi
Simon Tedeschi is quite often described by respected critics and musical peers as “one of the finest artists in the world” making the young pianist’s mark on music both undeniable and admirable. Renowned especially for championing non standard repertoire, Tedeschi…
Profile | Violinist: Lisa Stewart
Born in Sydney, Lisa began playing the violin at the age of five with Suzuki teacher Hiroko Primrose. She continued with Yasuki Nakamura, performing solos throughout Australia and represented Suzuki Australia in Japan, the United States and New Zealand, performing…
Profile | Violinist: Julia Fredersdorff
Melbourne born violinist, Julia Fredersdorff, studied baroque violin with Lucinda Moon at the Victorian College of the Arts, before travelling to the Netherlands to study with Enrico Gatti at The Royal Conservatorium, in The Hague. Recently repatriated having been based…
Profile | Viol: Laura Vaughan
Following her return from studies at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in 2004, she has established an active performing career encompassing a wide range of solo and chamber repertoire across Australasia. Passionate about the unique sound world of the…
Profile | Harpsichord, Organ & Piano: Donald Nicolson
Harpsichordist, organist and pianist, Donald Nicolson is quickly establishing himself as an important part of the young Antipodean Early Music movement. Donald undertook postgraduate studies at the Royal Conservatorium in the Hague, the Netherlands studying under Ton Koopman and Tini…
Profile | Clarinet: David Rowden
David studied clarinet with Francesco Celata from the age of eleven. He played in the Sydney Sinfonia and Sydney Youth Orchestra before being awarded a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music, where he won the Geoffrey Hawkes…