C15 Fyshwick Follies

Ben Ward is a musician, working predominantly on the lands of the Gadigal and Bidjigal, whose practice has recently focussed on altered tunings, texture and improvisation. Outside his work on the double bass with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra he is inspired by the wonderful community of musicians in Sydney. Place and history are currently important foundations of his artistic thought. A recent highlight is an ongoing collaboration with cellist Freya Schack-Arnott which has produced an album “in landscape” (2020) and which has a set of upcoming releases for nyckleharpe, synthesised sounds, double bass and cello.

Monique Lapins began her violin studies at the age of 6 with the Suzuki method. Her early teachers included Nicholas Milton and James Cuddeford and it was at the encouragement of the latter that she formed her first quartet at the age of 16. Monique won a full scholarship to the Australian National Academy of Music where her teachers and mentors included William Hennessy (former violinist with the Australian String Quartet), Howard Penny (a long-time member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe) and the academy’s artistic director Brett Dean.

Monique furthered her studies at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Professor Qian Zhou and subsequently won a position in the Hyogo Performing Arts Centre Orchestra in Japan, where she was selected to perform as soloist alongside Olivier Charlier in Bach’s Double Violin Concerto at the “La Folle Journée au Japon” in Tokyo and at HPAC concert hall in Hyogo.

Monique has twice been a finalist in the Asia Pacific Chamber Music Competition and has participated in chamber music programmes and festivals in the UK, France, the Czech Republic, Holland, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. In recent years, she has received repeat invitations from cellist Stephen Isserlis to take part in the prestigious Open Chamber Music Programme in Prussia Cove in the UK and she has also participated in a residential Chamber Music Seminar at Stanford University.

A former Emerging Artist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Monique has toured extensively in collaboration with the Australian Chamber Orchestra Collective, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed under the baton of Seiji Ozawa in the Okushiga Chamber Music Academy and under Philippe Herreweghe as part of the Orchestre de Champs Elysées Jeune Orchestre Atlantique programme.

Monique’s chamber music performances include playing 1^st violin with the T’ang Quartet in a concert in Singapore and multiple performances in Asia with her partner, marimba player Naoto Segawa, in the contemporary music group Ensemble Gô.

Monique joined the New Zealand String Quartet as 2^nd violinist in May 2016 and made her international debut with the ensemble at the 2016 Salisbury Festival in the UK. She currently plays an 1883 Gand, on loan from the Rin Collection in Singapore.