All artists from A – Z

“His encyclopaedic understanding of performing and visual arts and his theatrical instinct place him in constant demand as a musician of flair and imagination.” – Anthony Jeffrey, Many Faces of Inspiration. At the helm of the Festival since 2015 is Artistic Director Roland Peelman, an acclaimed musician of great versatility who has established a reputation as one of Australia’s most innovative musical directors. 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 musician...

The Alma Moodie Quartet features four of Australia’s finest string players in an exciting new collaboration. Led by acclaimed violinist Kristian Winther, violinist Anna da Silva Chen, violist Alexina Hawkins and cellist Thomas Marlin bring a fresh and fearless approach to the string quartet repertoire. Named to honour internationally significant Australian violinist of the 1930s and '40s, the Alma Moodie Quartet is committed to invigorating the classics and exploring new works with their combined virtuosic ta...

Andrew Goodwin has appeared with opera companies and orchestras in Europe, Asia and Australia including the Bolshoi Opera, Gran Theatre Liceu Barcelona, Teatro Real Madrid, La Scala Milan, Opera Australia, Pinchgut Opera, Sydney Chamber Opera, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Auckland Philharmonia, the New Zealand, Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland, Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, Moscow and Melbourne Chamber Orchestras, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, and in recital at Wigmore Hall, Oxford Lieder, and the Port Fairy, Huntington, Coriole, Bendigo, Australian Chamber Music and ...

Alice Giles has been celebrated as one of the world’s leading harp soloists. The Australian-born musician first attracted international notice when she won First Prize in the 8th Israel International Harp Contest at the age of 21. Since then she has performed extensively internationally both in recital and with orchestra. She presented her first solo recital at the age of 13 at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, was awarded the coveted Churchill International Fellowship and an Australia Council Grant to study in the USA and made her New York debut recital at Merkin Hall in 1983...

In 2022 the Australian Haydn Ensemble (AHE) enters its 10th year as a recognised Australian period instrument ensemble of excellence. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Skye McIntosh, nationally and internationally-lauded musicians bring historically-inspired performances to life. AHE has garnered a well-earned reputation for engaging audiences with imaginative programming, vibrant performances and enlightening workshops.This world-class ensemble performs at festivals, tours regularly throughout regional NSW, and presents its highly successful subscri...

The Bowerbird Collective creates new multimedia work that tells conservation stories, with the aim of strengthening emotional connections to the natural world. They tour extensively, with a focus on performing in regional areas, deliver exceptional educational outreach opportunities to school age children, and work with national and international conservation organisations to explore nature through the arts. They create outstanding concert experiences for audiences and artists across the world. They have produced over 180 events in Australia, the UK and North America. They strive to achi...

Damian is an award-winning composer, multimedia artist and Founder of the online “HiberNATION Festival of the Lo-fi”. His works have been performed and broadcast around the world. He is recognised for his playful artistic style and lush, emotional creations inspired by the Australian bush. He regularly collaborates with colleagues from diverse fields including film, architecture, media arts, dance and more, and incorporates visual, sculptural and light elements with his music. His work often emphasises tactile experiences of physical places and relationships. His work, with artist Tim Je...

Dimity Shepherd is a graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. She made her professional operatic debut for Opera Australia in 1998 singing the role of Rosina in the OZ OPERA production of The Barber of Seville, performances of which OPERA~OPERA wrote, “…as wondrously delicious a Rosina as I ever hope to encounter”. Her subsequent roles for Opera Australia have included Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro and Rebecca in the premiere seasons of Paul Grabowsky’s Love in The Age of Therapy. She has been regularly engaged by Victorian Opera, making her debut for the c...

Eric Avery is a Ngiyampaa, Yuin, Bandjalang and Gumbangirr artist. As part of his practice Eric plays the violin, dances and composes music. Working with his family’s custodial songs he seeks to revive and continue on an age-old legacy – continuing the tradition of singing in his tribe – utilising his talents to combine and create an experience of his peoples culture.

Flora Carbo is a Melbourne based saxophonist who is quickly becoming one of the most exciting young artists in the Australian jazz scene. Having studied with Julien Wilson, Melissa Aldana, Jeff Clayton and Scott McConnachie, Flora has performed extensively in Melbourne and around Australia and at festivals including Wangaratta Festival of Jazz, Melbourne International Women’s Jazz Festival and the Stonnington Jazz Festival. Recently completing a Bachelor of Music (Degree with Honours) at the University of Melbourne, she has worked with world renowned artists including pianists Barney ...

Hamish Gullick is a double bassist born and raised in Sydney. Hamish had his first double bass lessons when he was 12 with late jazz great Ed Gaston. From 2013-16 he studied with a scholarship at the Sydney Conservatorium with Kees Boersma and later Alex Henery. In 2019 he commenced training with Damien Eckersley at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM). During his studies, Hamish played in masterclasses for Dominic Seldis, (former Principal Double Bass, Royal Concertgebouw) Owen Lee, (Principle Double Bass, Cincinnati Symphony) and Hiroshi Ikematsu, (Former Principal New Zeala...

