Brian Chatterton OAM
 

Brian Chatterton OAM was Musical Director of Co-Opera since its inception in 1990.  He was formerly Head of Performing Arts at the South Australian College of Advanced Education, Director of the Elder Conservatorium and Dean of Performing Arts at the University of Adelaide.  From 1973 to 1978 he worked with State Opera of SA as repetiteur, chorus master and musical director for many productions.  He regularly adjudicates at music eisteddfods and from 1972 – 1986 was a member of the music review panels of The Advertiser, The Adelaide Review, Australian Newspapers, the international magazine Opera and the monthly publication Opera-Opera.  Brian has studied or taught in Essex, Basle, Prague, Milan, Edmonton and London.

In 2000 he was awarded an OAM for his services to music and music education and in 2003 he was the recipient of a Centenary Medal. From 1991 – 2017 Brian has been Musical Director of over 1,000 Co-Opera performances covering every State and Territory in Australia. Additionally, from 2005 – 2012, Brian conducted over 30 performances in SE Asia, Germany, Austria and Switzerland to generous critical acclaim.

William Hennessy AM

William Hennessy AM was the founder of the Australian String Quartet and its original leader from 1985 to 1996. He has been the Artistic Director of the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra since 2006 and has long been acknowledged as one of Australia’s foremost violinists and music educators. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2018. William Hennessy has made over 300 concerto appearances with Australian orchestras having appeared on numerous occasions as soloist with each of the major Australian symphony and chamber orchestras (except the Queensland Symphony Orchestra). He has performed in thirty-eight countries in a career spanning nearly four decades.

Born in Wollongong NSW, his major music studies were with Harry Curby and Robert Pikler at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He was the founding leader of The Australian String Quartet 1985-1996, founding deputy leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra 1975 – 1977 and founder director of The Tasmanian Symphony Chamber Players, The Melbourne University Chamber Orchestra, and The Adelaide Youth Chamber Orchestra. He was concertmaster of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra from 1980 – 1984 and has been a member for substantial periods of The Macquarie Trio, The Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and The English Chamber Orchestra. In the early 1990s he was Artistic Director of The Adelaide Chamber Orchestra. William Hennessy was Head of Strings and Chamber Music at the University of Melbourne from 1997 – 2006 during which time he played an important role in assisting the developments of the TinAlley Quartet, the Flinders Quartet, The Tailem Quartet, the Hamer Quartet and the Seraphim Trio. Many of his former students hold significant professional performing positions. His students have also enjoyed many successes in important music competitions.

Lucinda Collins

Lucinda Collins is a First Class Honours graduate of the Elder Conservatorium. Awarded the prestigious Elder Overseas Scholarship she completed postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music in London with Peter Wallfisch, and later won the ASKM National Bicentennial Piano Competition and the national Hephzibah Menuhin Memorial Scholarship, before being appointed to the staff of the Elder Conservatorium in 1990. Lucinda performs widely throughout Australia and has also given recitals in the UK and Korea. Her playing has been praised for its “daunting power, lyrical beauty and musical intelligence.”

In addition to solo and concerto repertoire Lucinda works extensively as a chamber musician and has partnered many distinguished artists, including internationally acclaimed cellists David Geringas, Lynn Harrell and Natalie Clein. She has performed and toured nationally with the Australian String Quartet and collaborates regularly with many of Australia’s finest musicians. Lucinda has recently performed at the Daylesford and Coriole music festivals. She has held the position of Head of Keyboard at the Elder Conservatorium since 2000. She also co-ordinates the chamber music program.

Bryan Griffiths 

Bryan Griffiths is an experienced conductor who frequently works across professional, educational and community-level ensembles. He is proficient in directing orchestras, wind bands and chamber music and past engagements have included conducting the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, New Adelaide Ensemble and the Adelaide Summer Orchestra. Bryan has also worked with a number of community ensembles including the North Shore Wind Symphony in Sydney, the Adelaide University Medical Orchestra and he is a past music director of the Burnside Symphony Orchestra and the Unley Concert Band in South Australia. Since 2019 he has been associate conductor with the Adelaide Youth Orchestras organisation. In 2015, Bryan was invited to conduct, teach and perform on horn at the Federal University of Santa Maria’s Festival Internacional de Inverno held in Southern Brazil.

His passion for music education has led him to regularly appear as a conductor with the South Australian Music Camp and he was the inaugural director of the Adelaide Youth Wind Orchestra from 2012-2015. Bryan regularly lectures in ensemble and performances classes at the University of Adelaide and is the current director of the Elder Conservatorium of Music Brass Ensemble. From 2010 until 2015, Bryan was a full-time member of the horn section in the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Prior to this appointment he performed with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Sinfonia, Adelaide Art Orchestra and the Australian Youth Orchestra.

