Viola

AYO: 1988
AYO National Music Camp: 1985-88

Alumnus Alex Timcke played percussion/timpani with AYO from 1984-1988 and participated in the 1988 international tour with Maestro Christoph Eschenbach. Alex plays timpani with the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) and is also a tutor for AYO National Music Camp.

Alumni Interview

One of the world’s leading solo harpists, Alice’s many achievements include myriad international performances, commissioning new works for the electro-acoustic harp and recipient of an Antarctic Arts Fellowship. For the fellowship she performed a solo concert at Mawson Station and ‘recorded the sound of the wind through the harp strings on the ice’. Alice just finished organising the World Harp Congress in Sydney: ‘It’s exciting – the harp is currently taking a leading role in crossing genres. For example, hearing contemporary music on a Scottish folk harp is very rejuvenating.’

The only harpist at her first National Music Camp (1978-80), Alice valued how AYO’s non-competitive atmosphere ‘facilitated individual creative engagement; musicians weren’t afraid to tell their own stories’. A secret for career success? ‘Follow your own path without fear’.

Violin, National Music Camp 1967-70

Andrew Lorenz (Violin, National Music Camp/AYO 1967-70) has enjoyed a varied and successful career as solo violinist, chamber musician, orchestral leader, teacher and conductor. He has also lead a number of Australia’s leading chamber groups comprising AYO Alumni, notably the New England Ensemble, Australian Piano Trio and Phoenix Ensemble with which he toured extensively throughout Australia, Europe, North America and Asia, also broadcasting for many of the world’s major radio and television networks. Andrew is currently a Performance Teaching Fellow at the Australian National University and performs with the Lanyon Trio and Canberra Symphony.

Written in 2016

Anna grew up in Jamberoo, a country village south of Sydney. She started studying the violin with Jan Baxter when she was 8. As she grew up, she had a taste of what life as an orchestral musician might look like playing in fantastic youth orchestras, including the Sydney Youth Orchestra and the Australian Youth Orchestra.

She completed a B Mus degree majoring in viola performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Alexandru Todicescu, and after freelancing for a few years in Sydney accepted a tutti position in the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, where she still is, 34 years later!

Violin

AYO: 1989
AYO National Music Camp: 1987-88

Anna McMichael is an Australian-born violinist who returned in 2010 to live in Australia after 17 years in Holland, performing in many of the major European ensembles and orchestras; these included the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta. Anna’s many achievements include working as guest concertmaster for various orchestras such as Orchestra Victoria, an acclaimed solo violin release, extensive tutoring work and awards including the Special Violin Prize of the International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition. 

Anna performed in the Australian World Orchestra’s 2015 concert series with Sir Simon Rattle OM CBE, which included a thrilling collaboration with AYO.

Violin

AYO: 1987-88, 1990
AYO National Music Camp: 1986-88

Anne Harvey-Nagl, born in Melbourne, was a member of the AYO between 1987 and 1991 .

After completion of the BAMus at the VCA she continued violin studies in Vienna with Prof. Günter Pichler.

Anne was the winner of the 1986 National Youth Concerto Competition and in 1990 received the ANZ International Fellowship for musical studies overseas.

Anne has been a member of the Koehne Quartet together with fellow AYO Alumni Joanna Lewis, since 1991, and is Concertmaster of the Volksoper Orchestra, Vienna, the Beethoven Philharmonie Baden, Vienna Opera Ball Orchestra and Guest Concertmaster in numerous orchestras throughout Austria and Europe. Anne has performed regularly as soloist with orchestras in Austria, Australia, Switzerland, England and Bulgaria.

Anne performed in the Australian World Orchestra’s 2015 concert series with Sir Simon Rattle OM CBE, which included a thrilling collaboration with AYO.

Arts Administration

AYO National Music Camp; Arts Administration Program: 2010

Orchestral Management alumnus and flautist Ashleigh Robertson is a co-founder of the West Melbourne Schools Orchestra, which provides young musicians in West Melbourne a place to play good music and socialise with other like-minded students outside of the school environment. Ashleigh has performed as a soloist with various orchestras including the Essendon Symphony Orchestra and has toured with the Australian Youth Band and Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra – performing in Italy, China, Malaysia, USA and Canada, with venues including Carnegie Hall and Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA.

Aside from performing, Ashleigh has a passion for arts administration. She has worked as an ensemble manager for Melbourne Youth Music, personnel manager for Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra and been on the Australian Youth Band’s committee. Ashleigh is also a volunteer at 3MBS, taking on roles as a presenter, in the music library, backstage, and as producer for The Talent.

Violin

Tutor: 2015-17
AYO: 1984-88
AYO National Music Camp: 1983

As a violinist and Director with the London Symphony Orchestra and member of the Fiorini piano trio, Belinda McFarlane performs regularly throughout the world. An AYO alumnus, Belinda mentored AYO musicians as Director of the Porter Orchestra during the 2017 National Music Camp and as an inspirational tutor during the AYO 2016 International Tour.

Violist/Violinist Beverley Burlakov was in a group of musicians who came up from Newcastle Conservatorium to attend AYO’s early National Music Camps (1959-63): ‘We didn’t audition in those days – they just grabbed us’. Having played with the Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony and Opera Orchestras, Beverley found that ‘everywhere we played I met people from AYO’. She also worked with Haifa (Israel) and Halle Orchestras (Manchester UK) and taught composition and classroom music in schools for 14 years, which she absolutely loved.

Career highlight? ‘MSO UNICEF concerts with Danny Kaye; even the musicians who never normally laughed were smiling.’ Any regrets? ‘No – music is such an exciting life. You might complain about getting a sore back and a headache from the brass players, but you’d never want to change it.’

Double Bass

AYO: 2007-2013

After completing her undergraduate studies at University of Melbourne, Victorian College of the Arts under the tutelage of Sylvia Hosking (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra), Bonita relocated to the United States to undertake her Master of Music degree at Boston University, College of Fine Arts. There she was fortunate to study orchestral repertoire under Boston Symphony Orchestra bassists Todd Seeber and Principal Ed Barker. She also participated in master classes and lessons with other renowned bassists such as Hal Robinson (The Philadelphia Orchestra), Ben Levy (Boston Symphony Orchestra), and Donald Palma (Orpheus Chamber Orchestra).

While in the USA, Bonita enjoyed working with several orchestral ensembles such as the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Cambridge Philharmonic Orchestra, and as Principal Bass of the Cantata Singers Orchestra, a prestigious early music ensemble. Travelling outside of Boston, she also worked with other prominent orchestras such as the Hawaii Symphony and New Haven Symphony.

In Australia, Bonita performed regularly with Orchestra Victoria and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra before joining the Opera Australia Orchestra in 2016. Since moving to Sydney she has also performed with Pinchgut, Orchestra of the Antipodes, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and participated in several recording sessions for various film scores.

She loves teaching the double bass to students of all ages and levels, and has been involved in educational organisations such as State Music Camp, Melbourne Youth Orchestra, and Sydney Youth Orchestra programs.

Cello

AYO: 1967, 1969
AYO National Music Camp: 1967, 1969

Professor Boyd Strauss attended Music Camp in the late sixties/early seventies and played cello in the AYO in 1967 and 1969.

He went on to study medicine, graduating in 1973 from Monash University. After training as a specialist in internal medicine, he took a PhD, and has since gone on to a career as a clinician-scientist, working between academia and hospital medicine. He is now an adjunct Professor of Medicine at Monash University.

He has split his clinical interests between acute medicine, clinical nutrition and metabolism, whilst his research interest lies in the measurement of human body composition in health and disease.

Boyd still plays the cello, and played string quartet and piano trio for many years in a private capacity.

He thinks the AYO and Music Camp orchestral experiences, plus the subsequent chamber music making, helped him develop the team-working skills necessary to lead a teaching hospital clinical unit, and a research group.

‘The lifelong lessons of listening to others, discussing methods and outcomes, and giving respect to other team members all began for me at Music Camp.’

Caleb Murray grew up in a small town in Northeast Victoria and spent the better part of
his teenage years commuting to Melbourne on weekends for music education. Caleb
studied cello under Melbourne Symphony Orchestra cellist Rohan de Korte before being
accepted into the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne. Whilst at ANAM,
Caleb was a semi-finalist in the Concerto Competition and placed first in the Chamber
Music Competition. He also premiered works by Stuart Greenbaum (cello sonata) and
Luke Speedy-Hutton (string trio) during this time.

Caleb spent many years playing in various Australian Youth Orchestra programs,
including international tours and appearances as principal cello. After completing
studies at ANAM, Caleb passed casual auditions with the New Zealand Symphony
Orchestra and the Auckland Philharmonia, and appeared in performances with the
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. After a
COVID-induced musical hiatus, Caleb became the inaugural recipient of the Patricia H.
Reid Orchestral Fellowship with the Opera Australia Orchestra in Sydney. Caleb spent a
year in Sydney performing operas and ballets before moving to Armidale to pursue a
medical career.

Over the last two years, Caleb has played in many performances around Armidale,
including the 2023 Homestead series and the 2024 Woolshed series through NECOM.
Caleb also is involved with NECOM’s Chamber Music in Schools tours, which provide
music education to geographically disadvantaged primary schools. When he’s not
learning about the human body at Medical School, Caleb teaches a handful of private
students, makes coffee at Double Drop Espresso on weekends and spends his (limited!)
spare time hiking and fly fishing in the high country.

Q&A Interview

Tell us a bit about your time with AYO

My first AYO program must have been 2015. I grew up in Northeast Victoria, in a little country town called Wangaratta. And I travelled to Melbourne every weekend, which is like a 7 or 8 hour round trip, to go and have cello lessons at the time and I was playing with the Melbourne Youth Orchestra that year. And that was the only real orchestra experience I’d had at the time.

As a little 16-year-old I’ve never really had a sense of what it’s actually like to be a musician, so when I auditioned for AYO and you know, I probably played a lot better than I should have, considering I hadn’t done a whole at the time. And I remember thinking, oh, you know, I actually played really well, there’s a chance I might get in. I got a reserve spot for national music camp and then got a call up a couple of weeks later, telling me I had got in, and it was very exciting. And as all the kids from around Australia do, I flew off to Adelaide for NMC and it was just incredible- I remember sitting in the back desk with eight double basses behind me, which I’d never experienced before, and we’d started playing Shostakovich Symphony No.5, which I remember was just my favorite piece at the time- like a lot of other angsty teens! It was just it just blew my mind to be inside that section with a horde of double basses behind you

That was really the turning point for me at that age to decide that I wanted to be a musician and I wanted to pursue music. It was the beginning of a kind of series of really incredible opportunities that I had through AYO, and it was probably one of, if not, the most important piece in my kind of musical education training and as someone who grew up in the country- there were just no other opportunities whatsoever for that sort of thing, particularly at my age. So, I would say it is “life changing” in the most real sense of the word.

Getting those kinds of skills that you learn by playing in orchestras and chamber groups- you can’t learn them in any other way other than just doing it! You actually have to just spend time doing it and AYO provided me with that real-life experience building my technical and orchestral skills to the highest level.  

