Past Festival Archive

Dr. Stephanie Neeman is an active international performer and educator. She has taught masterclasses and performed in various venues throughout the world. Dr. Neeman has appeared as a soloist with the Jakarta Chamber Orchestra, Canberra Youth Orchestra, National Capital Orchestra (AUS) and has performed to critical acclaim across the United States, Asia, and Australia.

Sydney Chamber Choir is passionate about choral music and its unique ability to celebrate and reflect upon the stories of our past, present and future.

The Choir reaches back to explore the masterpieces of the Baroque, Renaissance and beyond, while also championing the music of our own time and place, regularly commissioning works by established and emerging Australian composers. In 2021, the Choir premiered new works by Brenda Gifford, Paul Stanhope and Joe Twist.

Formed in 1975, the Choir has been led by Nicholas Routley, Paul Stanhope and the late Richard Gill AO. Current Artistic Director, Sam Allchurch, took up his appointment in 2019. The Choir has also been fortunate to work with guest conductors such as Carl Crossin, Roland Peelman, Liz Scott and Brett Weymark.

The Choir collaborates with leading Australian instrumentalists, ensembles and singers, including the Australian Haydn Ensemble, Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra, Andrew Goodwin, Slava Grigoryan, Synergy Percussion, Sydney Symphony Fellows, Joseph Tawadros and The Muffat Collective. More unconventional partnerships have included concerts with The Idea of North, the Hilltop Hoods and the Sydney Mardi Gras Community Choir.

Sydney Chamber Choir appeared at the Sydney Festival in 2021 and has toured widely in eastern Australia. The Choir has also sung in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the UK, and in 2009 was a prizewinner in the Tolosa International Choral Competition in Spain.

The Choir’s performances are broadcast across the country on ABC Classic, and CD recordings are available on the ABC Classics and Tall Poppies labels.

“His encyclopaedic understanding of performing and visual arts and his theatrical instinct place him in constant demand as a musician of flair and imagination.” – Antony Jeffrey, Many Faces of Inspiration.

Born in Belgium, Roland Peelman has been active in Australia over 30 years as a conductor, pianist, artistic director and mentor to composers, singers and musicians alike. He has established a reputation as one of Australia’s most innovative musical directors, awarded with numerous accolades. On the sidelines, Roland remained active as a pianist, putting his fingers in the service of social activism, in particular Human Rights.

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The unbound expressive potential of our original instrument: the human voice

Comprised of six professional singers, Luminescence Chamber Singers is a virtuosic vocal ensemble based on Ngunnawal and Ngambri country (Canberra, Australia). Performing music that spans Medieval chant and Renaissance polyphony as well as folk song, pop, and contemporary art music, Luminescence has rapidly emerged as one of Australia’s leading ensembles.

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Anna Fraser has gained a reputation as a versatile soprano specialising predominantly in the interpretation of early and contemporary repertoire. Anna is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and New England Conservatory (Boston) and furthered her studies in the Britten-Pears Young Artist Program featuring as a soloist at the Aldeburgh Festival (UK) under the direction of Richard Egarr and the late Antony Rolfe-Johnson. As a core ensemble member of the Song Company for over a decade, Anna has had the pleasure of performing in a myriad of traditional and exploratory programming expertly demonstrating the versatility and virtuosity of a cappella singing. Equally at home as a dramatist on the stage presenting opera and historically informed chamber music, Anna is a strong exponent in music education, particularly with Moorambilla Voices and Gondwana Choirs.

Anna Fraser is supported by Peronelle and Jim Windeyer

Part of a national network, Ausdance ACT is the peak body for dance in the ACT, headed by Director Dr Cathy Adamek.

Ausdance ACT provides high quality, accessible and inclusive dance programs, from across all genres, which engage and inspire dance makers, performers, audiences, and other participants in the ACT and surrounds.

Our services include:- support for independent professional dancers; help with career pathways for emerging artists; professional development and performance opportunities; and promotion of dance and dance education.  Ausdance ACT has special interests in the professional sector, youth, dance education and inclusive access to dance opportunities.

Ben Hoadley is principal bassoonist with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra since 2021. He has previously held contracts with the Sydney and Queensland Symphonies, Auckland Philharmonia and Opera Australia Orchestras, Orchestra Victoria and the Trondheim Symphony in Norway. Ben was based in USA for nine years where he completed studies at the New England Conservatory in Boston, also serving as principal bassoonist with the Hartford Symphony, the Rhode Island Philharmonic and as an extra in the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops Orchestras, among others. He has held fellowships to the Tanglewood Music Centre, Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall and ANAM. Ben studied historical bassoons in Italy and Switzerland over several summers, and also holds a Masters degree in composition. Ben has appeared as guest principal with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Adelaide, Tasmanian and NZ Symphonies, the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Halle Orchestra (UK). He performs on historical bassoons with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra, and Bach Akademie Australia. Ben taught at the University of Auckland for 15 years, including several terms as coordinator of woodwind. Currently he teaches at the Australian National University School of Music and the Sydney Conservatorium, and has recently tutored at ANAM, the AYO and the ARCO “Young Mannheim Symphonists”.

