Performer Details
Australian Baroque Brass
Australian Baroque Brass is one of Australia's finest early music ensembles. Founded in 2003, Australian Baroque Brass is dedicated to the pursuit of musical excellence on authentic or period brass instruments.
Based in Sydney, under the artistic directorship of baroque trumpet virtuoso John Foster, the Australian Baroque Brass gives numerous performances to audiences throughout New South Wales and Australia each year. Australian Baroque Brass has been responsible for giving the Australian premiere performance on period instruments of works by such composers as Biber, Altenburg, Vejvanovsky, and others.
This ensemble boasts some of the finest musicians Australia has to offer, with members of Australian Baroque Brass also holding Principal positions in such ensembles as the Sydney Symphony, Adelaide Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony and the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestras.
This dynamic ensemble performs a vast spectrum of early music drawing repertoire from European music of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with the ensemble ranging in size from solo recitals with continuo through to performing full orchestral works. Typically the ensembles performs with, Natural Trumpets, Sackbuts, Natural Horns, Timpani, Soprano and Continuo/Organ. Australian Baroque Brass also regularly features guest performances by well known international and Australian artists as well as collaborations with other well know ensembles and choirs.
In Armidale it will be joined by soprano Anna Sandstrom and organist David Drury.
In 2006 Australian Baroque Brass will undertake several recording projects as well as performing in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, and the A.C.T where they will perform at the Canberra International Chamber Music Festival.
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New Holland Baroque
This group from Brisbane takes its name from the accidental discovery of Australia by the eighteenth century Dutch explorers. Its aim is to provide a modern Australian audience with a Baroque concept performance playing music first heard and enjoyed by Australia's European settlers, whilst providing a modern audience the delight of hearing Australian premiers of Baroque works still waiting to be discovered and performed in an Australian setting.
Performers include: Margaret Caley, Bridget Crouch (violins); Louise King (cello); Caroline O'Donnell (oboe); Kate Walpole (bassoon);Rosalind Halton (harpsichord).
Margaret Caley
Margaret Caley studied violin performance with Spiros Rantos, Jan Sedivka and from 1988-91 with Lucy van Dael at the Royal Conservatory, Hague. She has performed with many of Australia's leading Early Music ensembles including the Brandenburg Orchestra, Sirius Ensemble and founded the Ensemble of the Golden Age in 1992
Bridget Crouch
Bridget Crouch is an award winning violinist/violist who studied with Emanuel Hurwitz at the Royal Academy of Music and the Amadeus Quartet in Germany. She has guest lead and toured extensively with many international ensembles including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, English Baroque Soloists, London Baroque, the Hanover Band and the Sirius Ensemble.
Louise King
Louise King is an award winning 'cellist and a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester and has performed and toured with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, New London Consort, "La Serinissima", Intermedi Baroque Ensemble, English Baroque Soloists and the Sirius Ensemble.
Kate Walpole
Kate Walpole has returned to Australia after working extensively in Europe as a historical bassoonist. Originally from Perth, Kate studied at the W.A. Academy of Performing Arts, the Conservatoire Superior de Paris and in Karlsruhe, Germany. Kate has performed throughout Europe with the European Union Baroque Orchestra, The orchestra of the Nineteenth Century, The Ricercar Consort, Concerto Royal Köln, The Barcelona Early Music Festival, Academia Montis Regalis, Ensemble Zefiro and La Petite Bande.
Rosalind Halton
Rosalind Halton has performed as a soloist and continuo player throughout Europe, Australia, Canada and her native New Zealand and is a Senior Lecturer in Performance and Musicology at the University of Newcastle. She has recorded the French Harpsichord for ABC classics and has broadcast regularly with ensemble Chacona on ABC-FM.
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Christopher Wrench
Christopher Wrench, organist, was born is Brisbane and received his musical education at the Queensland and Vienna Conservatories, and the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna. He has been a prize-winner at numerous international competitions, including St. Albans (Audience Prize) and Odense, Denmark (First Prize, 1992). Christopher Wrench returned to Australia in 1991 to become Lecturer in Organ at the Queensland Conservatorium. He appears regularly as a recitalist throughout Australia and Europe and has performed as soloist with the Adelaide and Australian Chamber Orchestras, and the Queensland Philharmonic, Queensland Symphony and Queensland Youth Symphony Orchestras. He seeks to combine his work as performer and teacher with his passion for liturgical music.