It’s also beautiful now to come full circle and have students doing AYO programs now, which is really special for me.

What was your favorite piece you performed during your AYO programs?

I think my favorite program was probably the 2019 Chamber Players where we were involved with the Dover String Quartet from the States and we did some fantastic repertoire, playing the Schubert String Quartet in G Major. Actually, one of the violinists in the quartet at the time, Scarlett Gallery and I have now formed a brand-new chamber ensemble here in Armidale! Our name is Ensemble Apsley, and we are mostly comprised of local musicians in Armidale, with about 30% of the group from the QSO in Brisbane. It was born from the idea of becoming a rurally based but very high standard Chamber Orchestra. And part of my reason for coming here to study medicine was wanting to engage with regional musicians and be able to have these opportunities that would have been incredible for me as a young person in the country.

We have built two emerging positions each year to encourage young musicians in the area. This year one of the violinists was India Smith, who is also off to NMC in January 2026!

What advice do you have for young students with passion and talent for music? What is something you wished you were told?

Increasingly in today’s day and age, I don’t think that young people need to have it all sorted as soon as they leave high school. I think music’s one of those careers where I couldn’t have done it the other way around. You know, I couldn’t really have done medicine for five or six years and then decided I wanted to have career in orchestral music. So, I think if getting to that point where you’re deciding what you want to try doing with your life and if you’re like me at the time when music seems like the only good option and it’s just something you’ve always been good at, and you can’t imagine your life without it- go for it! I think we’re quite fortunate in today’s day and age to live in a time where you can go study music and whatever that means. We’re really fortunate that you can change careers now three to four times and there’s much more room to move sideways and to change these days. So, you kind of go well, you know, go – go and do music. It’s not going to cause problems. At the very least, go have some fun of it and go see where it takes you. And if it doesn’t take you to where you wanted to go, then it’s OK to change.

Things that I’ve noticed moving away from music is we have a bit of a stigma around changing careers as musicians. A lot of people struggle with that when they’re moving away because it’s not just like changing career, it’s changing something that you’ve been doing since you were five years old or so. It becomes a part of your identity- being a musician. So, I would just encourage people to be open to change. When change calls you, when change calls you to not be blind to it. Music is still a huge part of my life, and I think it’s the same for anyone who chooses a career after doing music because it’s not like you lose it.

From your perspective, what are some of the challenges emerging classical musicians face in Australia?

I spent a year in 2022 in the Opera Australia Patricia H. Reid Orchestral Fellowship, which was really good fun. It was a great group of people and being able to sit in a pit and be slightly more relaxed than if you’re on stage as a Symphony Orchestra was lots of fun. There were always the kind of subtle jokes that get passed around the group and the slightly tedious Arias, it was nice to have that lightheartedness in a professional organization. On a more serious note, in the kind of career, like classical music, jobs are very hard to come by at the best of time. And at the time, that orchestra had just been through this period of having to let go of musicians during COVID due to funding, and that was really hard. I spent a bit of time talking to the musicians who struggled through this time and left a real mark on the Australian classical music industry. To be in an orchestra for 20 to 40 years and then suddenly be told you don’t have a job anymore and you know it’s not a career where you can walk out of one job and into the next.

Part of my reason for moving away from music was wanting to have a bit more autonomy over my life and just wanting to be able to make choices rather than have choices made for me in some ways. As a musician, you do like 20 or 30 auditions and just hope that you win one. You go ‘Oh, OK. Yep. We’re moving to Britain, moving to Germany…’ When you do win an audition is very exciting, but in some ways, you know, you don’t necessarily want to move to New Zealand- so I think that kind of thing can be really challenging. I think it’s important we talk about those challenges rather than pretend there is not there. And for the amount of skill, training and perseverance there often isn’t enough credit unless you win a job.

How does AYO and your music career feed transferable skills into other fields?

Music is probably (beyond my medical studies at the moment), by far the biggest part of my life. Music – you live and breathe it. You spend every day doing it- music matters in one way or another, and I think what it does is that musicians tend to be much more lateral thinking, creative people. What’s done for me is it’s given me this different way of thinking, where you’re able to kind of think of things that other people perhaps aren’t and from a medical perspective that’s really valuable because people don’t present with straightforward problems. People are complicated, people are not even necessarily typical. And there’s usually like 9 or 10 different things that could be going on. And you have to be able to kind of think sideways and outside the box.

Through my (although) short music career, I spent a lot of time in a very social job in ways that I think people in our fields don’t appreciate- that music is just like one big social experience. AYO Programs, as everyone knows, that just as much a social time as a musical time. People in other careers don’t spend half as much time talking to their colleagues and you know it gives you a really good sense of getting to know lots of different people from different backgrounds. I definitely noticed that so far in the medical field a lot of the students don’t know how to talk to people, and that becomes a problem when 80% of your future job is talking to people and helping them through genuine communication.

From music to medicine, how’s the adjustment been?

It’s, in some ways, much easier than a career in music. Medicine’s a bit of a walk in the park compared to being in a position. It sounds funny but it’s way more straightforward. It’s all about your attitude. The way our course works, we don’t get grades. So, you end up with your lecturers actually saying ‘Don’t shoot for 100%’. Don’t bother because you’re wasting your time. It’s not improving your career options and you’re better off spending that extra time becoming an interesting person rather than becoming like a medical textbook, because it’s going to help you at the end of the day and you don’t need to remember the name of every single antibiotic.

Which composer would you want to invite to a dinner party and why?

Richard Strauss – I would love to know the way his brain works because his scores and music is ridiculously dense in detail. He could somehow fit every single color onto the one painting. But somehow instead of a muddy mess, you get beautiful texture and I don’t know any other composer that does it. I played the Alpine Symphony a while ago and I was just struck by the fact that almost every instrument plays all the time and there’s so much noise, but it doesn’t ever turn into chaos and it’s kind of incredible.

Any other comments?

I again want to reiterate how wonderful I think the Australian Youth Orchestra programs are and that we’re very lucky globally to have this organization.

Violin

AYO: 1992 – 1996

Carolyn Watson is Music Director of the La Porte County Symphony Orchestra in Indiana and Principal Guest Conductor of the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra. Originally from Australia, Carolyn has been based in the United States since 2013 during which time she has led performances with the Austin Symphony, Cape Symphony, Catskill Symphony, Columbus Indiana Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestra, Kansas City Ballet, South Bend Symphony, St. Joseph Symphony, Traverse Symphony Orchestra and World Youth Symphony Orchestra. Recruited internationally as Music Director of the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra, she won the 2015 American Prize for Orchestral Performance with this ensemble, also collaborating with soloists including Mark O’Connor and Alexandre Tharaud during her tenure. Carolyn continues to enjoy an ongoing association with Interlochen as conducting faculty at Interlochen Arts Camp.

An experienced conductor of opera, recent engagements have seen Carolyn lead Listen, Wilhemina! for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Hansel and Gretel for Amarillo Opera and Fellow Travelers at Des Moines Metro Opera, along with a production of As One. This season she will lead The Tragedy of Carmen for Tulsa Opera, and in 2020 she conducted ‘And Still we Dream’ for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, a production which was featured in the Emmy-Award winning PBS documentary, Higher Octaves: Leading Women in the Arts. In 2019 she was engaged to conduct the world premiere of Gordon Getty’s opera Goodbye Mr. Chips at Festival Napa Valley, and in 2017 Carolyn was one of six conductors selected for the Hart Institute for Women Conductors, where she led the Dallas Opera in two public performances.

A major prizewinner at the 2012 Emmerich Kálmán International Operetta Conducting Competition in Budapest, notable European credits include Infektion!, a festival of modern theatre celebrating the works of John Cage at the Staatsoper Berlin, conducting musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic in Interaktion, a residency at the Israeli National Opera, and assisting Sir Charles Mackerras on his final two productions at The Royal Opera, Covent Garden and Glyndebourne. Additional international conducting credits include the Brandenburger Symphoniker, BBC Concert Orchestra, Budapest Operetta Theatre, Bulgarian State Opera Bourgas, Duna Szimfonikus Budapest, North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Kammerphilharmonie Graz, Kodály Philharmonia Debrecen, Mihail Jora Philharmonic Romania, Savaria Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and in Russia, the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic. In Australia she has worked with the Barrier Reef Symphony Orchestra, Darwin Symphony, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Melbourne Youth Orchestra, Monash Academy Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, Tasmania Discovery Orchestra and Willoughby Symphony. Carolyn also led the 2008 World Youth Day Orchestra on the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI’s arrival in Sydney before a live audience of 100,000 and a worldwide television audience of some five million viewers.

Viola

AYO: 2000-2001
AYO National Music Camp: 1999-2001

Music has always been a passion for Damien. In 1962, he attended a state Music Camp as a pianist, an experience that expanded his musical horizon and inspired him to learn the bassoon. National Music Camp then became the highlight of Damien’s year, ‘a time of incredibly wonderful activity in a setting of like-minded musicians’. Damien went on to study medicine and become a doctor.

Damien’s medical achievements are widely recognised, in particular the instrumental role he played in the establishment of newborn hearing screening in South Australia. Despite his career choice, Damien ‘always saw himself primarily as a musician’; he is enjoying his recent retirement from medicine to become a full time musician (‘which takes many more work hours!’), including accompanying students at the Conservatorium.

Double Bass

AYO: 2011-2015
AYO National Music Camp: 2010-2013

Bassoon

Tutor: 2012-2015
AYO: 2000-2001

Queensland Symphony Orchestra Associate Principal Bassoonist David Mitchell was once performing in Germany with Valery Gergiev when the conductor decided to change the concert program in the dress rehearsal because he didn’t like it. ‘He made us learn a whole new program on the spot. You can do that sort of thing when you’re the boss. Although scary, it turned out to be one of the most exciting concerts I’ve ever played.’

David’s achievements including being a recipient of the QLD Young Performer of the Award and two ANAM Scholarships, winning the Open Instrumental Section of the North Queensland Concerto Competition and touring internationally with the Sydney Conservatorium Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Wolfram Christ.

Dr Deborah de Graaff is a renowned Australian clarinettist. Deborah’s 16 CDs and tracks are broadcast regularly on ABC Classic FM and music streaming services.

Winning competitions scholarships and awards, she has performed overseas and in Australia for over 30 years as a chamber musician and recording artist, often premiering Australian compositions. Deborah has worked with many renowned artists including her mother, contralto Lauris Elms, soprano Rita Hunter, pianists Geoffrey Parsons, John Winther, Len Vorster, Richard Bonynge, Paul Dyer’s Brandenburg Orchestra and the Fine Arts Orchestra at St Martin in the Fields, London.

