Performers
(in alphabetical order)
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Brigid Burke (Clarinet) Brigid is an Australian composer, performance artist, clarinetist, visual artist, filmmaker and educator. She has performed and toured extensively internationally. Highlights most recently have been The 2009 International Video Dance Festival of Le Breuil France, 21th Instants Video Festival in France, Music Marathon Boston USA, Futura Festival Paris, ABC Saturday Afternoon Sessions Australia, The International Clarinet Festival in Vancouver Canada and Tokyo Japan, 2007 Melbourne International Arts Festival and performances in the Generative Art Conference’s in Milan Italy. In 2008 she was a recipient of an Australia Council Project Fellowship and her most recent CD recordings have been reviewed and broadcast internationally. She has a Master of Music in Composition from the University of Melbourne. Website: www.brigid.com.au |
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Grania Burke (Clarinet) Melbourne based clarinettist, Grania has performed regularly with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, Australian Philharmonic Orchestra, Melbourne Opera and Chamber Made Opera. In 1993, Grania studied in Germany attending masterclasses with Trio de Clarone, Eddie Daniels and Peter Handesworth; she also performed with the Freiburg Bach Orchestra and the Collegium Musicum Freiburg-Frankfurt. Stage musical credits include: Wicked, Les Miserable, Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story; the Melbourne Theatre Company’s productions of Into the Woods, A Little Night Music and Company. Grania has performed and recorded many Australian works including Bright Tracks by Brenton Broadstock, Tri Duo by Brigid Burke and Anthony Briggs’ Chamber works for clarinet, piano and voice. Performances in 2007 include the opera Nelson by Stuart Greenbaum at the Castlemaine Festival and in 2009 and Easter Island as part of the Festival of Ideas, at the University of Melbourne. Grania has also performed the musical Guys and Dolls with the Production Company and the New Year’s Eve Celebration Concert with Australian Pops Orchestra. Since 2002 Grania has held the position of Head of Woodwind in the Music Department at Loreto Mandeville Hall, Toorak. |
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Lachlan Davidson (Saxophone) Lachlan has played the saxophone since he was twelve years old, professionally since 1984. Initially studying classical technique at school and completing A.Mus.A, he went on to graduate with distinction from the Victorian College of the Arts before launching into a career in the jazz/commercial scene in Melbourne. Lachlan began teaching at the same time and taught at Presbyterian Ladies’ College for 24 years as well as being resident arranger and composer. He now teaches at Caulfield Grammar School and the Victorian College of the arts. An accomplished doubler on flute, clarinet and oboe (as well as constantly dabbling on other instruments), Lachlan works as a freelance musician in Melbourne in a variety of settings. He has featured with Stevie Wonder and John Farnham, played with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, and Maria Schneider and appeared on numerous CDs and on the soundtracks of many films. He featured on the film Peaches on solo clarinet, the score by David Hirschfelder. Recently he has been writing and playing for the TV shows Dancing with the Stars and It Takes Two and arranging for a number of albums. He leads his own jazz quartet, unLokked and released a CD A Hot Night in Burwood in May 2000. Another album is in production. He has appeared as a soloist on four occasions with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and plays lead alto with the Australian Art Orchestra and the Daryl Mckenzie Jazz Orchestra and soprano sax with the Melbourne Saxophone Quartet. Laclan has composed two scores for musical theatre and is also a published composer of solo saxophone, saxophone quartet and big band works. He is an Associate member of the Australian Music Centre. |
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Melissa Edwards (Oboe) Melissa is a passionate musician who has extensive performance experience on oboe over the last 20 years. From solo performance to chamber music and orchestra, she has embraced the opportunity to play in a wide range of genres. For many years Melissa led a successful Wind Quintet playing for a range of corporate and private functions. She has toured locally and internationally with the Australian Wind Orchestra as Principal Oboe and has also performed in orchestras for professional theatre productions including Les Miserables, Crazy for You, Beauty and the Beast, and Chicago. Melissa has a Bachelor of Education (Music) from Melbourne University and a Licentiate Diploma (Oboe) from Trinity College London. She teaches from her private studio and in Melbourne schools. |
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Alannah Guthrie-Jones (Harp) Alannah is a Melbourne-based harpist. She graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2001 and the following year studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London, where she won the Guy McGrath Harp Prize and was a recipient of the Major Award from the Australian Music Foundation. Alannah has performed with most of Australia’s professional orchestras, including regular engagements with the Melbourne and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras. She enjoys working in a wide variety of genres, from solo and chamber music performances to commercial recordings, developing new music and performing with popular international artists. Alannah teaches privately and at a number of schools in Melbourne. |
