ARTISTS
Artistic Director Ryan Williams - recorder
Ryan's passion for the recorder has lead him on a journey full of cross-artform collaboration, engaging performance and exciting improvisation. With an endeavour to collaborate with any artform, Ryan uses his vibrancy as a stage performer to engage audiences visually and sonically.
Ryan studied at the University of Melbourne (BMus Honours) receiving multiple awards for his recorder performance examinations. Since completing his studies in 2010, he continues to strive for excellence receiving multiple grants from the Australia Council for the Arts.
In 2012 he completed a 12 month residency in Germany studying with recorder virtuoso and sound artist Natasha Anderson. During this time he gained entry into the Amsterdam Conservatorium where he has been studying since September 2013. Ryan is also the artistic director of the annual Robert Exiner Recorder Festival taking place in the beautiful bush surrounds of the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria, Australia.
In 2012/13 Ryan has recorded and released four albums which include his first solo album; Wanderings and group albums; Tierra [Allestree], Snuff Puppets [Everybody], Flightless Bird [Long Distance EP].
Ryan’s major performances include the production of Venus & Adonis with the Bell Shakespeare Company (Malthouse Theatre, 2008), a Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens improvisational residency (2009/10) and the production of Everybody (2012) with Snuff Puppets, Australia’s premiere giant puppet company who he has been collaborating with since 2010.
Artistic Director David Rabinovici - violin
David began his musical career at age 7 as a chorister of the National Boys Choir of Australia with whom he toured both nationally and internationally as a soloist. In 1996, David worked in the children’s chorus with The Australian Opera (Opera Australia) in their productions of Otello and Nabucco.
Following high school, David studied jazz violin at the Victorian College of the Arts under the tutelage of Nigel MacLean. David’s love of improvisation on the violin eventually led him to the world of early music, or Historically Informed Performance Practice, where in 2009 he began studying baroque violin at the Early Music Studio, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music with Rachael Beesley and Julia Fredersdorff.
David is currently completing his studies at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Shunske Sato.
David has performed and recorded extensively throughout Europe and Australia with many notable ensembles including the Kammerphilharmonie Köln, Les Vents Atlantiques, Ensemble Odyssee, Stile Galante and the Bach Orchestra of the Netherlands and in prestigious venues such as the Sydney Opera House and the Royal Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.
David has performed under such as artists as Enrico Gatti, Martin Gester and Sigiswald Kuijken. David’s upcoming appearances this year include performances at the Musica Antiqua Festival in Bruges, Belgium and the Oude Muziek Festival in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Stephanie Elderidge - violin
Now living in Bendigo, Stephanie’s passion for accessible music performance and education has enabled her to travel metropolitan and regional Australia. She currently teaches strings at schools in Bendigo and Melbourne, and is an educator with the Heinz Music Program at Mooroopna.
Raised in Nathalia, in the Goulburn Valley, Stephanie commenced her musical education on the violin aged 4. Her passion for music developed as she travelled to music festivals around Australia from age 7, including the Tamworth Country Music Festival, National Folk Festival, Yarra Junction and Maldon Folk Festival. After winning the Australian 'No holds barred' Fiddle Championships aged 14 and performing at the Golden Guitar Awards in Tamworth, her passion for a career in music was reaffirmed.
In the same year, she was accepted to the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School. Her commitment to her region was acknowledged in 2004, when she received the Young Citizen of the Year Award for the Nathalia District as well as the Moira Shire. She also excelled at VCASS, performing in venues such as Hamer Hall at the Melbourne Concert Hall, Iwaki Auditorium, Melbourne Town Hall and Malthouse Playbox Theatre.
Commencing tertiary studies at the University of Western Australia under tutors Paul Wright, Margaret Blades and Semyon Kobets, she received multiple awards for excellence in chamber music. After returning to Melbourne, she graduated from the University of Melbourne (BMus) and continued her studies on Baroque violin with Rachael Beesley and Julia Fredersdorff. She has since enjoyed performing with Ensemble Systolica, Dinner on Wednesday, Australian National Academy of Music, Ironwood Ensemble, La Compania and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.
Anna Webb - viola
Anna Webb is an Honours graduate from the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide, where she studied with Keith Crellin and William Hennessy. She began musical life as a violinist but fell in love with the viola in 1998.
These days she divides her time between performing, teaching and conducting. She performs extensively as a chamber musician, and has appeared in many music festivals including the Barossa and Adelaide Festivals and the St Magnus Festival in Scotland. She has played in Musica Viva’s Ménage series and in concerts for The Firm and Recitals Australia, and toured for Musica Viva in Schools. She has worked in the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Brandenburg Ensemble, the Adelaide Baroque Quartet and as a founding member of the Zephyr Quartet and the Kegelstatt Ensemble.