After many years teaching (Sydney Conservatorium of Music USYD, UNSW), she now applies her PhD Model of Elite Practice toward a hand select group of prodigious and advanced students, working online and at her Sydney City, Town Hall studio. Deborah and team have now established SILO SOUNDS Inc. a recital series based in the twin towns of Harden Murrumburrah in rural NSW (near Canberra). Guest artists are invited to perform in this beautiful venue, which now features a brand new elite S6X Yamaha recital grand piano. Guest artists include: Rachel Scott in her series ‘Bach in the Dark’; Three’s Company, a soprano, clarinet and piano trio with Dr Tonya Lemoh and Dr Narelle Yeo; Jazz singer songwriter Emma Grace Stephenson; and pianist and ABC presenter Tamara Cislowsa.

Cello

AYO: 1958-1962
AYO National Music Camp: 1958-1959, 1961-1962

I have no doubt that attending my first National Music camp at age 14 was the catalyst which launched me on the path to a career as a cellist. Being lucky enough to attend a school where music was really important, (they even had a full symphony orchestra), I was taken aback to find dozens of like-minded teenagers at my first camp and realized that I was only on the bottom rung of the ladder!

Inspired by older role models, more advanced students and the many wonderful tutors I encountered at Camps, I went home determined to work harder. The next year I was selected for AYO, and this was the beginning of a long and successful career as an orchestral and chamber musician, at first in Australia and then in Europe. For ten years I toured with my husband, Bruce Lawrence (viola) with the Deltic Trio, as section leaders of several Chamber Orchestras in the U.K., and as the lower half of a string quartet.

Returning to Australia I taught at Sydney Conservatorium and pioneered string programs in schools, as well as maintaining a very busy private studio. I have produced many very successful students and have been proud to send many to National Music Camp and to AYO. Both my sons also took part in these programmes, Adrian as a cellist and Julian as a viola player.

I was for 40 years a String Examiner with the AMEB, and Chief Examiner of Strings in the Education Department of NSW for 30 of those years. I am passionate in my commitment to seeing as many children as possible awakened to the world of music in their formative years. I have especially devoted the latter part of my career to this end and can number many professional cellists among my former students both in Australia and in Europe.

In the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours List I am proud to have received the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to music education.

Double Bass

AYO: 1962
AYO National Music Camp: 1962

It was during my high school years at PLC Pymble that I found an ancient double bass under the stage in the hall, and fell in love with it – gut strings and cumbersome bow included – and started lessons with the violin teacher at the school.

I was lucky enough to be awarded an orchestral scholarship to the NSW State Conservatorium a couple of years later where I had some beneficial (and often hilarious) lessons conducted backstage in Verbrugghen Hall, with Charles Gray, then principal bass of the SSO and formerly of the Boyd Neel String Orchestra. The conservatorium director, Sir Bernard Heinze, actually awarded me the scholarship in person, proclaiming that I was his ‘favourite lady double bassist’!

After leaving school I enrolled in a Diploma in Illustration course at the National Art School in Darlinghurst. Art had been my other passion in life from a young age. During this time I also continued to have bass lessons at the conservatorium in the evenings, attended AYO National Music Camps and was a member of AYO in 1960.

After graduating from the National Art School I worked in the animation industry at the very new and innovative Artransa Park Television Studios in Sydney. Later, I moved to London with my husband for a couple of years where we both worked on such projects as the animated film Yellow Submarine in Soho Square. I was involved in colour styling… my claim to fame being the Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds segment on which I worked extensively.

During the 1970s, 80s and 90s, I played as a double bassist in several local orchestras around Sydney, including Willoughby, Kuringai, the Western Symphonia, St Andrews Cathedral Orchestra and the Balmain Sinfonia. I also played in various musicals with many musical societies, including Chatswood, Willoughby, North Rocks, Sydney Youth, Hornsby, Asquith, Dural, Rockdale, Parramatta, Strathfield, Pennant Hills, and Castle Hill. I started performing with a half sized Czech bass, then changed to small German bass. This was followed by a much too large French bass until I finally settled on a wonderful half size 1870 German bass. 

I also taught double bass until I retired from teaching in 2016. Having retained my love of early music, I then turned to the cello which I play in two string quartets. I also play viol da gambas and recorders with various consorts.

During the 1980s I met Carey Beebe, world renowned Australian harpsichord maker and, on the spur of the moment one day, offered to decorate the soundboards of his harpsichords. I have since decorated about 20 harpsichords, including two for the Sultan of Oman, and now paint my own Australian designs on special order instruments. I also have a lovely Flemish harpsichord which I play… with mixed success.

I look back… and forward… at my life of music and art, which I still find are so extraordinary and fulfilling.

Elissa began her life in the arts at the age of 5, training in dance, drama and singing. She has performed around Australia, as well as internationally at Disneyland Anaheim and Universal Studios America, Hong Kong and throughout China.

Elissa went on to study Performing Arts Management at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and graduated with a number of awards and scholarships including the Commonwealth Academic Excellence Scholarship and the Hawaiian Award for most outstanding Arts Management graduate. Elissa has since worked at Queensland Theatre Company in marketing and production capacities before transitioning to the position of Travel Coordinator with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. During her time with ACO, Elissa toured extensively all major capital cities as well as many regional areas. In 2014, Elissa moved to the United States and took up the position of Production Manager at the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in Connecticut, before returning to Sydney in 2015 as the Production Coordinator for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Elissa now works as Production Manager with the SSO. Her responsibilities include managing Production staff as well as the planning and day-to-day running of rehearsals and concerts. She has toured with the orchestra on many occasions, including their 2018 International tour to Europe. Elissa returns to tutor the NMC Orchestral Management course for the third time, tutoring twice before in 2016 and 2021.

Eliza Scott is an in demand Australian violinist, educator, and presenter, and serves as a first violinist with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

Raised in a musical family in Armidale, Eliza began her violin studies under the watchful eye of her Aunty at the age of three. Many hours of practice later, she pursued her undergraduate studies in Violin Performance with Michele Walsh at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, graduating with First Class Honours and the University Medal.

In 2020, Eliza was awarded a Masters of Performance from the Royal College of Music in London, supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts.

A passionate orchestral musician, Eliza has appeared with the Sydney, Melbourne, and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras and was Principal Second Violin of the Australian Youth Orchestra in 2018 and 2019. Alongside her performance career, she is a dedicated educator, having taught at the New England Conservatorium of Music and for the Griffith University Young Conservatorium program.

Eliza’s long-standing relationship with the Australian Youth Orchestra began in 2009, and she is delighted to now be leading the AYO Momentum ensemble for this project.

In 2013, Elizabeth was the Music Director of Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camp, where she programmed a series of eight fantastic summer concerts. At the time, she gave an interview to AYO:

Alumni interview

Viola

AYO: 1952-1965
AYO National Music Camp: 1952-1965

Frank Pam has had a varied career in education and music for over 40 years. He attended seven National Music Camps, three as Coordinator of Chamber Music and was Principal Viola of AYO for five years between 1959 and 1965; he also studied conducting with John Hopkins OBE AM at the VCA.

Frank has performed with orchestras in Australia and overseas and has conducted and/or founded several Melbourne orchestras. In 1975 Frank founded the Melbourne Musicians Chamber Orchestra which continues today and has included many leading musicians including Slavor Grigorian, Li Wei Qin, Libby Wallfisch and Merlyn Quaife. He is also a regular presenter on 3MBS FM.

Francesco “Frankie” Lo Surdo was born in Sydney and began learning the French horn at the age of nine, studying at the Newtown High School of the Performing Arts and participating in the Sydney Youth Orchestra. He has been a horn player with the West Australian Symphony orchestra since 2011.

Written in September, 2024

Genevieve Lang, a distinguished harpist and broadcaster, has enchanted Australian audiences with her exceptional performances and insightful commentary. Whether on stage with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra or in her long-standing collaboration with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, her contributions to the music world are well recognised. As a founding member of the Seven Harp Ensemble (SHE), Genevieve has also shone as a soloist with orchestras across Australia and beyond. 

Today, you’re more likely to hear her voice than her harp as Genevieve shares her passion for classical music as a presenter on ABC Classic. From the thrill of AYO’s 1994 European Tour to her current role at ABC, Genevieve’s story is a vibrant example of how the rhythms of one’s early experiences continue to shape a lifelong career in music.

Alumni Interview

Viola

AYO: 1965-66
AYO National Music Camp: 1962-65

I consider that I was never really good at the viola, but playing in orchestras and chamber music groups was nevertheless a wonderful experience. Some special memories include:

Playing in the back desk of the violas in the vast Centennial Hall in Adelaide at the 1966 Festival, repeating an AYO program for enormous numbers of school children, with the hope that some would become inspired.

Practising those devilish fast runs in the viola part of the Mozart Oboe Quartet for months, before eventually performing it at one of the famous Cocktail Concerts at National Music Camp.

Attending a performance of a Mozart symphony at Geelong College by the best players at camp. To me it was an overwhelmingly beautiful sound. And how brilliant and inspiring those players were, even if I felt I could never personally achieve such heights.

Conductor Tommy Matthews enthusing about Brahms as AYO played the Symphony No.2 in Sydney in 1965. Matthews’ obvious devotion to Brahms and his great efforts to encourage us to share the feeling were inspiring.

I have said ‘inspiring’ a lot, but that’s probably a good summary of what Music Camp and AYO meant for me, even as I chose to pursue a career as an academic psychologist and statistician.

I attended four camps and two AYO seasons. In a very different role, I was ‘baggage manager’ for the 1975 AYO tour to Asia, and remember wonderful concerts in South Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong. (I also recall many late night dramas, with piles of instruments in strange places in the depths of winter).

In yet another role, my wife Lindsay and I were dormitory hosts for girls at Music Camp at Geelong Grammar in 1976 and 1977. We used to sit in orchestra rehearsals and work at memorizing the names of students – while of course greatly enjoying the wonderful music.

My musical experiences as a student at Camps and AYO no doubt contributed to my election to a Rhodes Scholarship. In Oxford for doctoral work in experimental psychology I played for a time in the student orchestra, before academic and other priorities took over. However, my love of music, especially chamber music and opera, has persisted since Music Camp days.

After returning to Melbourne I joined the excellent Psychology Department at La Trobe University, where I worked until ‘retirement’ in 2008. I took a particular interest in teaching statistics, and in trying to improve how researchers do their statistics. In 2012 I published a statistics textbook that advocates estimation and meta-analysis as much better than the traditional statistical significance testing. Details can be found here

The introductory version of the textbook (published 2016) is intended to change the world. So… you can never tell where the back desk of the violas can lead!

Glenys Abrahams (Double bass AYO 1981) builds rewarding relationships in her job as an Advisory Visiting Teacher for hearing-impaired students in mainstream schools. ‘I’ve supported students from babies until high school. Over time you become one of the extended family. It’s a privilege to share the students’ milestones throughout their school years.’ Glenys is also interested in exploring how music and deafness co-exist, especially for children diagnosed with a profound hearing loss and fitted with cochlear implants. Glenys is supporting the next generation and acknowledging the opportunities she had as a young musician through a bequest to AYO. ‘I want to help foster the love of playing and where that leads. These committed musicians will go on to play in our orchestras and ensembles. They are the musicians of our future, bringing so much pleasure to others.’

