Ella Brinch (Viola)
Ella has recently returned home following 9 years in England. After studying at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music she was awarded a Fellowship with the Sydney Symphony orchestra. She then moved to England to complete Post Graduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music. She was a chamber music Fellow at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and then at the Royal Academy of Music. Ella received many awards and scholarships throughout her studies and was a prizewinner in the 2000 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition.
Ella has performed with the Sydney Symphony, Halle, Philharmonia and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. She was also a member of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for three years. A passionate chamber musician, Ella was the violist of the Barbirolli Quartet for 8 years. The quartet performed throughout the U.K. and internationally and as a member of the quartet she has given concerts in some of the greatest halls in the world including Wigmore Hall, Bridgewater Hall, the Concertgebouw, Cologne Philharmonie, Stockholm Konserthuset, Vienna Konzerthaus and the Lincoln Centre in New York.
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Freya Franzen (Violin)
Freya began violin studies in Canberra at the age of six. Freya completed a Bachelor of Music, Hons (Performance) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. In 2013 she completed a Masters of Music at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. While in London Freya performed with a number of quartets and orchestras.
Since 2010 Freya has toured nationally with the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s regional touring ensemble, ACO2. In 2011 Freya was awarded a Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellowship and has performed with the orchestra regularly since. In 2013 Freya was awarded a contract for Opera Australia’s production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle with The Melbourne Ring Orchestra. Freya’s orchestral experience includes work under conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Gianandrea Noseda, Vladimir Ashkenazy, James Gaffigan, Charles Dutoit, David Robertson, Pinchas Steinberg and Yannick Nezet-Seguin. Freya is a founding member of both the Fitzroy Ensemble and the Sydney Camerata String Quartet. As part of these ensembles, Freya has enjoyed performing extensively throughout Sydney and regional NSW.
Concert Program
Featuring the beautiful Schubert String Quintet in C
J.S. Bach (1685 - 1750)
Suite for Solo Cello no. 1 in G major, Prelude
Heather Lindsay (cello)
Dimitri Shostakovich (1906 – 1975)
Elegy and Polka
Camerata Quartet
Barry Cockroft (1972 - )
Ku Ku
Nick Russoniello (Bass sax)
Irish Suite – Banish Misfortune, The Maid Behind the Bar, Planxty Irwin - Trad.
Heather Lindsay (cello) + Nicholas Russoniello (sax)
Astor Piazzolla (1921 - 1992)
Oblivion
Nicholas Russoniello (sax) + Camerata Quartet
Chick Corea (1941 -)
Children’s Songs: 6, 7, 18, 19 (arranged for saxophone and string quartet)
Nick Russoniello & the Camerata Quartet
Interval
Schubert String Quintet in C
Camerata Quartet + Heather Lindsay (cello)
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Mathisha Panagoda (Cello)
Mathisha began playing the cello at the age of four. He completed his tertiary studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music graduating with a Bachelor of Music (Honours) and a Juris Doctor in law from the University of Sydney. With the assistance of a BBM Award and Arts Musica Australis Fellowship he pursued further musical studies in the UK, Germany and Canada.
In 2008 he founded the Sydney Camerata, recipients of the 2010 Musica Viva Award for Chamber Music and Musica Viva’s 2012 ‘Rising Stars’. Mathisha has performed and toured internationally with the Aldeburgh World Orchestra, Britten-Pears Orchestra, YouTube Symphony Orchestra and Australian Youth Orchestra. Since 2010 he has been a Britten-Pears Young Artist (UK) and twice been a solo artist-in-residence at The Banff Centre (Canada). In 2014 Mathisha was nominated for the Young Australian of the Year Award. Outside of his musical commitments Mathisha is a practising lawyer and works for Carroll & O'Dea where he specialises in civil litigation, intellectual property and arts law.
Veronique Serret (Violin)
Veronique has worked with the Australian Chamber Orchestra since 1998 and currently holds a part time position. She has also played with the Malaysian Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony and Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra. In 2013 she appeared as guest principal 1st violin with the Tasmanian Symphony.
Recent highlights include a 2013 performance of Arvo Part’s “Tabula Rasa” with the Sydney Symphony, ACO string quartet appearances at MonaFoma . In 2014, Veronique is delighted to once again join Sydney Dance Company on stage with J.S Bach’s Partita N.2 in d minor, which she will record as her “debut” solo album. Previous appearances include “Cacti” (2013) and “Shared Frequencies”(2011)
An avid chamber musician, Veronique plays in a number of quartets and is committed to new works and regularly collaborates with many of Australia’s composers. She has always loved going electric and is a regular in Sydney’s recording studios, Veronique can be heard on many Australian albums and feature films often leading the string section. Her film credits include “the black balloon”, “mental”, “around the block”, “the rocket” and “red obsession”
Heather Lindsay (Cello)
Heather studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where she graduated with a Bachelor of Music (Performance) with Honours and then went on to complete a Master of Music (Performance/Research) also at the Sydney Conservatorium .
Heather was part of the award winning Greenway String Quartet. The Henderson Scholarship allowed them to study at both the Freiburg Hochschule für Musik in Germany, and The Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK. The quartet was a finalist at the Asia Pacific Chamber Music Competition, performed in festivals in Austria, China, Germany and England, as well as locally in Sydney and regional NSW. Individually Heather has also performed at Summer Music Festivals in regional Spain, the Lake District in the UK and at the Four Winds Festival in NSW. She has played with the Sydney Camerata Chamber Orchestra and has ventured into the theatre world, working on the Sydney productions of the Broadway shows Wicked and Doctor Zhivago.
After completing a contract with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra she has been busy performing, recording and is a sought after educator. Heather was a member of the ensemble that played at the inaugural Craven Creek concert in September 2013, along with oboist Angus Lindsay.
Nick Russoniello (Saxophone)
Nick is one of Australia’s most dynamic young artists. He was named the 2011 ABC Symphony Australia Young Performer of the year and has appeared as a soloist with the Adelaide, Queensland, Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras.
Nick’s recent performance highlights include appearing at Sydney Festival’s Symphony in the Domain as a soloist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in front of an estimated audience of 50,000, touring regional NSW as a soloist with the S.S.O., performing at the World Saxophone Congress (Scotland) with Continuum Sax and renown Dutch Ensemble The Four Baritones, performing for the Prime Minister and heads of Australian Industry at Parliament House and completing a number of recordings for ABC Classic FM.
Nick appears regularly as a member of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and has recently collaborated with the Sydney Omega Ensemble, The Metropolitan Orchestra and the Sydney Camerata String Quartet . As the winner of Fine Music 102.5’s Stefan Kruger Award Nick will be recording an album with the Acacia