Anthony Albrecht - cello
Anthony Albrecht is a Novocastrian* cellist currently completing his final year of a Master of Music in Historical Performance at The Juilliard School, studying with Phoebe Carrai. During the past academic year Anthony performed under William Christie and Nick McGegan and alongside Jordi Savall and Monica Huggett in venues such as Alice Tully Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Beginning cello at the age of 7, his cello teachers and mentors have since included Anthea Scott-Mitchell (Newcastle Conservatorium), Alexander Baillie (HfK Bremen), Stephan Schrader (Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie), Guido Larisch (Freiburger Barockorchester), Bruno Cocset (Les Basses Réunies), Jamie Hey (Australian Brandenburg Orchestra) and Daniel Yeadon (Australian Chamber Orchestra), with whom he completed a JUMP Mentorship through the Australia Council of the Arts in 2011. He has also enjoyed private study with Pieter Wispelwey in Holland.
In New York, Anthony is a founding member of New Vintage Baroque. Back home in Australia, Anthony has performed with Ironwood, Sydney Camerata, Pacific Opera, The Sydney Consort, Salut! Baroque, the Australian Haydn Ensemble and the contemporary music ensemble Chronology Arts, and looks forward to performances with Pinchgut Opera in 2014. As a chamber musician Anthony has collaborated with Charles Neidich, Marc Destrubé, Kathryn Selby and Neal Peres Da Costa, among others. He has been an Ian Potter Cultural Trust recipient in 2013 and 2014, and was recently nominated for the MCA Freedman Fellowship.
Anthony is a passionate nature lover, bike rider, a qualified Railway Worker and German translator, and in 2012 completed a Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Sciences with Honours in Geography at Sydney University.
Pippa Macmillan - violone
Pippa will be completing a Masters in Historical Performance at Juilliard in May 2014. The move from London to New York has led to a very exciting time both musically and personally, and it’s been a time filled with incredible opportunities, from working with musicians such as Jordi Savall to romantic walks in Central Park and hectic bike rides down Broadway. Previously Pippa broke new ground, completing a Bachelors degree in Baroque double bass (never before done) at the Royal Academy of Music, London, where she studied with Chi-chi Nwanoku, and played in over 30 concerts of Bach Cantatas as part of their on-going series.
Pippa was a member of the Monteverdi Apprenticeship Scheme 2012/13 under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and performed with the English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique at the BBC Proms, Carnegie Hall, and Leipzig Bach Festival. She performs regularly with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, including two seasons at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Pippa has also recently performed with the Handel and Haydn Society, Academy of Ancient Music, English Concert, London Handel Orchestra, and The King’s Consort, and toured performances of “The Giacomo Variations”, a chamber opera–play staring John Malkovich, in New York, Montreal and Toronto with Orchester Wiener Akademie. In April 2014 Pippa will play principal bass with the Handel + Haydn Society in Boston. On modern bass, Pippa is principal bass with the Orchestra of St Paul’s, Covent Garden.
When not playing or teaching music, Pippa enjoys spending time outdoors, and recently climbed the Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, California, and trekked along the Larapinta Trail in central Australia.
Anthony Abouhamad - harpsichord
Anthony Abouhamad studied early keyboard under the tutition of Dr. Neal Peres da Costa at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (SCM) where he graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Music (Honours Class 1). After matriculation he taught Harmony and Analysis, Early Keyboard and Basso Continuo at the same institution.
In Sydney, Anthony has performed with many orchestras and ensembles both as a continuo player and soloist, these including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Australia Ensemble, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and the SCM’s Early Music Ensemble. These professional engagements have involved collaborations with many local and international artists including French flautist, Emmanuel Pahud, Finnish violinist, Pekka Kuusisto and the Australian soprano, Sara Macliver.
Anthony has also been involved in Musica Viva’s school programme with which he toured Greater Sydney and rural New South Wales with the group, “Sounds Baroque”. From 2011, Anthony began pursuing further studies in harpsichord and fortepiano at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (KC) under the tutelage of Jacques Ogg and Patrick Ayrton and Bart van Oort. He performs regularly with his ensemble, “Dutch Artworks” as well as his harpsichord duo, “Duo De Jordaan” which has performed in the Netherlands, Belgium, England, Australia and the United States. He is also a guest tutor with the KC’s Jongtalent afdeeling (young talent department) with whom he recently coached and a directed a performance for H.R.H. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.