Bryan has also appeared as a soloist with the Adelaide Youth Orchestra, Elder Conservatorium Chamber Orchestra, Unley Symphony and Burnside Symphony orchestras performing all of Mozart’s horn concerti and Britten’s Serenade for tenor, horn and strings. Bryan was awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award and the Kathleen E Armstrong Bequest by the University of Sydney in 2015 and was the recipient of the University of Adelaide’s EMR travel scholarship and the Christchurch North Adelaide scholarship in 2009 and 2008 respectively. In 2011 he received a Bachelor of Music with first class honours in performance from the Elder Conservatorium and later completed a Master of Music in conducting at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2018. His principal horn teachers were Philip Hall, Philip Paine and Nelson Green.

Kim Worley

Kim Worley is a multi-faceted musician, combining singing, cello playing, conducting with music education. He is currently a core member of Kegelstatt Ensemble, is Assistant Conductor and a choral scholar with the Choir of Pilgrim Church, Adelaide and has
recently completed a Masters course in conducting at the Elder Conservatorium, among many other activities. Kim has sung with many notable choirs, including the Adelaide Chamber Singers, the Consort of Melbourne and Ensemble Gombert. He has performed
as soloist in the Promenade of Sacred Music in Hamilton, Victoria, as well as with the Kapelle Singers and the Pilgrim Church choir, and has been a multiple prize-winner in the Adelaide Eisteddfod competitions.

Last year Kim made his debut with the State Opera of
South Australia’s chorus in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, performed as tenor soloist with the Adelaide University Choral Society and in the Coriole Vineyards ‘People’s Messiah’, and reached the final of the Arnold Matters Vocal Scholarship competition. He has recently performed with the State Opera chorus in their production ‘Carmen in the Square’ and is looking forward to further exciting performances throughout this year.

Andrew Wiering

Andrew Wiering performs as a percussion soloist at festivals in Europe, Australia and the USA. He won first prize in the Adelaide Eisteddfod Society’s Concerto Competition and was twice a category finalist in the ABC Young Performers Awards. Andrew was nominated for the Music Council of Australia’s Freedman Fellowship. He performed Joseph Schwantner’s Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Marimba Concertata by Akira Ifukube with Arvo Volmer and the ASO and premiered the Denison Concerto for Percussion - dedicated to Andrew and Bob Hower.

Andrew performed at the Grafenegg Music Festival in Austria, Les Muséiques, Switzerland and as featured soloist at the Adams International Percussion Festival four times from 2015 to 2019. Andrew gives masterclasses at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Ted Atkatz Percussion Seminars and at the Universities of Otago (NZ) and Adelaide. Other festival credits include Marimba Festival Linz 04 (co-organiser), Australian International Marimba Festival 05 (artistic director), International Marimba Competition Linz ’06 (co-organiser) and Salzburg Summer Festival/Daniel Barenboim’s West Eastern Divan Orchestra. After attending the Elder Conservatorium of Music on scholarship with Jim Bailey, he won first prize at the Australian Marimba Competition and received a scholarship to study marimba with Bogdan Bacanu at Bruckner University. There, he received a Master’s degree with high distinction then completed PhD studies at the Adelaide Univeristy in 2019. He conducted the Heroes of Asgard Symphony Orchestra, Bruckner University
Contemporary Music Ensemble, Vortex Percussion Ensemble, Soundstream New Music Collective and the Bruckner University Brass/Wind Ensembles.

Andrew was recipient of the Edith Rebhahn Award and an Austrian Government stipend for the premiere of his Sildavia Marimba Concerto. Andrew’s percussion sextet Vortex was used as the opening music for the Johannes Kepler University Ball. In 2017, his Children’s Opera, The Lallo Bird, was premiered under his baton. Andrew taught keyboard percussion from 2009-2015 at the Elder Conservatorium as well as Ethnomusicology and Approaches to Music courses. Currently he lectures in music theory and percussion at Tabor University and is regularly resident artist at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Andrew performs exclusively on Apex Alpha vibraphones and marimbas custom made for him by Adams Musical Instruments of the Netherlands.