Trombone

AYO: 1967, 1968 and 1969 Seasons

Gordon Sellar was a trombonist with the AYO from 1967 to 1969. Over his career, he played in military bands for 47 years and was with the RAAF Central Band for 19 of those years. Gordon has very fond memories of his time at AYO and admires how AYO has given access to young people in regional areas and has influenced the musicians that have shaped Australia.

Tell us your best AYO memory?

The first AYO was Melbourne 1967. The conductor was the Dutch conductor Wilem van Otterloo, principal conductor of residency orchestra at The Hague. The main work was Beethoven’s 5^th symphony. Us trombones do not play until the last movement so we have a long wait. He was not happy about the first few notes and made the strings repeat them over and over again. They were playing triplets instead of a quaver rest followed by three quavers. He was quite annoyed but eventually moved on. He was highly respected as a Beethoven interpreter so I was very stressed coming in on a high C. Many of our parents had served or lived through WW2. I think I have a possible explanation if my memory is not playing tricks with me. In a radio programme connected with WW2 possibly in the 1950s those first four notes were used as a secret call sign or code using triplets and not quavers. Those string players had possibly had that triplet seared into their brains from birth.

​

Guy Noble is well-known to Australian audiences as a conductor, host, pianist, writer and broadcaster. Guy first played piano with AYO on the 1984 tour to Europe and the UK, culminating in a performance of Stravinsky’s Petrouchka at the BBC Proms. 

He has conducted all the major orchestras in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Malaysia, in repertoire from classical and opera to tours with Harry Connick Jr and Randy Newman. He was an announcer on BBC Radio 3 and hosted Breakfast on ABC Classic from 1999-2001. He hosted and conducted the Queensland Symphony’s Music on Sunday series for 18 years, Adelaide’s Classics Unwrapped series for 5 years and Great Opera Hits with Opera Australia at the Sydney Opera House for 10 years and 400 performances. He wrote The Classical Music Explorer for ABC Books, two volumes of Word of The Day for Penguin Books and has had his own column in Limelight Magazine for over 15 years.

Violin

AYO: 1993-94
AYO National Music Camp: 1992-93

Be careful when practising your instrument – you never know who might be listening.

Haylie Ecker was practising her violin one day in a friend’s London flat, while her friend was on the phone. Music producer Mel Bush happened to hear Haylie through the phone; he was so impressed he invited her to an audition. This was the beginning of Haylie’s ‘incredible roller coaster of highs and lows’ as first violinist with superstar classical crossover group Bond.

Iain Grandage is a composer, conductor and Festival Director of the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival. He has received the prestigious Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award, the Ian Potter Emerging Composer Fellowship, and been Composer-in-Residence with the WA Symphony Orchestra, and Musician-in-Residence at the UWA School of Music, where he is currently an Honorary Research Fellow, and by whom he was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate.

In 1996 and 1998, Iain was musical director and arranger for the national tours of Jimmy Chi’s multi award winning Corrugation Road, and his involvement with indigenous musicians has continued through his collaborations with the Spinifex people of central Australia, initially on the theatre work Career Highlights of the Mamu, and subsequently with concert works in collaboration with WASO and Topology. Iain has worked as musical supervisor and arranger on many large scale multi artform events – from the Black Arm Band’s award-winning performances Hidden Republic, dirtsong and Seven Songs, to the opening event ‘Home’ for the 2016 Festival of Perth, directed by Nigel Jamieson and featuring Richard Walley, John Butler, Tim Minchin and The Waifs. He has co-created welcoming events for the 2007 Festival of Perth and 2010 Sydney Festival, collaborated with Steve Pigram, Mark Atkins and Richard Tognetti on the ACO’s multimedia presentation The Reef. His Artistic directorship of the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival has been hailed for its innovation and energy, and he curated the Chamber Music Program for the 2018 Adelaide Festival to great critical and audience acclaim.

Iain’s concert works have been performed by the ACO, Brodsky String Quartet, Australian String Quartet, Australian Brass Quintet, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Sara Macliver, Craig Ogden and choirs and orchestras around Australia. Highlights include the Victorian Opera production of his opera The Riders, based on the Tim Winton novel with libretto by Alison Croggon, which had Michael Shmith writing in The Age “…an opera of rare dramatic power, utmost musicality and first-rate performances. “, Peter Burch in The Australian writing “.. a bewitching jewel of contemporary music theatre.” .and Peter Rose in the Australian Book Review writing “star of the night was Grandage’s radiant new score”. For the Centenary of ANZAC day in 2016, Iain conducted the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in the critically and publically acclaimed world premiere performance of his oratorio Towards First Light, with text by Kate Mulvany after the words of Australian Servicemen and women. Gordon Forrester in Limelight wrote “Grandage shows us intimacy, vulnerability, inspiration, comfort and desolation in this exceptional piece, “ and Graeme Strahle in The Australian wrote “this was a memorable world premiere of a major new Australian work. Grandage conducted a polished Adelaide Symphony Orchestra with tremendous flair and energy.”

As music director, he has won Helpmann Awards for his work with Meow Meow on the Malthouse/Sydney Festival production Little Match Girl, and with the cast on Sydney Theatre Company’s The Secret River. He won Green Room Awards for his work with ANAM and Meow on Wunderschön, and with Meow and Malthouse on Vamp. He has conducted orchestras for the late Dr G Yunupingu, Kate Miller-Heidke, Katie Noonan and Tim Minchin, and led the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Southbank for Meow Meow’s Pandemonium. He led a revival of Shane Warne The Musical for the 2013 Adelaide Cabaret Festival, and was music director and arranger for Opera Australia’s critically lauded new opera The Rabbits by Kate Miller-Heidke and Lally Katz. He regularly conducts and presents the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Education program.

His compositions for the theatre include Helpmann Award winning scores for Cloudstreet, The Secret River, When Time Stops and (in collaboration with Kate Miller-Heidke) The Rabbits, and Green Room Award winning scores for The Riders, Lawn, In the Next Room, Babes in the Wood, The Odyssey and The Blue Room for theatre companies including Belvoir, Black Swan, Malthouse, MTC and STC. His score for the Garin Nugroho silent film Satan Jawa, co-written with Rahayu Suppangah for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and gamelan musicians, received a Helpmann award for best score, as well as rave reviews from critics. It regularly tours internationally – most recently to Holland Festival and Singapore.

Composer

AYO National Music Camp; Composition Program: 2002-2005

Ian Whitney’s sins have followed him – from AYO National Music Camp to Victorian Opera. During the composition program at camp in 2005, the students composed pieces inspired by the Seven Deadly Sins; Ian chose Gluttony and Lust. Now Ian has been selected by Victorian Opera with three other composers to create scenes in a new companion work to Brecht/Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins; this time he’s chosen Sloth and Lust.

Ian’s many achievements include receiving the Australian Youth Orchestra/National Institute of Dramatic Art Fellowship for theatre music. More recently, he has participated in the Symphony Services International/Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Composers’ School. His work has been performed by PLEXUS and the Seven Harp Ensemble and he was recently commissioned by Christopher Cartlidge for a new work for viola and piano.

2016 – 2022 Harp

Written in 2019

Bassoon, National Music Camp 1998 & AYO 1999

James graduated from Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne in 2000 during which he won a number of prizes including the Willem van Otterloo scholarship which allowed him to later study in the Netherlands. He was Associate Principal Bassoon in both the Auckland Philharmonia in New Zealand and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Later he studied at the Conservatorium of Amsterdam with Jos de Lange, following masterclasses with Dag Jensen, Pascal Gallois and Matthew Wilkie. James is now a busy freelance bassoonist, involved in many chamber music projects and playing regularly with the major Dutch orchestras including Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Dutch Wind Ensemble, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, ASKO Schoenberg Ensemble.

Alumni Interview from 2016

Double Bass

AYO: 1957-1959
AYO National Music Camp: 1957-1959

Huge congratulations to AYO Alumna Jan Gracie Mulcahy whose powerful memoir Running in Stilettos with a Double Bass was published by Boolarong Press, Brisbane in December 2015. In addition to being a current donor and bequestor, Jan is generously donating a portion of the proceeds from her book sales through AYO to the 2016 International Tour Fund.

Jan’s professional music career included performing with the Charles Gray String Orchestra, Chelsea Opera Group (London), The Modern Symphony Orchestra (London), The Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Canberra Symphony Orchestra. She believes music has given her joy, inspiration and a language that took her to places never dreamed of, such as performing Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Sydney Opera House for Queen Elizabeth in 1973. Jan now has a second career as a poet and creative writing teacher.

Violin

AYO: 1958, 1959
AYO National Music Camp: 1955, 1956

Based in Sydney, Jane is an Honorary Associate of the Medieval and Early Modern Centre at the University of Sydney. She is also an elected member of the Directorium of the International Musicological Society (IMS).

After her time with AYO, she completed a Bachelor of Music (Violin) at the University of Melbourne which was followed by a Masters of Music (Musicology). She then went on to do her MSLS (Library Science) at the Wayne State University and shortly after completed her PhD in Musicology at the University of Michigan. Jane lived in the USA for ten years, studying and teaching.

Upon returning to Australia, she began teaching at the University of Sydney, then at the Sydney Conservatorium specialising in Musicology. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities and was a Senior Fulbright Scholar at Harvard. Her many publications are in areas of Medieval and Early Modern Iberian Liturgical Chant and Polyphony, Liturgical Geography, Manuscript studies and Codicology.

Some of her major highlights of her career are as a recorder player when she was part of the
early music revival in Melbourne in the late 1950s, playing recorder with many music ensembles both in the USA and Australia. Her current group, Honie Suckle, has been performing together in Sydney for 30 years.

Having officially retired from teaching, she is actively giving back to the profession as the Chair of an International Mentoring Scheme she founded at the International Musicological Society. Jane is currently on the board of several international journals, and regularly assesses grant applications in Australia, Canada, Spain and Portugal. She is continuing to publish and develop a collection of Spanish Liturgical Music Manuscripts for Rare Books at the University of Sydney.

Jennifer was appointed to a permanent position in the First Violin section of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2001, after gaining a Bachelor of Music with 1st class Honours from the Sydney Conservatorium and a Masters of Music degree with distinction from the Australian Institute of Music.

She studied violin with Goetz Richter and Alice Waten. During her career with the SSO she also performed as guest principal with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, the Western Australian and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, and with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Jennifer served on the Musician’s Executive of the SSO Management Committee for several years, most significantly during the period of divestment of the Orchestra from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. She was also actively involved in mentoring and teaching young musicians as part of the SSO Artist Development, Fellowship and Playerlink programs.

Jennifer left the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2013 to accept the position of Legal Researcher/Associate to the Honourable Justice Mark Leeming at the NSW Court of Appeal, however she continued to serve on the Board of Directors of the SSO. Since then, Jennifer has practised as a solicitor in the areas of Child Protection, coronial law and criminal law. She currently works in the Appellate Litigation team at the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. When time permits, Jennifer still plays chamber music and performs as a freelance violinist, most recently in the pit for The Australian Ballet’s performances of Romeo and Juliet. Jennifer also sits on the Board of Directors of the Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra.