Christopher Samuel Carroll is an Irish theatre-artist based in Sydney & Canberra, trained at The Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin, and Ecole Internationale du Theatre Jacques Lecoq, Paris. Since moving to Canberra in 2016, he has become one of the city’s most prolific and celebrated performers, winning the inaugural Helen Tsongas Award for Excellence in Acting in 2019 for roles in Twelfth Night, Icarus, Howie the Rookie, and Metamorphosis.

As artistic director of Bare Witness Theatre Co., he has produced ten shows to date, in Ireland, the U.K., France and Australia, winning a reputation for raw, pulsating theatre that ignites the imagination.  Described as “the master of the solo performance”, Christopher is renowned as a daring and skilled creator of one-man shows. His Butoh adaptation of Paradise Lost, described as “a culturally shattering event”, was developed at Belco Arts, before touring to the Adelaide Fringe and to Perth, where it was shortlisted for the Best Theatre award at Fringe World 2017. His wordless physical odyssey, Icarus, debuted at The Blue Room, Perth, winning the Fringe World overall award for Dance and Physical Theatre, before a critically-acclaimed season at The Street Theatre in 2019.

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Recent work has included dancing in MESS at Belco Arts; directing Carpe DM for Canberra Youth Theatre’s Emerge Company; a solo adaptation of The Stranger by Albert Camus, hailed as “a form of theatrical and artistic genius”; and writing, directing and acting in the sharp-shooting showdown about the dark arts of marketing, Smokescreen, at The Q in Queanbeyan. He will be directing cocktail-inspired cabaret The Gentleman’s Companion in March 2022, and will be directing, devising and acting in the Bare Witness production of I Have No Enemies in July 2022.

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As a teacher, Christopher is specialised in Movement for the Actor, as well as  teaching voice, acting, and audition preparation with students of all ages and levels. He has taught movement and acting with NIDA Open, Perform Australia, and Tuggeranong Arts Centre’s Messengers program, and has previously taught specialist classes with students of Daramalan College, Chevalier College, and Kim Harvey School of Dance, and professional masterclasses through The Street Theatre, HotHouse Theatre and Belconnen Arts Centre. He currently teaches weekly workshops for Years 10-12 students at Canberra Youth Theatre, and is the Mentoring Artist for Canberra Youth Theatre’s training and professional development program for emerging theatre makers aged 18-25, the Emerge Company.

Hi, my name is Demi Katheklakis, I am a year 10 student at CGGS. I play Percussion in the schools Empire Concert band and I am currently drumming in the schools musical “The Little Mermaid”. I also play the drums in “Better Left Unsaid” band. These bands have taught me to play in many ensemble settings and a variety of mallet and rhythm percussion music. My percussion teacher is the wonderful Veronica Bailey. I also enjoy playing piano, violin and dancing.

Listed among Australia’s best classical performers by the ABC in 2019, harpsichordist, organist and pianist Donald Nicolson is a prominent figure in performance and research of the music of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe, and in high demand as a keyboardist, composer, and arranger.

Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Donald commenced harpsichord studies with Douglas Mews at Victoria University, and subsequently at the Royal Conservatorium, The Hague with early music legend Ton Koopman. There he focussed on the performance of sixteenth-century English virginal music and the seventeenth-century French clavecin school.

Donald graduated with a PhD in Musicology at the University of Melbourne in 2018, submitting a thesis that focussed on the relationship between seventeenth-century French social history and the keyboard preludes of Louis Couperin. An avid reader of the classics and ancient rhetoric Donald teaches historically-informed performance practice at the University of Melbourne, and gives regular talks and lectures on music and history.

False Relations is an emerging vocal ensemble, born with a commitment to revitalising its genre and exploring new musical territory. The group brings together four young musicians from diverse musical backgrounds and prides itself on its flexibility, with an ever-expanding repertoire that juxtaposes the likes of renaissance polyphony against pop music classics. Amongst its most recent accolades, False Relations won third prize in the 2021 edition of Strike A Chord, Musica Viva’s national chamber music competition, and also received the prize for the best performance of an Australian work.