Simón Pazos Quintana

Simón Pazos Quintana is a classical pianist, teacher and accompanist. He obtained his Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours at the Elder Conservatorium of Music under the tutelage of Professor Stefan Ammer and is the recipient of various prizes and scholarships, including the Diana Harris Prize as well as the Paul Howard Martin Scholarship. In May 2021, he performed Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Elder Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra under the baton of maestro James Lowe. He was also awarded the 2018 Peter Schodde Memorial Piano Scholarship which allowed him to travel throughout Germany and Austria playing for highly respected professors and performers. Furthermore, he is the founding member of the “Lucien Trio”, a piano trio formed in 2016, and was the orchestral pianist for the Adelaide Wind Orchestra for the years 2017-18. Most recently, he was a finalist of the 2019 Geoffrey Parsons Award for accompanying.

Helen Ayres

Helen Ayres is a Doctoral graduate of the University of Melbourne and founding member of Seraphim Trio. She has appeared as guest with numerous Australian small ensembles including Flinders Quartet, Syzygy, the Australian Octet and Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. After spending two years living in London and studying pedagogy at the Yehudi Menuhin School, Helen has now returned to Adelaide to teach violin at Elder Conservatorium’s Centre for Young Musicians. 

While living in London Helen performed with the BBC Scottish Symphony and London Philharmonic Orchestra. As part of these orchestras she performed across England, Scotland, Germany, Austria and China. Closer to home, Helen is a past member of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and has performed as guest principal with Orchestra Victoria and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. With Seraphim Trio Helen has regularly performed at various festivals including the Melbourne International Arts Festival, Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, Adelaide Festival of Arts, Adelaide French Festival, the Peninsular Summer Music Festival and in 2013, Opera Australia’s Ring Festival in Melbourne. Seraphim has recorded numerous CDs for ABC Classics and are currently part way through a series of trio recordings for ABC Classic FM titled "The History of the Piano Trio". 

Anna Goldsworthy

Anna Goldsworthy is an award-winning pianist and writer, and a festival director.

In 2021, Anna is Artist and Writer in Residence at the Melbourne Recital Centre; directs the Coriole Music Festival and the Hayllar Wilderness Festival; and performs widely with Seraphim Trio. Anna is also a Senior Lecturer at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide, and Kenneth Moore Memorial Scholar at Janet Clarke Hall, University of Melbourne.

As a pianist, Anna performs extensively throughout Australia and internationally. Recent appearances include solo engagements with the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the Australian Youth Orchestra; a six-city recital tour of China; and solo recitals at venues around Australia. An accomplished chamber musician, Anna is a founding member of the acclaimed Seraphim Trio.  

As a writer, Anna was awarded Newcomer of the Year at the 2010 Australian Book Industry Awards for her debut memoir, Piano Lessons, which was released in Australia, North America, Germany, Korea and Vietnam. Her most recent book, the novel Melting Moments, was released in 2020 to wide acclaim. Other literary publications include the memoir Welcome to Your New Life, and the Quarterly Essay Unfinished Business: Sex, Freedom and Misogyny, and the forthcoming novel Melting Moments. Anna has degrees from the University of Adelaide and Texas Christian University, and a doctorate from the University of Melbourne. Her teachers have been Eleonora Sivan, Tamas Ungar, and Ronald Farren-Price. Additionally, Anna has studied in Moscow with Lev Naumov, with the support of an Arts SA Emerging Artist Award. She was recently appointed Director, Elder Conservatorium.

Timothy Nankervis

Timothy Nankervis, is a member of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He has won numerous awards for cello solo, and for chamber music as a member of the acclaimed Seraphim Trio. As an active chamber musician, Tim has performed extensively with Seraphim Trio nationally and internationally. He also performs regularly as a guest artist with various ensembles. Tim has performed widely throughout Australia as a soloist and has broadcast regularly for the ABC and MBS-FM radio stations across the country. He has performed the Beethoven Triple Concerto and Brahms Double Concerto with orchestras in Sydney and Queensland, and he has performed as soloist with Orchestra Victoria, playing Tchaikovsky’s ‘Rococo’ Variations. 

Tim performs regularly with the Australian World Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and he has performed casually with the Melbourne, Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s. He has taught cello and chamber music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and tutors regularly for Sydney Youth Orchestra and Australian Youth Orchestra. Tim completed his Bachelor of Music degree in Sydney with Lois Simpson and graduated from Melbourne University with a Master of Music degree with Nelson Cooke. He has also studied at the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne, and in London with William Pleeth and Raphael Wallfisch.

Pelham Andrews

Pelham Andrews trained in the UK, Germany and Australia, and is a leading classical bass singer. He has been a soloist for numerous companies and ensembles including the Melbourne Symphony,  Adelaide Symphony and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, the Auckland Philharmonia, Aalborg Symphony, Opera Australia, State Opera South Australia, Victorian Opera, English National Opera, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Napier Civic Choir and Australian Intervarsity Choir Festival. His performances range from the core Italian, French, German and English operatic, sacred and symphonic repertoire, through to lesser-known classical works, contemporary compositions, and traditional folk music.