Jet Kye Chong is an award-winning Perth-based percussionist, composer and
researcher. He has performed concerts across Australia, Asia, Europe and North
America. As a percussionist, Chong won the Malaysia Percussion Festival Performance
Prize with his own work ‘Rev 3’, and is a two-time winner of the People’s Choice
Award for the Vose Memorial Concerto Prize. He has produced 5-star awardwinning Fringeworld shows, toured nationally with the Momentum Ensemble, and
internationally with his band “The Hár” in the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as well as
Principal Percussion with the Australian Youth Orchestra. He recorded works of
Myburgh for Australian and UK labels, and recorded with Australian Baroque for ABC
Classic.

Chong holds a Bachelor of Philosophy in Mathematics and Statistics, and Music
Specialist Studies (Composition/Percussion), with First Class Honours. His research
thesis ‘Predicting Marimba Stickings with Neural Networks’ won the 2020 Dr Vincent
Harry Cooper Memorial Prize, the 2022 Statistical Society of Australia Louise Ryan Best
Presentation Award, and was recently published in the Australasian Joint Conference in
AI proceedings.

Jet at AYO 2019 National Music Camp

Violin

AYO: 1985
AYO National Music Camp: 1982-1985  

Alumnus John Daley is currently head of the Grattan Institute, a public policy think-tank that examines ‘how we can improve what government does in Australia so that Australians have better lives’.

Can you tell us a bit about you, and what you are up to these days?

Not long after my last AYO season I graduated as an engineer and moved to Switzerland to work in my new profession. While tramping (summer) and skiing (winter) in the mountains as well as weekend trips away in my old VW beetle formed the basis of non-work pursuits, I did have my cello with me and got together occasionally with a German work colleague who played piano. After marriage to Irene, whom I had met at university in Melbourne, we returned to Australia to start a family, seek a home and as it turned out, remake a career far removed from engineering.

In 1968 I joined the Australian Trade Commissioner Service and commenced a fascinating gypsy life living overseas in different countries, working to develop markets for Australian businesses and cement sound trade relations in countries in Africa, South and North America, the Middle East and Europe. Like many amateur musicians, the pressures of work, family and regular moves resulted is little opportunity to play music with others.

After retirement I did decide to start playing again, so bought a new cello, found a teacher, and practised as hard as I had ever done! It was wonderful find an organisation, the Amateur Chamber Music Society which had been set up by some of the people I remembered from AYO and Music Camp days. ACMS provides a wonderful opportunity for players of all ages and abilities and now operates in a number of Australian cities. I was able to enjoy orchestral playing again with the North Sydney Symphony, Musicus Medicus (the NSW Doctors’ orchestra) and even with the Darwin Symphony Orchestra on one visit up north. Our daughter plays double bass with the DSO. With age and arthritis my enthusiasm for playing has now receded. But not my enthusiasm for attending performances and supporting organisations such as AYO. In recent years I have been spending time in the world of books and writing, editing and publishing works by my late mother-in-law Kathryn Purnell.

What was a highlight of your time in AYO programs?

The experience was wonderful: playing under icons of Australian music such as John Bishop, Sir Bernard Heinze and John Hopkins. And unlike today, we played with the cream of Australian soloists such as Stephen McIntyre and Charmian Gadd. We did play once with a young Daniel Barenboim, also a memorable experience.

What skills, musical and otherwise, did you take away from your time at AYO?

Working as a tutti player in an orchestra demands a number of skills: the discipline of preparing your part alone, working collaboratively with your sectional team and the fun orchestra. It builds listening skills and the ability to remember and follow instructions. All this develops the knowledge that cohesion brings strength. These skills were all of great benefit in my career as an Australian Trade Commissioner.

Why do you think AYO is important to the Australian cultural landscape?

It was always great to be part of an orchestra playing masterworks of the symphonic repertoire: Sibelius, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky. I recall we rarely played Australian music. We did play Margaret Sutherland’s Dithyramb in 1959 and it formed part of the first ever AYO LP recording.

How would you describe AYO in three words?

Excellence; intensity; inclusiveness.

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about you or your time at AYO?

I often mention that I was on the first ever AYO tour… That the tour was from Melbourne to Sydney, by train, with a change at Albury because the single gauge line had not yet been built, seems not to impress today’s young musicians, often recently returned from China or Europe! How times have changed.

Flute

AYO National Music Camp: 1952-57

Playing in the orchestra for Broadway musical Camelot – starring Richard Burton and Julie Andrews – increased flautist John Wion’s literary consumption: ‘I memorised the score, so I would put a book on my music stand in front of the sheet music. In between playing, I read War and Peace and other classic novels.’

John’s love for orchestral playing began with AYO’s 1952 National Music Camp: ‘I waited for the downbeat from conductor John Bishop. Suddenly life opened for me; this beautiful sound – all-encompassing, vibrating. No other experience in my life has been like it.’

Following his attendance at two more National Music Camps and study at the Conservatorium, John played principal flute for the visiting New York City Ballet. This in turn led to him to New York City where, after serious study for a year during which he ran elevators and delivered packages at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, he got a big break subbing for a week with the New York Philharmonic.

John’s amazing performance and teaching career from 1956-2007 included the New York City Ballet, New York City Opera (where Turandot once crashed through the scenery during a dress rehearsal), and founding member of Leopold Stokowski’s American Symphony, plus Professor of Flute at the Hartt School.

John has drawn on drew on this experience to publish a nine-volume series of opera excerpt books to help flautists prepare for auditions and performances. His editions and publications have been winners in the National Flute Association’s Newly Published Music Competition. He was president of the National Flute Association in 1985 and was honoured by that organisation with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.

His memoir Wood, Silver and Gold – A Flautist’s Life has been published by Lulu Press.

Currently Principal Flute of the Estonian National Opera (ENO), young Jonathan Henderson (AYO 2010) is an old-hand at auditioning. His achievements include solo appearances with ENO, Tallinn Chamber & Baltic Youth Orchestras, participating in the BBC Proms and receiving numerous study scholarships. ‘The audition to study in Germany was extremely competitive – 100 candidates for a handful of places. It took a lot of positive thinking to not let the neighbouring candidate (firing off Jean-Jean etudes at 100 miles an hour) intimidate me!’ What got Jonathan through the audition? ‘I tried to give a convincing performance by focusing on the musical ideas I wanted to deliver.’ Most challenging performances with ENO? ‘The Puccini Operas, with only one rehearsal. I sweated blood and water and played around the clock – but my colleagues gave me great confidence.’

Timpani/ Percussion

AYO: 1961-64

Associate Professor Justin O’Day’s work as an Ophthalmologist has taken him around the world – from researching onchocerciasis (river blindness) in Sudan, Ecuador and Venezuela to teaching ophthalmologists in Myanmar, Cambodia, China and Vietnam. His African adventures include an emergency dash for liquid nitrogen in a small plane with big-game hunters in Nairobi and being introduced in a restaurant to a woman and her pet cheetah.

‘Things just seem to happen to me,’ Justin says of his action-packed life. ‘Meeting so many people in such diverse circumstances has given me the chance to witness people’s remarkable resilience and inventiveness.’ Justin works with the Victoria Parade Eye Consultants, Peninsula Eye Centre and Department of Ophthalmology, University of Melbourne; he is also Emeritus Ophthalmologist at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. Justin fondly remembers his time with the AYO. ‘Music is very democratic – it brings together people from different geographical and social backgrounds. AYO was my first exposure to a much wider community. It was wonderful to make music with such talented and enthusiastic young people. Also to be mentored by tutors such as John Bishop, who never belittled and was encouraging to everyone. This has been a good model for me to follow in my profession.’

Piano

AYO National Music Camp: 1963

I came to NMC as a pianist in 1963, the year I completed my BMus under Roy Shepherd at the Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne. Higher degree studies in musicology took me to the University of York (England) and City University and the Mannes School of Music in New York, but I completed my MMus and PhD – the first in music at the University of Melbourne, I am told – in Melbourne.

In 1974 I was offered a job at the Grainger Museum, an extraordinary building and collection that was just beginning to be valued. Over my fifteen years at the Museum, I prepared a number of catalogues, and edited The Farthest North of Humanness, Letters of Percy Grainger 1901-1914 (1985). My scholarly interests gradually turned away from the idea of ‘music’ as great (European) men writing immortal masterpieces to one of music as the lived experience of music-making by musicians and music lovers (including amateurs and women).

In 1988 I relocated to the School of Music-Conservatorium at Monash University where I stayed for a long time, first as a Research Fellow, then in various research roles, including academic editor. I write about everyday musical experience in Australia, especially that of women and immigrants. My publications include Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Story of Australia’s All-Girl Bands and Orchestras to the End of the Second World War (1999), and Bluebeard’s Bride: Alma Moodie, Violinist (forthcoming, Lyrebird Press, 2013). I completed a second doctorate at Monash, in history, and my thesis, Silences and Secrets: The Australian Experience of the Weintraubs Syncopators, was published in 2013.

I am presently an Adjunct Research Fellow in the School of Historical, Philosophical and International Studies (SOPHIS) at Monash University and a Research Associate in the School of Graduate Research at RMIT University.

Kevin Man began his musical studies on piano, attaining his AMusA under Stephanie McCallum. He later moved to percussion and completed a Bachelor of Music (Honours) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, studying with Sydney Symphony Orchestra timpanist Richard Miller. He attended National Music Camps 1994-97 and was involved in the 1996 Europe/America and 98 China AYO tours as well as Camerata in 1997 to the UK.

He was an instrumental finalist (timpani) in the ABC Young Performer Awards, performing with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and was awarded the 2MBS Young Performer of the Year in 1998.

In 1999, Kevin was appointed Rank and File Percussion with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Alongside performing and touring commitments, he taught percussion at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Griffith University from 2001 to 2003 and as Head of Percussion in 2003.

From 2002 to 2016, Kevin was a member of Taikoz, specialising in traditional and contemporary Japanese instrumental music. During this time, he toured extensively throughout Australia and internationally, performing taiko, shinobue, and shakuhachi.

As a guest musician, Kevin has performed with ensembles including the Sydney, Melbourne, and Queensland Symphony Orchestras; the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra; the Australian Chamber Orchestra; the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra; Synergy Percussion; Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa; Pinchgut Opera; and the Seymour Group. He was also a founding member of the percussion ensemble Sprung Percussion, and Karak Percussion duo.

Kevin has appeared as a concerto soloist with the West Australian, Sydney, Melbourne, and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Brisbane Sinfonia and the Dresden Chamber Orchestra.

In 2016 Kevin was appointed Associate Principal Percussion in Opera Australia Orchestra and also serves as Coordinator of Percussion Studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney.