Formed in 2017 at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), Golden Gate Brass is an ensemble dedicated to providing high quality performances of brass repertoire. Its members are Michael Olsen & Fletcher Cox (trumpets), Aidan Gabriels (horn), Jackson Bankovic (trombone), and Jason Catchpowle (tuba).

Golden Gate Brass have appeared in concert at the Canberra International Music Festival, ANAM, Four Winds, the National Gallery of Victoria, The Savage Club, and The Brunswick Green. They have collaborated with Ad Lib Collective and Corelia Quintet. Each member of the ensemble maintains an impressive career in their own right. Collectively they appear across the country in professional orchestras as well as in numerous other performances, festivals and competitions.

Golden Gate Brass provide performances which are high energy, innovative and exciting. They share their experience with younger musicians through their involvement at ANAM, UWA, Four Winds, and South Coast Music Camp. Golden Gate Brass enjoy sharing their love of music with a wide range of audiences, especially those that may not have previously seen brass chamber music performed. They are passionate about commissioning and performing exciting brass quintet music across Australia.

Jacques Emery is known as a versatile double bassist, multi-instrumentalist and improviser in Sydney’s creative music scene. He has worked with luminaries such as Mike Nock, Paul Cutlan, and Barney McAll, and has appeared at jazz festivals in Berlin, Wrocław, London, and Melbourne with the Australian Art Orchestra. He leads the trio Soft Attack, featuring Freedman Jazz Fellows Thomas Avegnicos and Novak Manojlovic. His EP of solo double bass compositions ‘ARCO’ was released in late 2022 to much acclaim, after a premiere performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.

Katie grew up playing the violin and piano in her hometown of Brisbane. Shortly before starting her Bachelor of Music at the University of Queensland (UQ), she fell in love with the viola and has never looked back since! Katie studied with Patricia Pollett at UQ, graduating with Honours and a University Medal in 2011. She then spent three years studying at the Australian National Academy of Music under Caroline Henbest and Christopher Moore.

Katie likes to keep her musical life varied, and her favourite kind of music making is with chamber groups. She is violist in the Chrysalis Harp Trio (2019 ANAM Artists), early music chamber groups Ironwood Ensemble and The Muses’ Delight, and joined the Australian String Quartet in 2016 in programs of quintets and sextets. In 2017, Katie spent a month in Central Queensland touring with the Orpheus Club, presenting 10 public concerts, 8 schools concerts and workshops, and recording four new Australian works.  In 2018, she joined Van Diemen’s Band in a national tour of chamber music of the late baroque period, including performances at the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, and UKARIA Cultural Centre.

Katie Yap is supported by Peter Wise

Kenyan singer-songwriter and producer Lisa Oduor-Noah was introduced to music through her family’s love for different musical genres which fed into her a deep love for music and passion for performance.

The soulful, silky-voiced singer boasts a resume filled with performances on stages such as Coke Studio Africa, The Global Citizen, the Shanghai Jazz festival, Australia (Phoenix Central Park, Nexus Arts, Johnston St. Jazz, including a studio appearance at Sydney’s Eastside 89.7 FM), just to name but a few.

A Berklee College of Music graduate, Lisa hopes that through her performances, she can be an agent of hope, healing, and restoration while creating wholehearted moments of connection.

In addition to this, she desires to bring higher quality music education to the world as an educator in forums. Similarly, she also aims to be an aide to better emotional and mental health awareness in the entertainment industry. Lisa’s eponymous debut album was released in February 2022.

Max McBride is a well respected musician having found success on the concert stage and as an educator.  He began his professional career in 1969 gaining recognition as a double bassist when he became the youngest full time member of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In 1973 he gained the position of co-principal of the bass section.

After two study leaves in Austria where he studied double bass with world-renowned Ludwig Streicher and conducting with Otmar Suitner, he returned to Australia in 1979 to take up the position of Principal Double Bass with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. He toured extensively with them in Australia as well as in Europe, the United States and South East Asia. He also became the regular bass player of the Australia Ensemble and the Brandenburg Orchestra, performing most of the standard repertoire which includes bass as well as less familiar works. .

Other significant appearances were with Kathy Selby and Friends; Pinkas Zuckerman for Melbourne Summer Music; several solo performances with cellist David Pereira and viola player Irena Morozov; a concert for Sydney’s Mostly Mozart Festival in 1997 with the Korean cellist Young Chang Cho and regular appearances at the Townsville International Chamber Music Festival between 1993 and 2012.

In 1992 Max took up a full-time teaching position at the Canberra School of Music. In 1994 he was appointed Lecturer in conducting. In 2001 he was promoted to Senior Lecturer in Double Bass. In 2009 Max left his full time position but has continued to teach double bass on a part time basis.