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Pelham featured in the 2021 Adelaide Festival of Arts as bass soloist in A Child of Our Time (Tippett), and as Snug in A Midsummer Night's Dream, returning in 2022 as a soloist in the acclaimed premiere of Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan. He will feature in the 2023 Festival as bass soloist for the Zurich Ballet's Verdi Requiem. Pelham's most recent appearances include Judd/Bonner in Voss, Colline in La Bohème and Baron Douphol in La Traviata for State Opera South Australia, a recital: Songs from the Sea, also for SOSA, and as bass soloist in Mozart's Requiem (Queensland Symphony Orchestra), The Messiah (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra) and the Cantatas of J.S. Bach (Adelaide Cantata Band).

Elizabeth Campbell

Elizabeth Campbell  has performed with all the major Australian opera, choral and orchestral organisations as well as the recital stage. She has been awarded two Helpmann Awards, Two Green Room Awards, Bayreuth Scholarship, Australian Music Foundation Scholarship and toured USA with the SSO , given recitals at Wigmore Hall, Den Haag and Antwerp, performed regularly with the BBC Singers and performed Messiah at Covent Garden under Sir Charles Mackerras.  Her concert repertoire includes the Bach Passions, B minor Mass, Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Choral Symphony, Mahler’s Symphonies. Opera highlights in Adelaide include both  Ring Cycles, Andrea Chenier, Little Women, Dead Man Walking, Aida , Il trittico ; other companies Xerxes, Alcina, Carmen, Les Troyens. 

She has premiered in many Australian works including Lindy, Batavia, Love of the Nightingale and Summer of the Seventeenth Doll in which she will be appearing for SOSA in 2020. She has a wide recital repertoire and has promoted Australian compositions with many premieres. Recordings include Elgar’s Sea Pictures and  Koehne’s  Poems of Byron with ASO, Mahler’s Symphony No 2 and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with SSO plus other opera and recital recordings. Elizabeth lives in the Adelaide Hills with husband tenor Thomas Edmonds. She recently sang in State Opera’s MIKADO.

Judith Henley

Following an acclaimed stage career, South Australian soprano Judith Henley accepted a position in 2013 at University of Otago in NZ as a Professional Practice Fellow in Performance Voice. She also has a private teaching practice mentoring young NZ singers and in Brisbane she taught at the University of Queensland and Southbank Institute of Technology, where she devised units of voice technique and stage presentation to students in the Drama department.

In demand as an adjudicator Judith also conducts Masterclasses in Australia and NZ. Judith has 30 principal operatic roles to her credit which she performed with all of Australia’s major companies, and overseas. In addition she has an extensive repertoire of orchestral performances on the concert platform including Britten’s War Requiem, Beethoven Ninth , Rachmaninov The Bells. Her roles for State Opera of South Australia included Despina, Norina, Giulietta, Rosina, Lisa in The Land of Smiles, Alice Ford in Falstaff, Micaela in Carmen and Violetta La Traviata, a role for which she received particular critical acclaim for her performances Australia wide. Subsequent roles in Australia for the State Opera Companies, Opera Australia and in Hong Kong included Susanna and the Countess, Marriage of Figaro, Musetta and Mimi La Boheme. Pamina The Magic Flute. Nedda in Pagliacci, Sylva Varescu Gypsy Princess, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, Gilda Rigoletto.

Michael Ierace

Michael Ierace has been cited as having ‘an exceptional gift’ and his playing as ‘revelatory’.  Born and raised in Adelaide, he completed his undergraduate studies with teachers Stefan Ammer and Lucinda Collins.  He received the prestigious Elder Overseas Scholarship from the Adelaide University which enabled him to move to London and study at the Royal College of Music with Professor Andrew Ball. He was selected as an RCM Rising Star and was later on staff as a Junior Fellow in piano accompaniment.  

In the UK, he won several competitions including the Keyboard and the Accompanist Prize in the Royal Over-Seas League Competition – the first pianist in the competition’s distinguished history to have received both awards.  Michael has performed extensively throughout London and the UK and twice at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Much sought after as an associate artist for national and international guests, he is also the regular repetiteur for the State Opera and the Adelaide Festival, including the playing for the Australian premiere of Brett Dean’s Hamlet.  Alongside his ‘classical’ duties, Michael is also the keyboard player for the Tributes in Concert Band, consistently praised as one of the best in the business after making their US debut in 2019. Michael is currently teaching at the Elder Conservatorium.