Flute, 1980-82 National Music Camp and Flagship

Australian flute player Laura Chislett is a performer, educator, and recording artist whose work moves fluently across genres, eras, and aesthetic boundaries.
Laura studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Margaret Crawford, Michael Scott, and Richard Toop. Much of the ‘80s was spent in Europe, initially for further study and then as a performer at leading music festivals, including Chigiana Novità in Siena, the Festival Lucero in Paris, the ISCM in Luxembourg and Stockholm, the Galway Arts Festival, Insel Musik in Berlin, and the Festival del Flauto in Turin.
Ongoing musical collaborations have led to the release of ten CDs—most still available on streaming platforms—and to a substantial body of works written especially for her. She is currently an adjunct academic at the University of New South Wales.
Recent collaborations include work with Edward Cowie, Satsuki Odamura, Brad Gill, the Armistice Flute Choir, pianist Stephanie McCallum, and harpist Alice Giles. One of Laura’s 2024 performances was nominated for an APRA/AMCOS Performance of the Year, and she was a 2025 nominee for the Flute Almanac’s Global Flute Excellence Awards.
Her duo recording of improvisations with Edward Cowie, In Two Minds – Duo Menurida, released on the UK Métier Divine Art label, was described by MusicWeb International as “sensuous, inventive and often fantastic.”
www.chislett.au

1980 National Music Camp; from left to right, Laura Chislett, Alan Aungles, Virginia Taylor and Pru Davis

Growing up in the musical family, born to saxophonist Clive Amadio, Len forged a formidable career in the arts from the 1960 onwards. Beginning his career in the concerts department at the Australian Broadcasting Commission in Sydney, Len quickly became a game changer in arts funding in Australia. In 1964, he then went on to be concert manager in South Australia and joined Don Dunstan’s premier’s department in 1970. He then became the First Director of the Arts in South Australia in 1981, where he worked for 10 years, after which he was Senior Advisor for 4 years. During this time, Len met Ruth Alexander, one of the founders of AYO and was asked to work as a concert manager at 1958 National Music Camp. Len Amadio made a significant contribution to the Australian Youth Orchestra through executive, advisory and mentoring roles and through contributions to the establishment of the Alumni program.

Alumni Interview

Question: Len, when did your connection with AYO begin?

Answer: It began in, I think, March ’57, when I was a young concert officer in the ABC, and the ABC was in the midst of organising the very first AYO concerts in the Sydney Town Hall. And I was asked to go upstairs from the concert apartment, which was then down around the corner of, in Pitt Street from Park Street, and meet a Mrs. Ruth Alexander who would pull up in a taxi and have a list of the orchestra for the printed program. And she knew that I was going to be the person waiting. So, the taxi pulled up and [in] this American accent, the little lady said, “Are you Amadio?” And I said, “Yes.” She said, “This is the list. Make sure that you check all the names and the spelling. I don’t want any mistakes, right?” I said, “Mrs Alexander, don’t worry, we will.” And that’s how I started.

And then we had the concerts within the next week or so. And I got to know, and I got to know John Bishop because he conducted concerts. And then Ruth said to me, “Why don’t you come down and have a look at the music camp at Frensham?”, which was the following January in ’58. So, I went down for a weekend, stayed in Mittagong, saw what they were doing with the orchestras and it was pretty small then, the camp didn’t have as many people as it built up over the years.

That was fascinating and then I was asked to go to a music camp and be a concert manager. And I did that in 1960 and ’62 and ’63, I think. And I did it with another friend who was the concert officer in Melbourne, Geoff Fiddian. We were joint concert managers, which meant we’d do what the orchestral staff do at music camp. We’d move all the risers and the chairs and set up the stage and make sure everything was ready for the concert and dismantle everything after. So, I was a glorified concert manager.

Anyway, that was fascinating. And then, of course, the AYO played in a couple of youth concert series in Sydney with Barenboim in ’58. I remember that very clearly. And I’d been involved with the ABC Youth Concerts Committee for some three or four years up to that stage. So, I was really fascinated by the whole concept of youth concerts for young people to the age of 16-25. And then I saw this whole National Music Camp Association that had started off, you know, with a music camp and then developed an orchestra which was brought together. Hopefully they were going to try to do it on an annual basis. And the ABC had been very cooperative. Ruth Alexander was a very persuasive woman who managed to get Charles Moses who was then the general manager of the ABC to schedule the AYO into youth concerts in Sydney and Melbourne in over a few years in the late 50s early 60s. So, that’s how the whole thing got off the ground.

So, I had a very good association then. When I went to Adelaide in ’64, I continued going to hear the orchestra whenever they performed and I went to music camps as just a guest. I didn’t work in the music camps again until about the mid-90s when I was asked to go to camp along with Pat Brislan to be house coordinators, which meant looking after the young boys and the young girls to make sure they all got to bed at time and didn’t go mad crazy and everything else. So, I did that for quite a few years right through the late 90s, and then they had a restructuring of the board in 1994, and I was nominated and went on the board for 14 years.

So, I sort of had this relationship with the organisation on various levels, apart from acting for three months in between general managers in ’95. And then another interesting development was I think it was round about the beginning of 1975 when I’d been working in the state government in South Australia for Don Dunston when he was premier. And I got a phone call at somebody’s house. I was having a meeting somewhere at somebody’s house. And someone said, there’s a phone call for us. I said, “Well, who knows? I’m here.” Anyway, there’s Ruth Alexander in Melbourne saying, saying, “Len, we’re doing the Asian Tour in three weeks’ time, and the person is going to be leading the tour, the senior person is ill. And Len Porter, who is the wonderful administrative head of the Adelaide Elder Conservatorium” – who is married to John Bishop’s daughter, so there’s the connection there – “is going to be an assistant tour manager, is going to be the tour manager, and we need someone to take over from him. Would you be free to do it?”

And I said, “Well, I’ll have to get leave. And I said, Yes, of course I’d love to.” And I did, I got leave. So, I went on the Asian tour in 1975, which went to- We went to Philippines, did about eight concerts in Japan in the middle of freezing winter, South Korea, which had a lot of problems, and Hong Kong Arts Festival. So that was my first sort of touring with AYO, which was extraordinary. And John Hopkins conducted, and Bill Hennessy led the orchestra, and some wonderful stars in the woodwind section and the brass section, all went on to become leading musicians in Sydney and Melbourne orchestras and other orchestras all graduated from that tour. That was quite exciting. And then I did a few other tours in the 2000s: 2001, 2004, 2007. I went along as the sort of like the extra person to do all the odd jobs and help out in any way and keep an eye on them, the kids, that sort of thing, which was great in Europe. And so that’s how it all happened.

Question: Is there anything particular that keeps you connected to the organization and your emotional connection or is there anything?

Answer: Oh, look, I just think, I get a great feeling of excitement and satisfaction seeing young people developing and see how the opportunity they have to play in an orchestra, even at music camps. But absolutely, they get into the main orchestra and they’ve got a tour overseas to look forward to in a year or two. I mean, they are wonderful the way they responded. And I’ve heard so much, so many wonderful performances. I mean, we’ve been as good as major Australian orchestras overseas. I mean, I remember a concert in London, which was wonderful in 1984. I’ll never forget a concert in the Concertgebauer, which blew me out of the seat in 2001, I think it was. A wonderful concert in the concert house in Berlin a bit later when I happened to be in Berlin at the time, during the 2013 tour. They did the Rite of Spring with Eschenbach and Joshua Bell did Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. And the German audience saw their first didgeridoo with William Barton, a Sculthorpe piece. It was an extraordinary evening, really. I can still see it now. It was wonderful. I mean, I just…

But that’s the culmination of all the wonderful associations you have is to hear them, be so proud of them playing so well. Extraordinary. And you talk to the kids and it’s the life-affirming and life-changing thing for them. They’ve all had, there’s not one musician I’ve ever spoken to who’s not been positively affected by the association they’ve had in the orchestra and with their colleagues all together. It’s extraordinary. And I think in this organisation they’ve done something which no other organisation in Australia is doing anything like it. Even the state youth orchestras, which are good staging grounds, AYO is seen as the pinnacle in terms of, you know, training and the level of professionalism and the very good conductors. And it sort of comes together in the most extraordinary way, when you sit in a great concert hall in Europe and you feel a great feeling of pride and excitement and satisfaction.

Question: So, what would you say to someone who might think about supporting the Australian Youth Orchestra?

Answer: Well, if they didn’t know much about it, I’d certainly make sure they did in the conversation and I’d give them the material and give them a few stories and get them a bit excited, hopefully, and say, you know, this is an organisation that’s well worth your supporting financially because you’ll get a great feeling of satisfaction out of doing it. And if you love music and love concerts, you can’t do anything better than supporting young musicians who are going to be the musicians of the future in our symphony orchestras and to give them that, their life’s experience and make it possible for them to do those wonderful things that the Australian Youth Orchestra allows young people to do in terms of music camp and concerts in Australia and ultimately overseas touring and match up against other orchestras, other youth orchestras and other orchestras around the world.

My alumni tours. I could always, for some extraordinary reason, the AYO tour would start just after one of my alumni tours finished. I might have a week in between going from Milan up to Amsterdam to meet the orchestra back in 2001. It just happened to coincide. It didn’t cost the AYO anything. There’s no air fares for me, just accommodation and the expenses and I love doing it. The same thing happened in 2004/7 and I think I was in London in 1994 doing something else when the AYO was doing that tour. John Drummond got them into the Proms when John was running the Proms. So, I remember going to the concert in London, the concert in Aberystwyth, believe it or not, in Wales, the concert in the new concert hall in Birmingham which had only opened a few weeks before. So that was exciting and then I think I went up to, I was in Berlin in ‘13 for that wonderful concert with Eschenbach and Joshua Bell. And then in 2016 I went up to Shanghai and Beijing to meet the orchestra on their way back from Europe and hear them in those new concert halls in China and spend a week going to Hong Kong and went to Taipei, which I’d never been to as well. But that was great fun.

Cello

Guest Artist: 2016
AYO: 1995

An exclusive Universal Music China Artist, Li-Wei Qin has appeared all over the world as a soloist and as a chamber musician. His numerous achievements include the Silver Medal at the 11th Tchaikovsky International Competition and First Prize in the prestigious 2001 Naumburg Competition in New York. In 2016 Li-Wei Qin dazzled audiences as the guest artist for AYO’s 60th Anniversary Concert.

Lily Thomson (she/they) is a playwright, poet and dramaturg based on Gadigal land.
Lily completed an MFA in Writing for Performance in 2024 from NIDA. She is using her
skills to work across mediums in theatre, poetry and immersive performance
collaborating with organisations and institutions such as the National Film and Sound
Archive and the Australian Youth Orchestra and the ANU’s School of Cybernetics.
In 2022 Lily was selected as a proud mentee for the She Writes programme with
Theatreworks in Melbourne, with mentors including Patricia Cornelius and Jane Bodie.
In 2024 Lily graduated from NIDA with an MFA in Writing for Performance. During this
same year she was fortunate enough to be selected for ATYP’s National Studio where
she wrote a short queer coming of age piece with magical realism elements called
YOU GIVE ME BUTTERFLIES, which has been commissioned by ATYP and will be
performed at their Intersection Festival . Lily has also worked in collaboration with the
NFSA, NIDA and the School of Cybernetics for the Fantastic Futures Festival, having
made an immersive experience called Imaginative Restoration combining archived
recordings and AI.