Max’s students have held positions in the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Orchestra, Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, at Penn State University, as well as other teaching institutions.

Max has held the positions of Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of The Sydney Youth Orchestra.

Miroslav Bukovsky is a distinguished jazz trumpeter. He was one of the founders of the renowned Jazz ensemble the Ten Part Invention (TPI) along with Roger Frampton and John Pochee; has played with the Free Boppers, the KMA Orchestra and the Australian Art Orchestra. He has led the award – winning ensemble Wanderlust for many years and remains active composing and performing with them and TPI. 

Born in Czechoslovakia, Miroslav graduated with Honours (Absolutorium) from Leos Janacek State Conservatorium in Ostrava. Arriving in Australia in 1968 as a refugee after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Miroslav has had a long and established career as one of Australia’s leading jazz trumpeters, composers and educators. He was one of founding teachers of the first Jazz course in Australia at the Sydney Conservatorium in 1975.

Miroslav furthered his studies in the USA in 1981-82 in New York, LA and Indiana University, including private studies with William Adam, Dave Baker, Dave Liebman, Randy Brecker and Bobby Shew. He has performed and recorded with a variety of groups and orchestras, including Marcia Hines, Ginger Rodgers, Debbie Renolds, Bob Bertles, “Moontrane”, the Bruce Cale Orchestra, Sydney Conservatorium Orchestra, KMA Orchestra, the Freeboppers, Renee Geyer, Daly-Wilson Big Band, Monica and the Moochers, Eurogliders, Australian Crawl, Jimmy Barnes, Jump Back Jack, Carl Orr, the Mighty Reapers, Ernie Watts, the Australian Art Orchestra and more recently with John Riley and Benny Maupin. His ARIA winning band Wanderlust performed extensively at many major European and Asian festivals since 1995. He toured major festivals with TPI in Asia and USA.

Australian born clarinettist Oliver Shermacher completed his Bachelors at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music under Francesco Celata, and his Masters at the Freiburg Hochschule für Musik with Kilian Herold and Anton Hollich. He is currently living between Germany and Australia, performing as soloist, chamber musician and orchestral clarinettist. He was recently awarded the highly prestigious recognition of the 1st Prize and Audience Choice at the 2022 Aeolus Competition in Düsseldorf, one of the world’s most significant competitions for wind instrumentalists. Oliver won the Freedman Fellowship in 2018 and reached the Grand Finals of the 2018 ABC Young Performers Award, also receiving the Audience Choice award. Oliver has performed as soloist with the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Apex Ensemble and was the Artist in Residence with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra for their 2021/2022 Season, having premiered the Alice Chance Clarinet Concerto with the orchestra in 2022. Oliver has played as Principal Clarinet with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Opera Australia Orchestra, Freiburg Philharmonisches Orchester and with the Australian World Orchestra on Bass Clarinet. Oliver is a passionate composer, theatre maker and new music enthusiast with a focus on the intersection between theatre and solo performance.

“Style, energy and a sense of risk. These four young Frenchman made the music smile.” The Guardian

The Quatuor Van Kuijk’s international accolades boast First, Best Beethoven, and Best Haydn Prizes at the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet competition; First Prize, and an Audience Award at the Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition; as well as becoming laureates of the Aix-en-Provence Festival Academy. They were BBC New Generation Artists from 2015-17, as well as ECHO Rising Stars for the 2017-18 season.

Following such high success early in their career, the ensemble is an established presence at major international venues, performing at the Wigmore Hall, London; Philharmonie de Paris, Auditorium du Louvre, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, and Salle Gaveau, Paris; Tonhalle, Zurich; Wiener Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Vienna; Royal Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; Berliner Philharmonie; Kölner Philharmonie; Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg; Gulbenkian, Lisbon; Tivoli Concert Series, Denmark; Konserthuset Stockholm; and at festivals including the BBC Proms, Cheltenham, Heidelberg, Lockenhaus, Davos, Verbier, Aix-en-Provence, Montpellier/Radio France, Evian, Auvers-sur-Oise, Stavanger and Trondheim (Norway), Concentus Moraviae (Czech Republic), Haydn/Esterházy (Hungary), and Eilat (Israel).

Quatuor Van Kuijk is supported by Sharon Green and Marcel Skjald 

Sally Walker is Lecturer in Classical Woodwind at the Australian National University, regular Guest Principal with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Principal Flautist with the Omega Ensemble.  She performs on modern flutes and piccolo as well as historical flutes and recorders and has appeared in the London Proms, Salzburg, Lucerne, Tanglewood and Edinburgh Festivals.