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Danny Yeadon
Daniel Yeadon originally studied cello and piano in the North of England. He gained a Diploma in Early Music Performance from the Royal College of Music. After training with the European Community Baroque Orchestra Daniel became principal cellist of the renowned period instrument ensemble Florilegium, performing throughout the world at major venues such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Wigmore Hall in London and the Sydney Opera House. With Florilegium Daniel has made twelve CD recordings for the Dutch company Channel Classics. Daniel has taught cello and viola da gamba at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music in London, at Cambridge and York Universities in the UK, and also at Bucknell and Penn State Universities in the USA. Daniel has now made Sydney his home and regularly appears with Salut! Baroque, Sinfonia Australis, Pinchgut Opera, Opera Australia, and the Australian Bach Ensemble. He will be performing the Bach Cello Suites at the New England
Bach Festival in 2006.
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Sirius Ensemble
Founded by Erin Helyard and Anna McDonald in 1999, the Sirius Ensemble is a Sydney based period instrument ensemble that ranges from a chamber group of three players to a large orchestra of up to forty players. It is Anna and Erin's conviction that by exploring the music contemporary with the founding of the Australian colonies,
Sirius and its audience can participate in an exhilarating identification with our European heritage, and by extension, our musical future.
Sirius has developed a reputation for its presentations of galant masterworks of the Eighteenth Century, as well as those documenting the rise of the Italian solo violin school. Performing in a wide variety of formats, the ensemble has featured a number of composers such as Handel, Hasse, Vivaldi, dall'Abaco, Pergolesi, Pugnani, Giardini, Leclair and Joseph Haydn. In Armidale 2006, Anna McDonald will be joined by bassoonist Jane Gower and harpsichordist Lars-Ulrik Mortensen.
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EphenStephen
EphenStephen is the guitar duo of Stephen Thorneycroft and Stephen Tafra.
Based in Australia in the northern NSW town of Armidale, the duo have been performing, composing and arranging music together for over 10 years. Primarily they are a 'classical' guitar duo playing a wide variety of music from, excuse the cliché, "Bach to the Beatles". They have recently released the CD GUITARmidale which features music by seven local composers.
Stephen Tafra
Stephen Tafra began his formal musical studies at the University of New England with Vic Bofinger. He went on to the Queensland Conservatorium of Music where, under the tutelage of Julian Byzantine, was awarded a Graduate Diploma in Instrumental Performance. During that time he performed in master classes given by guitarists of the calibre of John Williams and Ruben Riera.
His ability as a guitarist has been endorsed by his being finalist on two occasions in the Australian Classical Guitar Competition. "Stephen Tafra is a strong player with a big sound." (Courier Mail). "He is a player of tremendous flair and talent, offering extremely musical performances coupled with virtuosic flair and accuracy" (Julian Byzantine).
Stephen Thorneycroft
Stephen Thorneycroft was born in Wales, UK in 1973. He showed interest for guitar-related activities at an early age (listening to The Shadows and Hank Marvin!) & began formal tuition at the age of nine with Robin Harriott and then John Rodge. After moving to Australia in 1985 and partly due to Rodge's tuition, Steve's interests in guitar started to move sideways into electric and steel-string playing as well as continuing in the classical tradition. After high school Steve continued his music studies at the University of New England and while there developed an interest in composition through studies with Ann Ghandar and Claudio Pompili. He completed his B.Mus(hons) in 1996, majoring in performance with a minor in composition. In 1995, Steve was a finalist in the Australian Guitar Competition and also performed as a member of an ensemble in the Canberra Chamber Music Festival & since then has been involved with many and varied music projects throughout the New England region,
specifically in the areas of performance & composition. He has had commissions for pieces from various local ensembles and has written pieces ranging from solo guitar through to full orchestra. He has recorded music for the ABC and is frequently in demand for session work with a variety of local musicians. Steve has taught composition (and a variety of other things) at the University of New England and also at TAFE and currently directs Strung Out! (the New England Guitar Ensemble).
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Fiona Campbell
Australian born mezzo soprano Fiona Campbell is an experienced and accomplished international performer, whose concert appearances have included the Royal Opera House Orchestra Covent Garden, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Odessa Philharmonic.
In 1994 she won the ABC Young Performer of the Year Award (voice), and the following year, won the Opera Awards in the Australian Singing Competition. Since returning to Australia, Fiona has recorded and broadcast many recitals for the ABC and is a frequent artist with WA Opera. She also holds a Master of Music degree and is a lecturer in voice at the University of Western Australia.
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Neal Peres da Costa
Neal Peres da Costa holds degrees from the University of Sydney, Guildhall School of Music, City University in London and the University of Leeds (PhD). Neal specialises in performance on historical keyboard instruments of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. He has performed around the world and made many recordings with Florilegium, the internationally renowned period instrument ensemble which he co-founded in 1991.
Currently he is Lecturer in Musicology and Early Keyboards and Director of the Early Music Ensemble at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Sydney.
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