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Janine Hanrahan (Flute) Janine is Artistic Director of the Australian Chamber Ensemble. She has performed extensively throughout Australia and New Zealand with ensembles including the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra, Stonnington Symphony Orchestra, The Geminiani Chamber Orchestra and Ensemble Zauberflöte. She made her recording debut with the Melbourne Symphony in 2003 performing The Witchlight for Flute and String Orchestra by Kevin Purcell. Her musical passion is the chamber music repertoire for flute and ensemble. Her teachers have included Thomas Pinschof and Margaret Crawford. Her new CD, Spells – Under Capricorn; performing works by Australian composers Katy Abbott, Betty Beath, Brenton Broadstock, Stuart Greenbaum, Maria Grenfell, Andrián Pertout, Kevin Purcell and Johanna Selleck is forthcoming. Janine has recently performed the Nielsen Flute Concerto in Romania with the Dinu Lipatti Philharmonic. |
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Leah Hooper (Cello) After completing a Bachelor of Music at the Elder Conservatorium University of Adelaide, Leah embarked on a career that has, over the past 15 years, included frequent performances with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony and Philharmonic orchestras, Sydney International Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria and, as leader of the cello section, the Queensland Pops Orchestra. The main body of Leah’s work over the past five years has been in the commercial and contemporary music areas. She has worked with various Australian composers, including David Chisholm, Jonathon Mills, Kevin Purcell and Cezary Skubiszewski, and has been involved in the presentation of contemporary works such as John Adam’s The Book of Alleged Dances with the Australian Ballet. The last few years have also seen Leah work with popular artists such as Barbara Streisand, Anthony Warlow and The Cat Empire, together with seasons as solo cellist for The Lion King, Wicked, Miss Saigon, Phantom of The Opera and section leader for Hugh Jackman’s The Boy from Oz. Leah also currently tutors the cello at Scotch College and Presbyterian Ladies’ College in Melbourne. |
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Claire Ramuscak (Bassoon) After receiving a bassoon scholarship to study at Monash University, Claire completed a Bachelor of Music with Honours in 2001. In 2005, when studying with Peter Musson in Queensland, she won the Australian Double Reed Competition. She is currently in her third year at the Australian National Academy of Music, studying under Elise Millman, Associate Principal Bassoonist with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and with visiting artist Matthew Wilkie, Principal Bassoonist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and The Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Claire is also a casual bassoonist for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria and Victorian Opera. |
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Tania Ravbar (Guitar) Tania Ravbar won first place in the Australian Classical Guitar competition in 1990. A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Tania’s interest in Australian contemporary music inspired her to focus her studies in this area during her Post Graduate Diploma. After a trip to South America in 1994, Tania undertook lessons to learn to play the charango (Andean stringed instrument) and the panpipes. Inspired by the energetic passion of Andean music, she subsequently founded an Andean band in Melbourne, Poesia Andina, which performed around Melbourne for approximately seven years. Presently, Tania performs extensively in the mandolin and guitar duo, Nougat. She has composed several pieces for this duo, her compositions for which demonstrate the versatility of the mandolin and the musical possibilities for this combination. Nougat often tour and perform for Musica Viva. Tania presently holds the position of Music Coordinator at Kilbreda College in Melbourne. |
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Lachlan Redd (Piano) Lachlan graduated from the Manhattan School of Music in New York in 1999, with a Masters degree in piano performance, as a scholarship holder and a recipient of the Queen’s Trust for Young Australians. Lachlan won First Prize at the Fourth International Youth Music Festival Virtuosi of the Year 2000 Competition, held in St Petersburg(1995). He also won the 1996 Keyboard Finals of the Young Performers awards. That year, aged 22, he replaced Bruno Gelber, without rehearsal, in two performances of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He received a standing ovation for both performances. Since then, Lachlan has appeared as both recitalist and concerto artist for the ABC. In 2001 and 2002 Lachlan was a full scholarship holder at The Australian National Academy of Music. In 2003 he was appointed Nancy Curry organ scholar at St Paul’s Cathedral and since 2004 has been the Assistant organist. |
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Cate Waugh (Horn) A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Cate has worked extensively as a freelance player and teacher in Melbourne. She has performed regularly with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and the Melbourne Symphony. She was a member of the orchestra for the Melbourne seasons of 42nd Street and Oliver as well as deputizing for productions of The Lion King, Phantom Of The Opera, Beauty And The Beast and Sunset Boulevard. Her chamber music experience includes being a member of the Prism Wind Quintet and Shrewd Brass Quintet. Cate has been involved in recording the music for several movies and large events including Babe, Lightening Jack and the music for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. |