Phoenix Collective Quartet | The Art Music of Joe Hisaishi

The art music of Joe Hisaishi (composer of Studio Ghibli’s Totoro and Howl’s Moving Castle) is brought to life by Phoenix Collective in this magical concert. For their 2026 Utzon Room concert Phoenix Collective Quartet open an enchanted gateway into the music of celebrated Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi. The world’s best-known anime composer, Hisaishi is responsible for the scores

team@sympley.com.au January 10, 2026

Phoenix Collective Quartet | Heart Strings – Forrest

For their first concert of 2026, Phoenix Collective delve deeply into themes of love and romance. Written as a gift for his wife, cellist Alexander Borodin’s tender String Quartet no 2, with its famous slow movement, remains the gold standard of Romantic chamber music. By contrast, Australian superstar composer Ella Macens’s hauntingly beautiful ‘A Love Worth Fighting For’ details an

team@sympley.com.au January 10, 2026

Phoenix Collective Quartet | Heart Strings – Central Coast

team@sympley.com.au January 10, 2026

Phoenix Collective Quartet | Heart Strings – Kilara

team@sympley.com.au January 10, 2026

Ambassador thoughts

Phoenix Collective Quartet: An Emotional Journey Through Strings

Phoenix Collective Quartet | Beethoven, Vasks, Daft Punk 16 November, 2024, Hunter Baillie Church, Annandale, NSW Before the first note of the program proper, we were treated to a few bars preview of Dan Russell’s new violin, crafted by Carlo Antonio Testore. A snippet of The Lark Ascending soared through the room, the high notes shimmering and spine-tingling. Though Russell

Pepe Newton November 17, 2024

PCQ play Joe Hisaishi – good art, excellent playing and joyful nights

Phoenix Collective Quartet | The Art Music of Joe Hisaishi August 5, 2023, Hunter Baillie Presbyterian Church, Annandale, NSW Joe Hisaishi is best known for his long collaboration with Studio Ghibli, while also being an excellent composer of Art Music in his own right. If it wasn’t for Saturday Night’s concert with the Phoenix Quartet, I wouldn’t have known that

Brianna Louwen August 8, 2023

Phoenix Collective’s incredible sympathy and dexterity

At first sight, the programme for Phoenix Collective’s last recital for the year looked more conventional than usual but this proved not to be the case. There is an original flair to Phoenix’s musical interpretations, and this shows in their choice of works. As usual, each work was introduced by one of the quartet and it was the violist, Ella

Tony Burke October 18, 2022

Ambassador thoughts

Faultless, Phoenix Collective return to Green Point

Phoenix Collective Quartet | Enlightenment June 12, 2.30pm, Greenway Chapel, Green Point The Phoenix Collective returned to Green Point with a more conventional but nonetheless eclectic programme which was much appreciated by a local audience. The performers entered the stage in turn, first the cellist Andrew Wilson who switched on an antique metronome as a backdrop for Sally Whitwell’s “Toward”

Tony Burke June 15, 2022

Phoenix Collective Quartet’s darkness and light

Whilst sitting in Hunter Baillie Memorial Presbyterian Church, you get encapsulated by an amazing ambient atmosphere that allows for the most sedate and gentle of sounds to add to the atmosphere and fill the space. The wonderful musicians who are part of the Phoenix Collective Quartet – Dan Russell (violin), Pip Thompson (violin), Ella Brinch (viola), Andrew Wilson (cello) –

Pepe Newton February 20, 2022

Ambassador thoughts

Review: Letters to Juliet fascinating and intriguing

Phoenix Collective Quartet & Jacqueline Dark: The Juliet Letters Hunter Baillie Church, Annandale, 27 November 2021 The Juliet Letters is a song cycle written collaboratively in the early 1990s by English songwriter Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet. The songs were inspired by a media story about an academic who had taken it upon himself to answer letters written by

Daniel Kaan November 29, 2021

Review: Music breathes as Phoenix rises

The Phoenix Collective: Tales of War Christ Church St Laurence, 6 November 2021 The Phoenix rose from the Covid ashes after having rescheduled this concert three times. The downtime was not wasted for them, having worked hard on repertoire and studio recordings. However they were clearly happy to be performing for a live audience again. The Barber Adagio was originally written

Daniel Kaan November 7, 2021

Groups

Phoenix Collective | 2021 in just 6 weeks

Like countless other musicians across Australia Dan Russell, Artistic Director of the Phoenix Collective Quartet, has faced disappointment after disappointment over the last few months, having had to reschedule the quartet’s Tales of War program 4 times to adhere to travel restrictions and lockdowns – but now the PCQ are back and ready to deliver the final three quarters of

Pepe Newton October 18, 2021

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