Australian keyboardist and composer Jacob Abela is a soloist and chamber musician specialising in the new music field. Jacob is Australia’s leading voice for the Ondes Martenot, a French keyboard instrument which predates the synthesiser. Jacob is a founding member and co-director of new music outfit Rubiks, who have enjoyed critical acclaim for their contribution to Melbourne’s contemporary music scene. Jacob also performs regularly with the Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, and has appeared with renowned ensembles such as Ensemble Offspring, Argonaut Ensemble (BIFEM), Speak Per...

Jason Noble is one of Australia’s most versatile clarinettists – experimental to classical – a soloist and core member of Ensemble Offspring. Jason has performed at festivals locally and internationally, from Warsaw to London, Shanghai to Kabul, and all major cities across Australia. “His expertise and virtuosic playing give new insights into the versatility of the bass clarinet” (Sounds Like Sydney) His album releases include THRUM (2020) – a collection of improvised ambient sounds created with Kim Cunio on piano – and Chi’s Cakewalk (2017), an...

John Blay, writer and naturalist, was born in Parramatta and since moving to the far south coast in 1970 has written extensively about south eastern Australia and its people in prose, drama and poetry. Art projects continue this focus on the region and its natural history. His epic bushwalking trilogy of the south east forests includes Back Country (2017), On Track (2015) and Wild Nature (2020). It traces the region's forests, peoples, natural history, and rediscovery of an important shared history pathway. Now heritage-listed - and thanks to the work of Blay, Aborigina...

Jonathan Biggins is an actor, writer and director, perhaps best known as one of the creators of the long-running political satire The Wharf Revue. His other writing credits include seven years as a columnist for Fairfax's Good Weekend Magazine and the books As it Were, The 700 Habits of Highly Ineffective People, The 700 Habits of Highly Ineffective Parents and iKevin. His plays and musicals include Australia Day, Talk, The Republic of Myopia, Living in the '70s, The State of the Tasmanian Economy, Three Men and a Baby Grand and his one-man sh...

Melbourne-based percussionist Kaylie Melville is a soloist and chamber musician dedicated to new music performance. Noted for her “extraordinary ability to impart a sense of musicality to even the smallest gestures” (Partial Durations), Kaylie is an Artistic Associate with new music pioneers Speak Percussion, co-Artistic Director of the contemporary ensemble Rubiks Collective and frequently works with leading Australian ensembles and orchestras. In addition to performing, Kaylie's practice incorporates improvising, directing, curating and teaching. As a passionate advocate of new music K...

Kompactus is a youth chamber choir, aimed at developing the skills of talented singers between the ages of eighteen and thirty. Their diverse and versatile repertoire is drawn from many time periods and styles stretching as far back as the late medieval through to modern contemporary music.

Dr Louise Devenish is a percussionist whose creative practice blends performance, collaboration and artistic research. As a soloist and with ensembles Decibel, The Sound Collectors Lab and Intercurrent, she develops new works exploring performance, notation and collaborative creativity, performing around Australasia, Europe, North America and UK. She has collaborated on solo and ensemble recordings released on HatArt, Listen/Hear, Immediata, Innova, Tall Poppies and room40, and her work has been recognised by numerous awards and grants including ...

Luminescence gives voice to human experiences of all kinds. Luminescence Chamber Singers is a vocal ensemble based on Ngunnawal country [Canberra, Australia], and the umbrella organisation for the Luminescence Children’s Choir. Performing music from all times and places, Luminescence champions the unbound expressive potential of our original instrument - the human voice. Both ensembles deliver artistic and educational programs that ignite the imagination of audiences, and give voice to human experiences of all kinds. Luminescence ...

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 T...

Celebrating its 35th season, the New Zealand String Quartet has established an international reputation for its insightful interpretations, compelling communication, and dynamic performing style. The Quartet is known for its imaginative programming and for its powerful connection with audiences of all kinds. The group's extensive discography includes the complete quartets of Mendelssohn, Bartok, Berg, Brahms, Janacek and Lilburn on the Naxos label, works by Ravel, Debussy, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Dvorak, Wolf, Tan Dun, Takemitsu, Gao Ping, and Zoltan Sz...

The Orava Quartet has been hailed by Limelight magazine as “the most exciting young quartet on the block” and predicted by The Australian to become “one of Australia’s proudest cultural exports.” Earning a reputation and devoted following for their thrilling performances, the Quartet – brothers Daniel and Karol Kowalik (violin and cello), violinist David Dalseno and violist Thomas Chawner - bring their unique sound and breathtaking intensity to the classics of the string quartet canon. Selected by Deutsche Grammophon for its his...

Richard Piper has had a long and distinguished career in Australian theatre, as actor, singer and composer. He has performed in forty productions for Melbourne Theatre Company, and made countless appearances for companies all over the country. He played Billy’s Dad in the original Australian production of Billy Elliott, and most recently, the mayor in Come From Away at Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre.

Australian-Salvadoran cellist Dr. Ruben Palma is a freelance musician and pedagogue living and working on Gadigal land. Ruben began to play the cello aged 6, and spent nine years studying with Lindy Reksten at the Canberra School of Music. Ruben later studied with Julian Smiles, Howard Penny (at the Australian National Academy of Music), and Nicolas Altstaedt (at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln), and also undertook masterclasses and lessons with Steven Isserlis, David Geringas, Alban Gergardt, Uzi Wiesel, Maria Kliegel, Gabriel Schwa...

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 Competit...

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.

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 pro...