Momentum Leaders 2025: What does this project mean to you?”

This project has been such a breath of fresh air, it has been
incredible to collaborate with such generous artists and
mentors working across such different art forms to my own. It
has been freeing to craft a work using the medium of music,
and growing a newfound knowledge and respect for musicians
as well as their instruments in this process. This work has been a
deep dive into unknown territories for me – the written material
of untold stories, working with new people and artforms, I have
felt challenged and like I have grown so much as an artist in
such a short time from the Momentum programme and it has
been especially rewarding because of this.
Lily Thomson

“Does a particular Untold Story in this project speak to you- and
Why?”

All of these stories are so special in their own way. I think that they
each highlight the power of human strength and tenderness in equal
parts. As a poet, I really resonate with both Meg Chandler’s and our
own ensemble member Jess Scott’s poetry. Something that poetry
allows for is for writers to churn out their thoughts and feelings
entirely in their own sequence, rhythm and style. These are two
incredible writers who came to poetry at completely different
times in their life – both using the craft to learn and affirm
more about themselves, their history and the world
around them through a perspective
that is utterly their own

According to Mathisha Panagoda (AYO cellist 2004-2014), law and music are complementary fields. ‘Law requires many skills I attribute to my AYO training – e.g. patience, analysis and hard work’. A lawyer with Caroll & O’Dea Lawyers and casual cellist with the Sydney Symphony, Mathisha’s achievements include recipient of two Banff residencies and founder of the Sydney Camerata.

Megan Burslem is a 2014 Words About Music (now Media and Communication) alumni. During her program, she was mentored by Alastair McKean who is the Head Librarian at the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Megan has been a significant advocate for AYO since finishing her program and continues to uplift its’ mission for the next generation of classical musicians in Australia.

Dr Megan Burslem is a violist, educator and researcher who is leading the charge in fresh conversation about music in the contemporary landscape. A self-proclaimed sucker for learning, Megan holds a Bachelor of Music (hons.), Bachelor of Arts, Master of Music (Performance), Master of Teaching (Secondary) and a Ph.D in musicology and ethnomusicology. Megan is a trained teacher of music and humanities and lecturer in musicology, who is passionate about music education, especially within rural communities (herself a proud kid from Lakes Entrance).

Flute

AYO: 1996
AYO National Music Camp: 1992

Principal Flute of the Hong Kong Philharmonic since 2002, Megan Sterling has enjoyed working with some of the world’s top conductors and soloists. She has appeared live on Australian national television and radio, Hungarian National Radio, RTHK Hong Kong and in recital on WGBH, Boston. She has also performed at Parliament House for the Australian Prime Minister.

Megan has appeared in a Principal role with most of Australia’s leading orchestras and is a founding member of the Australian World Orchestra, which brings Australian musicians from elite orchestras around the world to play together.

Her many achievements include: 1st Prize in the Hungarofest International Flute Competition in Budapest; recipient of the prestigious Queen’s Trust Award; winner of a Symphony Young Australia Award; winner of the inaugural Canberra School of Music/Ansett Concerto Prize; the University of Melbourne Mozart Competition; a Premier’s Award; and four-time winner of the Leslie Barklamb Flute Scholarship.

Megan performed in the Australian World Orchestra’s 2015 concert series with Sir Simon Rattle OM CBE, which included a thrilling collaboration with AYO.

Nigel Westlake’s career, spanning almost five decades, began as a clarinettist touring Australia and the world with many orchestras, ensembles & bands.

He began composing from 1980, receiving offers to write for radio, theatre, circus, TV and film and was appointed composer in residence for ABC Radio in 1984.

From 1987-1992 he was a core member of the Australia Ensemble(resident at UNSW) and in 1992 was invited by guitarist John Williams to join his septet Attaccaas performer and composer.

His film credits include, Babe, Ali’s Wedding, Paper Planes, Miss Potter, Babe- Pig in the City, Children of the Revolution, The Nugget, A Little Bit of Soul, Blueback (2023)and the IMAX films Antarctica, Solarmax, The Edge and Imagine.

His television credits include numerous documentaries, telemovies, news themes and station idents.

He writes extensively for the concert hall, receiving commissions to write for orchestras, ensembles and soloists and has received many awards, including two ARIA Awards, 15 APRA awards across both Classical and Screen categories, the 2022 APRA Distinguished Services to the Australian Screen Award and the Gold Medal for Best Original Music at the New York International Radio Festival.

He is a two time winner of the prestigious Paul Lowin Orchestral prize in 2013 for Missa Solis – Requiem for Eli and in 2019 for Spirit of the Wild – Concerto for oboe and orchestra.

In 2020 he was awarded the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award by the University of Melbourne for his third string quartet, Sacred Sky.

He has conducted all the major symphony orchestras in Australia in performances and recordings of his own works, and in 2016 made his US conducting debut at the Lincoln Centre with the New York Philharmonic and his European debut with the RTE Symphony at the National Concert Hall in Dublin in 2018.

He holds an honorary doctorate in music awarded in 2013 by the University of NSW and was the recipient of the HC Coombs Creative Arts Fellowship at the Australian National University in 2004.

In 2008 he founded the Smugglers of Light Foundation with his family in memory of his son Eli, to promote cultural awareness and empowerment through education via the mediums of music and film in youth and indigenous communities.

French Horn

AYO: 1955-

Patrick’s association with the AYO began 60 years ago when he attended his first National Music Camp. “A group of about 12 of us set off from Central Station in Sydney for the Geelong Music Camp, and at the end of the two weeks, like many others since, I felt my whole life had been permanently changed.” The scene was set for a long career in music – as a performer, teacher, administrator and mentor – and the life-long gratitude, affection and respect for the National Music Camp Association and later, AYO, have always been there.

Alumni Interview

Double Bass

AYO: 1979-1982
AYO National Music Camp: 1981-82

Paul studied music at Queensland University, played with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and taught at the Canberra School of Music before pursuing a career in finance. He’s enormously proud that one of his former students, Rob Nairn, is now professor of double bass at the Julliard School of Music and another, Tim Dunin, has a successful freelance career in Europe after having been principal bass of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

After completing an economics degree at the Australian National University in Canberra and a Master of Commerce at the University of NSW, Paul spent a decade as a corporate banker with Westpac.

He is a Sloan Fellow of Stanford University, having completed a Masters of Science at its renowned Graduate School of Business.

These studies and experiences provided the financial management skills and the entrepreneurial confidence to develop and lead his own company.

Paul founded Lannock Strata Finance in 2003 and it is now the leading strata lender in the country.

Cello

AYO National Music Camp: 1983-85

Peter studied briefly at the NSW Conservatorium of Music before embarking on studies in Hungary and America for four years. Upon returning to Australia, he worked full time in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, freelanced regularly with the ACO, founded a large chamber ensemble and worked with leading contemporary music groups. For the last twelve years Peter has been living in Copenhagen and working as a full-time member of the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra whilst composing on the side.

Peter performed in the Australian World Orchestra’s 2015 concert series with Sir Simon Rattle OM CBE, which included a thrilling collaboration with AYO.

Violin

AYO: 1971-76

Philippa played violin with AYO from 1971-76 and participated in the AYO 1975 international tour to Asia and the 1976 tour to the USA. Philippa’s achievements include:

Has been a violinist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) since 1986 and participates as a mentor in the SSO’s Sinfonia education program.

Teaches at the Sydney Conservatorium and has tutored with AYO and many other organisations.

Worked as a string adviser to AMEB for many years and wrote the 2002 Violin Manual List and the 2012 Violin Technical Workbook.

Received the 1999 Australian Music Centre Education Award for her publication of Australian Violin Music: Concert Pieces (Currency Press).

Recently completed a Masters degree in Music Education.

Clarinet

AYO: 1954-60
AYO National Music Camp: 1954-60

Long-time AYO supporter and Former Melbourne University Vice-Chancellor Kwong Lee Dow is an eminent scholar and leading educator. His awards include Officer of the Order of Australia, the Sir James Darling Medal-Australian College of Education and the Gold Medal-Australian Council for Educational Leaders.

Oboe/ Cor Anglais

AYO: 1974

Professor Rosalind Croucher AM enjoys ‘engaging with the way laws happen in the world’ in her role as President of the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC). In 2014 Rosalind was named one of Australia’s 100 Women of Influence in the Australian Financial Review and Westpac awards; she has also received the Australian Women Lawyers’ Award and a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the law as an academic, to legal reform and education, to professional development and to the arts. Rosalind’s many additional achievements include several honorary fellowships, extensive lecturing and publishing credits and numerous pro-bono leadership roles with institutions such as St Andrews’ College and the Council of Australian Law Deans.

2015-2019 Viola

Written in 2019

Flute

AYO: 1996

Artistic collaborations can start in the most unexpected places – even a bank queue! 15 years ago, a conversation with a bank teller in Coogee led AYO alumnus Sally Walker to a fortuitous friendship with celebrated composer Elena Kats-Chernin. Elena happened to be the bank teller’s mum. The latest chapter in their relationship is the premiere with the Darwin Symphony Orchestra of Night and Now, a flute concerto Elena has written specifically for Sally, which took place in Melbourne in 2015.

During this period Sally has performed in twenty countries with numerous chamber musicians and international orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, won several awards and had numerous composers dedicate works to her, including Knut Müller (Germany) and Andrew Ford.

Having completed several AYO programs as a violinist from 2001-2004 – including the Arts Administration program – Shalini’s exciting career has included working in sponsorship and fundraising for Moonlight Cinema, The Australian Ballet and her current role as Sponsorship Manager for The Melbourne Festival.

Alumni Interview

Based in Adelaide, Sharon Grigoryan was the cellist with the Australian String Quartet from 2013-2020. As part of that group she has collaborated with artists such as the Goldner and Tinalley Quartets, Pieter Wispelwei, Sara Macliver, Slava Grigoryan, Pepe Romero, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Katie Noonan, Lou Bennett, William Barton, Konstantin Shamray, Caroline Almonte, and the Melbourne, Sydney, Tasmanian and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. 

Born in Melbourne, Sharon studied at the University of Melbourne and the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) under David Berlin, Philip Green, and Howard Penny. From 2008-2012 Sharon held a position with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and in  2011 Sharon was a recipient of the MSO Friends’ Travel Scholarship which took her to Berlin to study with Professor Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt and Nicolas Alsteadt. Whilst there she performed with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Spira Mirabilis Chamber Orchestra. 

Still an avid chamber musician, Sharon has enjoyed performing with artists such as Vilde Frang, Lawrence Power, Torlief Thedéen, Tipi Valve, Satu Vänskä, Richard Tognetti, Elizabeth Layton, Andrea Lam, Thalia Petrosian, Joseph Tawadros, Kristian Chong, and many others. 

Sharon has performed as a guest with the Australia Ensemble and Australian World Orchestra, and has been invited to be guest principal cellist with most of the Australian Symphony Orchestras. Sharon was the Artistic Director of the “Barossa, Baroque and Beyond” music festival from 2013-2021. In 2019 Sharon curated a chamber music series, “Live at the Quartet Bar” as part of the Adelaide Festival Centre, and made her debut as a radio presenter on ABC Classic. 