Vatche Jambazian

Vatche Jambazian, Sydney-born pianist, completed his Master of Music at The Juilliard School in New York following studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Following his international debut in Armenia, Vatche has since performed extensively throughout Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. He has played in many of the most iconic venues in the world, including the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Centre, where he gave the New York premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Light and Matter Piano Trio through the Rolex Arts Initiative. Vatche has been featured on ABC Classic FM, Fine Music  Stations 2MBS, WQXR Radio [NYC], and ahas performed baritone David Greco, soprano Eleanor Lyons and the oraya Quartet.

During the pandemic Vatche has maintained an active performance schedule featuring in the Digital Season at the Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Digital Concert Hall, The Australian Festival of Chamber Music and Phoenix Central Park and additionally holds the position of Guest Artist and Professor at The Piano Institute (Surabaya, Indonesia). Vatche was recently appointed Principal Pianist for Omega Ensemble and currently holds the position of Academic Lecturer at the Australian Institute of Music.

Ryan Simm

Ryan Simm is a percussion performance graduate from the Elder School of Music who studied under the direction of professor James Bailey. In 2006 Ryan was awarded the Adelaide University medal for outstanding results in an honours year which included performances of two Australian premiers. In 2010 Ryan completed his Masters in Music Performance at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. While studying abroad Ryan appeared on stage with artists such as Sarah Brightman, Eric Marienthal, Nebojsa Zivkovic, UNLV Wind Symphony and since returning Australia Ryan has performed with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, State Theatre Company, Co Opera and the Soundstream Collective. Currently Ryan is focussed on music education and working towards a career in early childhood education.

Fiona McArdle

Fiona McArdle [soprano] is excited to be back performing for Adelaide audiences again, having returned from London in 2020, where she performed Mimi in Hampstead Garden Opera's production of La Bohème (2019).  Since returning to Adelaide, Fiona has performed Schubert 'Mignon' with Bronzewing String Quartet in the Fringe Festival (2021).   While completing her Master of Music at the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston USA, Fiona performed roles including Mistress Zimmerlein (Silent Woman), 1st Norn (Essential Ring), and Kohout (Cunning Little Vixen).

A former James and Diana Ramsay Young and Emerging Artist with the State Opera of South Australia, Fiona has also performed extensively in Australia, including La Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi) and Magdalena (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) for State Opera of South Australia. She has also worked with the Australian touring company, Co-Opera, joining national tours as ‘Suzuki’ in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, and ‘Dorabella’ in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte. 

Dean Newcomb

Dean Newcomb is Principal Clarinettist with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since 2008. Before settling in Adelaide, Dean was offered the Principal Clarinet position with The Macau Orchestra. Dean has performed as guest Principal Clarinet with various orchestras in Australia and overseas, including the Australian World Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and Auckland Philharmonia. His solo concerto performances have received critical acclaim, with reviewers praising his “musical gifts, technical finesse and outstanding ability” (The Advertiser).

Dean regularly performs as a recital and chamber musician with Australia’s leading ensembles, including the Australian String Quartet, The Australia Ensemble, and Southern Cross Soloists. Notable highlights include performing with the Hamer String Quartet at the Melbourne Recital Centre opening ceremony and the world premiere of Arthur Benjamin’s century-old Clarinet Quintet with the Goldner String Quartet. Dean’s active involvement in music education includes regular masterclasses, lecturing and tutoring at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, and tutoring for the Australian Youth Orchestra’s orchestral and chamber music seasons. In 2015 Dean was a guest adjudicator for the Lisbon International Clarinet Competition in Portugal. Dean is a Yamaha Artist.

James Nicholson

James Nicholson moved to Adelaide in 2010 from his hometown of Mildura. James has been performing on stage since the age of 9 with highlights including a choral performance in Opera by the Loch, Randolph MacAfee (Bye Bye Birdie), Angel (RENT), and Tony (West Side Story). James also achieved several first places, prizes and honourable mentions in voice at Eisteddfods.

James has completed a music degree at Elder Conservatorium and performed Hero in (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum), Albert Lennox in (The Secret Garden), Knife Grinder in (Oliver) and Mr Earlanson in (A Little Night Music) with the G&S musical Society. James played Tony in (Maria Callas Masterclass) and Box in (Cox and Box) for Elder Hall Lunch time concerts, Nanki Poo in Co Opera’s (Mikado), sang in the Chorus of (Otello) (Meistersinger) (Mikado) and (Carmen) for the State Opera, Jeff in (I Love You Because) with Emma Knights Productions and, most recently, Ralph for (Pinafore) G&S Society. James ultimately wishes to pursue an international career in opera and musical theatre.