She was Grand-finalist in the Leonardo de Lorenzo International Flute Competition (Italy), won 2nd Prize in the Friedrich Kuhlau International Flute Competition (Germany) and was awarded scholarships from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange for postgraduate study in Germany), Ian Potter Cultural Fund and the Queen’s Trust.

She has toured and recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestras, is a former Principal Flute of the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss, was a member of Kölner Kammerorchester and has performed as Guest Principal Flute with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, NDR Radio Philharmonie Hannover, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Manchester Camerata, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra.

Sally devotes herself to both Early and Contemporary Music, having performed with Early Music ensembles such as Das Neue Orchester Köln, Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum and the Leipziger Kammerorchester as well as Contemporary Music ensembles such as Halcyon.  She is deeply committed to chamber music and has collaborated with colleagues across various art forms and styles, including Tamara Anna-Cislowska, Aiko Goto, David Greco, Steven Isserlis, Afro Moses, Ian Munro, Simon Tedeschi, Dénes Várjon, Shanghai and Acacia string quartets.  She has recorded three CDs with Pianist Philip Mayers, was featured on Sally Whitwell’s Aria-nominated CD, “I was Flying”, Cyrus Meurant’s CD “Monday to Friday” and on recordings with Halycon, Australian Chamber Orchestra and other orchestras.

Photo credit:

Portrait of Sally – Rohan Thomson
Photo of dolphins – Grant Stevens
Graphic design – Cole Bennetts

Dr. Stephanie Neeman is an active international performer and has performed to critical

acclaim across the United States, Asia, and Australia. Stephanie has won virtually all major piano competitions in Indonesia, including the first prize in the prestigious Yamaha National Piano Competition. She won first prizes in the Empire State International Piano Competition and the Lillian Fuchs Chamber Music Competition. She was also a top prizewinner and won the prize for the best interpretation and outstanding performance of Franz Liszt at the Liszt-Garrison International Piano Competition in the United States.

Dr. Neeman received her Bachelor and Master of Music at the Manhattan School of Music and her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from CCM at the University of Cincinnati as a scholarship student of James Tocco. She is currently the head of the piano department at ELMS Conservatory of Music in Jakarta and has previously served as the CEO/Artistic Director of Music for Canberra (Canberra Youth Orchestra).

www.neemanpianoduo.com

Stephanie Neeman is supported by Christine Goode

Theo Carbo (b. 1999, Melbourne, Australia) is a guitarist, composer, electronic musician, producer and sound engineer. Growing up as an astute student of jazz, Theo’s proficiency as a guitarist has seen him working in groups of Australia’s most important improvising musicians including Barney Mcall, Andrea Keller, Sam Anning, Nadje Noordhuis, Joseph O’Connor and Paul Williamson. A keen philosopher of music and a student of composition at the Victorian College of the Arts, Theo has recently been developing a broader practise which involves elements of experimental composition, electronic processes, solo and ensemble improvisation and studio engineering.

“Theo is a naturally gifted artist with a unique and refined take on things. His musical maturity is a great argument for the collective unconscious” – Barney Mcall

Sydney born pianist, Tony Lee, has gained a reputation as one of Australia’s finest young pianists, who seeks to transmit the essence of music and his understanding of it through his playing. Tony was artist in residence at the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Belgium from 2014 to 2016, and is a protege of the renowned Portuguese-Swiss pianist, Maria-João Pires. He attained his BMus in Performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music under the direction of Dr. Paul Rickard-Ford and his Mmus in Performance at the Barratt-Due Institute of Music in Oslo with Prof. Michael Endres. Tony has performed across the Asia Pacific, Europe, the USA and has appeared as soloist with the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, China National Ballet Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Lanzhou Symphony Orchestra, Chengdu Philharmonic Orchestra, Guangxi Symphony Orchestra, Samara Philharmonic Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. As the most highly awarded pianist in Australia, he is the First Prizewinner of the Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition, Australian National Piano Award and the Australian Youth Classical Music Competition. He was also named the Best Australian Pianist at the Sydney International Piano Competition in 2016. Internationally he is a top prize winner of the Louise Henriette international Piano Competition, Scriabin International Piano Competition, Keri Keri International Piano Competition, Adilia Alieva International Piano Competition, Euterpe International Competition and the Nordic International Competition. Tony hopes to share his passion and belief in promoting music as a bridge between people and cultures in a time of disharmony.

The Woden Valley Youth Choir is an exciting and dynamic choir for young people aged 8 to 21.  As Canberra’s iconic youth choir, with over 50 years of history, WVYC has performed for Prime Ministers, Governors General, Royalty, Nelson Mandela and many, many more.