AYO Momentum Ensemble and Australian Festival of Chamber Music

Hailed by Gramophone as “a master of his instrument”, and declared by Le Monde as belonging to “the French cello elite”, Christian-Pierre La Marca has rapidly garnered a firm international presence, appearing at major global concert venues including the Philharmonie de Paris, Southbank Centre in London, Musikverein Vienna, Marinsky Theatre in St Petersburg and 92nd Street Y in New York. The cellist’s innovative discography reflects a curiosity across musical genres, whilst retaining a passion for the great masterworks of classical repertoire. Such recordings have received unanimous critical acclaim, with his latest recital disc – Cello 360 – announced as Gramophone’s 2021 “Best Concept Album”.

Listed among Australia’s best classical performers by the ABC in 2019, New Zealand-born harpsichordist, organist, synth artist, composer and arranger, Donald Nicolson is a prominent figure in performance and research of the music of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe, and in high demand as a keyboardist, composer, and arranger. A Ph.D. in Musicology at the University of Melbourne in 2018, and an avid reader of the classics and ancient rhetoric, Donald teaches historically-informed performance practice at the University of Melbourne and gives regular talks and lectures on music and history. Donald maintains a busy performing schedule in the early music scene and on the orchestral platform, with Van Diemen’s Band, Latitude 37, Pinchgut Opera, the MSO and ACO among many.

​British/German violinist, director and festival director Jack Liebeck, possesses “flawless technical mastery” and a “beguiling silvery tone” (BBC Music Magazine). Jack has been named as the Royal Academy of Music’s first Émile Sauret Professor of Violin. Jack’s playing embraces the worlds of elegant chamber-chic Mozart through to the impassioned mastery required to frame Brett Dean The Lost Art of Letter Writing. Jack’s release of Schoenberg and Brahms violin concertos with BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2020 was the May Edition ‘Recording of the Month’ and Concerto Choice Album of the Year for BBC Music Magazine. Jack’s latest album, Ysaÿe Six Sonatas, also on Orchid Classics was released in October 2021 to high acclaim with 5 star reviews in The Times and BBC Music Magazine.​

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Itamar Golan leads a distinguished career as a chamber music performer, appearing with outstanding soloists and ensembles throughput the world. Born in Vilnius, Lithuania, he emigrated to Israel at the age of one, where he studied piano with Lara Vodovoz and Emmanuel Krasovsky.

At the age of 7 he first appeared in recitals, and from 1985-1989 he studied at NEC in Boston with Leonard Shure, Patricia Zander and, later, chamber music with Chaim Taub. He was repeatedly awarded the American-Israel Foundation Honour Scholarship.

Itamar Golan concentrates almost exclusively on chamber music: he has appeared with Barbara Hendricks, Maxim Vengerov, Tabea Zimmermann and Ida Haendel. At present he performs and records with Shlomo Mintz, Kyung Wha Chung, Julian Rachlin and Sharon Kam. He is a frequent participant in prestigious international music festivals, such as Ravinia, Chicago, Tangelwood, Edinburgh, Besanson, Ludwigsburg, Verbier, Prague Spring. Shlomo Mintz, Matt Haimovich and Itamar Golan tour regularly the world. He has also appeared as soloist with the Israel Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta, and has made a number of recordings for Deutsche Grammophone, Teldec, EMI and Sony Classical.

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Lotte Betts-Dean is an Australian mezzo soprano based in the UK with a wide ranging repertoire and a passion for curation, programming and collaborative project development. Praised by The Guardian for her “irrepressible sense of drama and unmissable, urgent musicality”, Lotte is equally at home in chamber music, art song, contemporary repertoire of all kinds, early music, opera and narration. Lotte is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, an Ambassador for Donne UK — an organization supporting women in music — and recently won Young Artist of the Year at the 2024 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards. Lotte is a regular at major festivals across the UK, Australia and Europe, and operatic credits in baroque, 20th century and contemporary opera include Grand Théâtre de Genève, Bayerische Staatsoper and State Opera of South Australia. She studied at Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, ANAM and the Royal Academy of Music. Recent albums have been released on Delphian Records, Another Timbre, NAXOS and Divine Art Métier. This is her third visit to AFCM since 2019 and she is thrilled to be back!

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Principal Trumpet of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, David Elton’s performance career has seen him hold positions with many of Australia’s and the world’s leading orchestras. Most recently, David was Principal Trumpet of the London Symphony Orchestra (2017-2021) under the baton of Chief Conductor Sir Simon Rattle.

David also performs regularly as a guest Principal Trumpet with leading international orchestras, these recently include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, the the Hong Kong Philharmonic. He frequently performs as part of the Australian World Orchestra.

As a soloist, he has performed concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Canberra Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. He has performed and recorded the Trumpet Concerto by Andrew Batterham (2021), and gave the world-premiere of the Trumpet Concerto by James Ledger with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (2007).

As an educator, David has served on the faculties of many of Australia’s tertiary institutions. He is currently Visiting Professor of Trumpet at the Royal College of Music in London and is currently on the faculties of both the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne and the Sydney Conservatorium.

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Dr Mark Smith is a highly accomplished and experienced conductor, composer, educator, and performer (Trumpet).

In 2013 Mark completed a PhD in Music (Composition) from the Elder Conservatorium, Adelaide; having previously completed a Master of Music degree and Bachelor of Music (Honours) double majoring in Trumpet Performance and Composition.

Mark was trained in ensemble direction techniques at the University of Adelaide and has conducted a vast array of ensembles in both professional and amateur settings.

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One of Australia’s preeminent percussionists, Timothy is a member of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra as well as a chamber music soloist and also a composer. He has many Australian premieres to his name, including by Steve Reich, Gyorgy Ligeti, Lisa Lim, Arvo Part and Antony Pateras. Timothy has also commissioned numerous pieces as well, indeed for the Orava String Quartet for AFCM. Timothy has studied various percussion disciplines, including Senegalese drumming and Korean Jangoo and his commitment to both new and ancient music is well known through his extraordinary collaborations and performances. He is a Freedman music fellow, an Elizabethan Theatre Trust scholar, a university medallist of Newcastle University and a graduate of the Royal College of Music, Stockholm.