AYO Summer Music Festival

Alexander Briger is one of Australia’s preeminent conductors, having worked with Maestros Zubin Mehta, Pierre Boulez and Riccardo Muti. Awarded the Order of Australia for “services to music as a leading conductor”, he is considered a specialist in the works of Janáček and Mozart.

He has worked with international orchestras such as Israel Philharmonic, London Symphony, Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Milan Symphony, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Salzburg Mozarteum, Malaysian Philharmonic, National Taiwan Symphony and every Australian symphony orchestra.

He has performed with soloists including Alfred Brendel, Maria Joao Pires, Murray Perahia, Paul Lewis, Kirill Gerstein and Julia Fisher.

Considered an opera specialist, Alexander has conducted for Royal Opera House Covent Garden, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Théâtre du Châtelet, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro di San Carlo Opera, Naples, Berlin Komischeoper, Canadian Opera Company, Montreal Opera and Opera Australia among others.

In 2010, he founded the Australian World Orchestra, of which he is Artistic Director and Chief Conductor.

Natalia is a dynamic conductor and a passionate advocate for young musicians’ education. As part of her career, she has promoted the conducting craft and orchestra playing for young people and believes that the provision of music education should be a right available to everyone.

Natalia has established numerous successful partnerships with a wide variety of organisations in the UK and globally. These include the National Children’s Orchestras of Great Britain, National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, AMIS, and the Benedetti Foundation.

Her record-breaking accomplishments include being the first person to graduate with a degree in Orchestral Conducting in her native country Venezuela as well as being the first woman to hold a permanent position as Professor of Conducting at the Royal College of Music.

As part of her postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music, she was awarded the RCM Junior Fellowship in opera conducting. She then completed a master’s degree at the University of Huddersfield, where she was a part-time lecturer. Since 2020, she has been appointed as Principal Guest Conductor of the Oxford University Orchestra.

Andrew Haveron has established himself as one of the most sought-after violinists of his generation, enjoying accolades as a soloist, chamber musician and concertmaster.

In 1999 Andrew was appointed leader of the Brodsky Quartet. A busy schedule saw the quartet perform and broadcast in their unique style all over the world. He has appeared with numerous groups such as the Nash and Hebrides ensembles, Kathy Selby and Friends, the Verbruggen Ensemble, the Sydney Soloists and Ensemble Q. He has appeared in recitals around Australia with the pianists Piers Lane, Simon Tedeschi and Anna Goldsworthy.

As a concertmaster and orchestral director, he has held positions with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia and since 2014 the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Andrew has also worked extensively with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Academy of St.Martin in the Fields. He can be heard on many film and computer game soundtracks including Disney’s ‘Fantasia’ game.

In 2004 Andrew received an honorary Doctorate from the University of Kent for his services to music.

He plays on a G B Guadagnini violin from 1757; a generous loan to the Sydney Symphony orchestra

Jessica Wells is a versatile composer, orchestrator, and arranger for concerts, films, theatre, and album recordings.

Her business, Jigsaw Music, provides music preparation services for clients all over the world. She also works as a recording producer and conductor. She was the Musical Director of the APRA Screen Music Awards from 2017-2022, and she is the current Vice President of the Music Arrangers Guild of Australia.

Jessica has orchestrated dozens of scores for the screen including “Elvis”, “Blueback”, “Shadow and Bone”, “Brahmastra”, “Ivy and Bean” and “Paper Planes”.

She is in demand as a concert composer, with recent commissions for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Ballet, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Gondwana Choirs, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Australian Youth Orchestra, Acacia Quartet, Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra, and Ensemble Offspring.

She co-orchestrated “Of the Earth” by William Barton, for the opening of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, with several hundred performers on stage, conducted by Simone Young and televised nationally.

In February 2024 her orchestral film score for “Australia”: a three-part documentary series about Australian wildlife, was recorded by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jessica at Trackdown Scoring Stage in Sydney.

Violinist Monica Curro has been Assistant Principal 2nd Violin of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra since 1998, and was previously a core member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. She has played with the Australian World Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and Guest Concertmaster of West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Auckland Chamber Orchestra. In 2009, Monica was invited as the only Australian to play in the World Orchestra for Peace, and has since joined them regularly for concerts around the world. Monica has appeared as soloist with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and in 2012 gave the world premiere of Stefan Cassomenos’ Double Violin Concerto, with her sister Sarah. Monica was a member of the Board of Directors of the Australian Youth Orchestra for 9 years. She has tutored regularly for AYO, and has taught at various tertiary institutions. In 2016, Monica was the Director of the AYO’s Smalley Chamber Orchestra. Also in that year, she directed MSO’s outreach program in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Monica is currently joint Artistic Director of the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, together with pianist and composer Stefan Cassomenos. Monica was Artistic Director of Melbourne’s Women in Music Festival 2019-20, and since 2022 has curated the “Music at McClelland” series at McClelland Sculpture Park & Gallery. Monica is sought after as a public speaker, giving regular pre-concert talks and conversations for major concert presenters, as well as keynote addresses at universities and educational organizations. Monica is a founding member of acclaimed ensemble PLEXUS, which since launching in 2014 has commissioned and premiered more than 110 new works.

​

Miriam Hyde was one of the foremost Australian pianists, composers and music educators of the twentieth century. Born in Adelaide, she graduated with BMus at the age of 18 and won the Elder Overseas Scholarship to the Royal College of Music, London, where she studied piano and composition, 1932-35.

Soon after returning to Adelaide in 1936, she moved to Sydney, where she remained and became busy as a pianist, composer, teacher, examiner, lecturer and writer of numerous articles and analyses for music journals. She was instrumental in the foundation of the Fellowship of Australian Composers, was an active long-time member of the Advisory Board of the AMEB (Australian Music Examinations Board) and the Council of the Music Teachers’ Association of NSW, of which she was made Patron.

In her lifetime, she was known chiefly as a writer of piano pieces used by students. Commercial publishers were little interested in works that they deemed “difficult” and might not sell well. However, her output was far broader and prolific – chamber music for most string and woodwind instruments, orchestral (two concertos, four overtures and others), over 50 songs and some choral works.