About the Artists
Australia Ensemble
The Australia Ensemble @New South Wales, was founded in 1980 following a proposal put to the University by Roger Covell and Murray Khouri. The group has long been widely recognised as this country's finest chamber music ensemble. Consisting of seven of Australia's leading instrumentalists; Dene Olding, Dimity Hall, Irina Morozova, Julian Smiles, Geoffrey Collins, Catherine McCorkill and Ian Munro, the Ensemble is able to engage other outstanding musicians to ensemble it to present some highly unusual and varied groupings of performers as well as the standard chamber music repertoire. The Australia Ensemble lives up to its name by touring throughout Australia and overseas. It has appeared in every state of Australia for Musica Viva and other entrepreneurs and frequently appears in national music and chamber music festivals. The Ensemble has regularly toured internationally since 1982 and has performed in the USA, the UK, the Soviet Union, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan, China, India, South America, South Korea, Vietnam and Thailand.
Song Company
Formed by Charles Coleman in 1984, The Song Company are six full-time professional singers led by internationally acclaimed Artistic Director, Roland Peelman. They give approximately 130 performances each year across Australia and around the world.
The Song Company have commissioned more works by Australian composers than any other organisation. They have commissioned and performed over 300 works from almost 50 Australian composers in the last 20 years.
Each year The Song Company present a music education program with Musica Viva for primary school children. They are currently developing The Story of A Cappella - an extensive multi-media educational resource for secondary and early tertiary students. They regularly offer workshops for singers of all ages.
William Barton
William is one of Australia’s leading didgeridu players and a powerful advocate for the wider perception of his cultural traditions. Born in Mount Isa, he was taught by his uncle, an elder of the Waanyi, Lardil and Kalkadunga tribes of Western Queensland. At 17 years, William played his first classical concert with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. He has since been featured on the cover of the Brisbane White Pages and on ABC’s Australian Story. The documentary Kalkadoon Man was commissioned by the 2003 Queensland Music Festival and 2008 saw the premiere of Kalkadunga with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
His longest standing collaborator has been Peter Sculthorpe. Various other composers such as Ross Edwards, Sean O’Boyle, Philip Bracanin, George Warren and Liza Lim have written for William. William’s own compositions include Songs of the Mother Country commissioned by the 2003 Queensland Music Festival and Journey of the Rivers, performed at the Pompidou Centre, Paris in 2006. Through collaborations and projects in Australia and across the world, William Barton aims to reveal the virtuosic potential of the didgeridu and the richness of his indigenous culture.
Taikoz
Established in 1997, TaikOz has grown into an ensemble comprising eight musicians who undertake a year-round schedule of performances, workshops and teaching. The group regularly tours throughout Australia collaborating with artists and organisations such as the Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, acclaimed choreographer Meryl Tankard, taiko great Eitetsu Hayashi and chamber music presenter Musica Viva. TaikOz has established a unique performance aesthetic that reflects the group’s passionate dedication to the forms of Wadaiko and a desire to create new music for today’s audiences. The group has developed its own sound by drawing upon the input of its members, whose musical backgrounds range from years of study and performance in Japanese traditional music, symphonic music, jazz and pop, as well as esteemed colleagues and teachers in Japan such as Eitetsu Hayashi, Fuun no Kai, past members of Sado-Ondekoza, and composer friends and artists, Meryl Tankard, Regis Lansac, Gerard Brophy, Timothy Constable, Graham Koehne, Frances White and Andrea Molino. Through the collective power of these diverse, but sympathetic, creative spirits, TaikOz has been able to forge a style all its own that reflects the members’ high energy, commitment and joy in making music. Awards include the prestigious Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award in 2006 in recognition of TaikOz’s commitment to Australian music and the 2005 Drover Award for regional touring and education.
Diana Doherty
Diana Doherty is an Australian oboist, currently Principal Oboe with the Sydney Symphony. She studied both piano and oboe at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music before completing her Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, from where she was awarded the M.E.N.S.A prize for the top graduating student. Diana has performed regularly as a soloist, with performances at various international festivals: the Prague Spring Festival; the MusicaRiva festival in Italy; Bratislava Music Festival; the Young Artist in Concert Festival in Davos, Switzerland. She has toured extensively within the United States, doing recitals and master classes, as well as performing in the Chamber Music series at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, and a concerto performance at the Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts. In 2001 Diana won the Australian Entertainment Mo Award for Classical/Opera performer of the year, and in 2003 received the APRA Australian Music Centre award for best performance of an Australian work.
Kathryn Selby - Piano
Kathryn began her piano studies at the age of seven with Nancy Salas at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and then studied with Mr. Bela Siki at the University of Washington in Seattle. She graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia with the school’s Gold Medal and the prestigious Rachmaninoff prize. She was graduated Cum Laude with the Horace Alwyn prize for music from Bryn Mawr College in 1985 having studied privately with Claude Frank. Selby received her Masters of Music from Juilliard where she studied with Rudolf Firkusny. In addition to her numerous performing activities firstly with Selby and Friends, and then later with the Macquarie Trio and TRIOZ, Kathryne has been a presenter of her own program on 2MBS-FM in Sydney and a some-time presenter for ABC Classic FM.
2007 saw Ms Selby recreating her Selby & Friends series for a national touring season to Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide, performing at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville, at the Camden Haven Music Festival, and as a guest of the new Utzon Room Series at the Sydney Opera House.
Sydney Brass
Sydney Brass is one of Australia’s oldest and most respected chamber music ensembles. Formed in 1958 as The Sydney Brass Ensemble by Cliff Goodchild with four of his colleagues from the brass section of the SSO, the ensemble gained an immediate reputation as a dynamic group of fine instrumentalists.By the mid 80s, an increased concert schedule with the SSO combined with the retirement of Cliff from the SSO, led to a decrease in public activities by the ensemble.In 1987 the ensemble was reformed by Cliff’s son Paul Goodchild (Associate Principal Trumpet, SSO). The newly energised ensemble was named Sydney Brass and comprises symphony and freelance musicians who perform regularly with the major orchestras of Australia.
This versatility enables Sydney Brass to perform music for quintet through to a ten piece ensemble from all facets and genres.
Taryn Feibig
Taryn Fiebig graduated from the University of Western Australia in 1993 with a Bachelor of Music in Cello performance after which she commenced vocal training with Molly McGurk and later with Megan Sutton. It was her particular interest in early music repertoire which won her two scholarships to the Dartington International Summer School in 1995 and 1996, studying with Emma Kirkby, Evelyn Tubb and Anthony Rooley continuing her studies with Evelyn Tubb in 1999 on an Arts WA Scholarship. Further study with Jane Manning was made possible by a Churchill Fellowship in 2000. She completed the Emerging Performers Programme at the Australian Opera Studio in 2003, having studied with Gregory Yurisich and Patricia Price.In 2005, Taryn Fiebig joined Opera Australia's as a principal soprano. Her roles with this company have included Zerlina in Don Giovanni, The Plaintiff in Trial by Jury, Papagena in The Magic Flute, Rose in Lakmé, Servilia in La Clemenza di Tito, Karolka in Jenufa, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance and Gianetta in The Gondoliers. In 2008, she sang Clorinda in Cenerentola, Musetta in La bohème and the leading role of Eliza Dolittle in the national tour of My Fair Lady.In 2009, Taryn will perform Musetta, Galatea in Acis and Galatea, Belinda in Dido and Aeneas, Yum-Yum in The Mikado for Opera Australia and will sing Eliza Dolittle in Auckland. She will appear for Pinchgut Opera and in concert with the Queensland, Adelaide and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. Taryn Fiebig’s discography includes French Baroque Cantatas, The Concert Français and Old American Songs for ABC Classics.
Kees Boersma
After studies at the Victorian College of the Arts, Kees Boersma travelled to his birthplace in the Netherlands to undertake post-graduate studies at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam. He consequently performed for two years with the Royal Conssertgebouw Orchestra, with concerts at the Salzburg Festival, the BBC Proms London and tours to Montreaux, Lucerne, Paris, Vienna and Berlin.
On his return to Australia, Kees performed as Principal Bass with the State Orchestra of Victoria and the Australian Chamber Orchestra before successfully auditioning for the Sydney Symphony. Kees joined the Sydney Symphony as Principal Bass in 1990.
Kees was a founding member of the Brisbane based contemporary music group ELISON, premiering the works of Franco Donatoni, Richard Barrett, Lisa Lim and Brian Ferneyhough. With ELISON he has recorded several CDs and undertaken concert tours to Italy and Germany. Kees performs and records with the Sydney Soloists, a chamber ensemble made up of Sydney Symphony musicians.