Apart from teaching the cello privately, Sharon has tutored ensembles such as the Melbourne Youth Orchestra, the Australian Youth Orchestra, is on staff at the University of Adelaide, and been a guest chamber music tutor at ANAM and the University of Melbourne.

Sharon formed the cello/guitar duo with husband Slava Grigoryan in 2014, and this has been a particularly joyful musical and personal collaboration for her. She is currently on contract as acting Associate Principal Cello of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

Founder and Editor-in-Chief, CutCommon

Stephanie Eslake, a 2014 Words About Music Alumna (now Media and Communication) noticed a gap in promotional opportunities for young classical musicians and came up with a pretty impressive response – she founded a new online publication to showcase their talents. Founded in 2014, CutCommon grew from the sense of community and friendship Stephanie experienced with fellow Words About Music participants, who support and contribute to the magazine. ‘I wanted to continue this long-term and create a place where all young musicians could go for inspiration and support.’ She won the City of Hobart Australia Day 2017 Young Citizen of the Year Award for her “community contribution by creating an online promotional and educational network for young Australian classical musicians”. She is also the inaugural 2017 Kill Your Darlings New Critic Award winner, won the 2018 Tasmanian Young Achiever Awards Arts and Fashion prize (semi-finalist in 2016 and finalist in 2017), was shortlisted for the 2017 Kat Muscat Fellowship, and has been commissioned to write academic course content for writing, design, and entrepreneur units at Foundry.

Alumni Interview

National Music Camp – Bassoon 2019

Written in 2019

Flute/Piccolo

AYO: 2007-2015

Cello

Composer-in-Residence: 1991-92
AYO National Music Camp: 1980-82, 1992
AYO: 1981-82

Freelance Australian Composer/Conductor Stephen Leek has long associations with some of the finest and most innovative choirs around the world including Gondwana Voices (Australia), the Tapiola Children’s Choir (Finland), Kamer Choir (Latvia), The Formosa Singers (Taiwan), and his own choirs, vOiCeArT and The Australian Voices, that he co-founded and conducted for 16 years until 2009.

Having written 13 operas, numerous orchestral and chamber works, and music for education and dance, Leek is often credited as the ‘founder of Australian choral music’ through his composition of over 700 innovative choral works which explore a uniquely ‘Australian’ colour and texture.

A Churchill Fellow, Leek has received many national and international awards including the prestigious Robert Edler International Choral Prize for his contribution to the development of global choral music and several APRA/AMC National Awards.

Viola, 1993 AYO Flagship

Stephen Venema is an AYO alumnus and Middle School Orchestra Teacher at the Shanghai American School, Shanghai, China. Here he charts his transition from musician to teacher.

I was a violist. I say “was” because during my university days, studying for a Bachelor of Music majoring in performance, my back blew out (like so many neary athletes). I finished my degree on talent rather than practice, and just scraped through on 25 minutes practice per day, which was all my back allowed me to do.

What could I do? What was my backup plan? Like so many strings players, I taught violin and viola. I played electric violin (my back didn’t mind that, funnily enough) in rock, folk and Irish bands, and did a little of this, and a little of that.

One day, a good friend of mine stopped in from overseas and I asked her what she was doing, all that time away. She told me she was teaching in Hong Kong. Right, I thought, English teacher… Pass! “No” was the response. She was teaching in an International School; something I didn’t really know existed. Unbeknown to me, there were International Schools, or schools for expats, in almost every city in the world, some bad, but many good. Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Budapest, Vienna etc. Consulate workers, and business executives didn’t want to send their children to local schools, they wanted “American Style” education, or British Curriculum.

Anyway, fast forward a few years, and I am now teaching some very highly motivated, talented kids in Shanghai, China. I teach Middle School (grades 5-8) Orchestra. I have a very relaxed timetable by Australian standards. I have students who practice and treat strings like a competitive sport. I am able to easily save half my big salary, and still go away for a week to the Philippines or Thailand on holidays regularly. I tour with my students to Manila and Dusseldorf. I live in a five-star resort with a white sandy beach pool with a bar. I have never looked back. Last year, our school, which is one of the best performing, and highest regarded schools in Asia, were looking to recruit a new High School Orchestra teacher. Worldwide there were almost no qualified candidates, because teaching internationally is the best kept secret in teaching.

Maybe my next teaching post will be to Prague or Geneva, who knows!

Sudip Sauden is a Sydney-based director whose work intricately captures the
beauty of human life, exploring the complex terrain of psychology. His art pushes the
boundaries of realism while embracing the grandeur of artistic spectacle. Balancing
nostalgia with contemporary influences, his work reflects a nuanced perspective shaped
by his experiences across two distinct cultural worlds, allowing him to navigate and
observe opposing ideas from a central point.

Sudip co-wrote and directed Leela as his graduation piece at NIDA in 2022, followed by a
directorial internship at the Sydney Theatre Company on Fences with Shari Sebbens. He
also directed the music video I Wanna Be for Perth-based indie pop singer- songwriter
Darcie Haven. Since then, he has worked as a dramaturg and director on several
independent productions, including Mangalsutra at The Riverside Theatre and EU at the
Tom Mann Theatre. Versatile in his craft, Sudip has choreographed the cabaret act I Am
What I Am and performed as an actor in professional productions at the Sydney Opera
House, including Davide Livermore’s 2023 production of AIDA, Michael Gow’s 2016
production of The Pearl Fishers, and Gale Edwards’ 2019 production of Salome.

What does this project mean to you?

Momentum Leaders 2025: What does the project mean to you?

It felt like the first day of school—exciting and a
little scary. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was
hopeful I’d discover something meaningful, and I did.
This project has been a space of growth, where I
made close friends, gained valuable skills, and
developed both artistically and personally.
Through it, I’ve explored how we can contribute to
the world in ways that bring us closer together
and foster deeper understanding.
On a personal note, it helped me reconnect
with my childhood passion for music. The
difference now is that I approach it with
greater clarity, weaving it into my theatre
practice in new, meaningful ways.
If I had to sum up what this project means to me, it would be with a
phrase: “Art inspires art.”

Double Bass

AYO: 1976-80
AYO National Music Camp: 1974-78

At Melbourne Grammar, students said they always knew when they were passing Dr Tim Scott’s room because they could hear Classic FM music coming out the door. AYO alumnus and donor Tim Scott recently retired after 31 years at Melbourne Grammar, the last 14 as Director of Students and Head of Literature. ‘I love teaching. Young people are so open and ready to grasp new ideas with enthusiasm.’ Having directed many musicals and Shakespeare plays, Tim is about to direct adults with the Heidelberg Theatre Company.

AYO National Music Camp was central to Tim’s life for many years. His mother was friends with Ruth Alexander, one of AYO’s founders, and after numerous seasons with AYO Tim returned to work for five years as the librarian. ‘I was apparently the most feared person at Camp; it was even said that I had “scary eyes”. It made everyone return their folders on time, though.’ Tim remembers the 1979 China Tour as one of his AYO highlights. ‘It was not long after the cultural revolution. In Nanking (now Nanjing) we joined a local orchestra and it was very special because the musicians were so excited about finally being allowed to play Western music. We played to massive halls with thousands of audience members; John Hopkins was a showman and in one concert we played three encores with the audience clapping along. As an early cultural exchange everything was curious and strange for us and vice versa.’

Tim has maintained a lifelong admiration for what AYO does. ‘It’s so important to sustain AYO into the future. As a young man, what really stayed with me was all the musicians who give so generously of their expertise, wisdom and time to nurture the players of the future. It’s hard to match that.’

Viola

Tutor: 2016
AYO National Music Camp: 1983-87
AYO: 1984-86

Tobias Lea is Principal Viola of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and has performed around the world in chamber music ensembles and as a soloist. Tobias also dedicates a lot of time to working with young musicians and has given masterclasses around Australia and for the Angelika Prokopp Sommerakademie der Wiener Philharmoniker. In 2016 Tobias tutored young musicians during the AYO International Tour.

Violin

AYO: 1991-92
AYO National Music Camp: 1991

A holiday to Sri Lanka in 2014 turned out to be serendipitous for AYO alumnus Ursula Nelius.

Ursula had been enjoying a busy international career as an orchestra and chamber musician, including regular performances with Australian Opera and Ballet Australia and work as a recording artist for movies such as Australia and Happy Feet. In Sri Lanka Ursula felt as though she’d come home – and decided to take on the mammoth task of starting a charity.

After hearing of Rosemary Nalden and Buskaid in Soweto, Ursula Founded Serendip String Tuition, a non-profit organisation that brings children together to learn string instruments and participate in free group lessons and ensembles.

After taking part in the Orchestral Management program at National Music Camp in 2015, Vennisa Santoro began a career in arts administration and now is the Head of Education & Ensemble Tours at Hayllar Music Tours.

Alumni Interview

Being a part of the Australian Youth Orchestra’s Orchestral Management program has helped to create a launchpad for my career and really understand what it takes to be a part of the arts industry.

It has actually taken me a while to really find what it is that I wanted to do. After finishing the HSC I started a medical science degree. Fast-forward six years and four degree transfers, I was in my last year of my music degree and I still had no idea what I wanted to pursue once I finished. I had been involved in a whole range of activities throughout my time at university; I was the president of our orchestra and wind symphony, coordinated a volunteer program and a few events for our main student organization and was a peer mentor in our faculty. Outside of university, I got to co-produce a Vivid Live Ideas event and was an intern for the Sydney Symphony. Although I loved performing (and still do!), working in music events was always something that I kept coming back to.

After having a chat with one of my lecturers, she mentioned the AYO program. I actually had no idea the AYO had anything like this! After doing some research about the program, I decided to apply. The program looked really intense but seeing as I was still unsure what to pursue career-wise, it seemed like the most logical step for me.

I won’t lie, it wasn’t easy but it was well worth it! Under the wonderful tutelage of the amazing Erin McNamara, our job was to run rehearsals, tutorials and to act as orchestra mangers for the two symphony orchestras, the chamber orchestra, and the smaller chamber ensembles. There are also opportunities to work with a whole range of musicians, conductors, tutors and production staff.

After expressing my interest in working in events while being immersed with music operations, I was very lucky to have received the Regina Ridge Musica Viva Fellowship, which was an opportunity to join the operations team for the 2015 Musica Viva Festival.

During the Musica Viva Regina Ridge Fellowship, I acted as the Musica Viva Festival Operations Coordinator. I had the opportunity to assist with pre-festival preparations, operations and artist liaison. There was a lot to do in the six weeks, but although it was hard work, I was supported by hardworking and passionate staff. The skills that I developed through the experience are invaluable!

It was a little sad wrapping up the festival after so much hard work and meeting the wonderful and passionate team at Musica Viva. About a fortnight after the festival has ended, I was very lucky to have been offered a full time position as the NSW Education Coordinator and absolutely I love it! I’m immersed in scheduling and operations, regional touring, and organising professional development teacher events. I work with wonderful musicians who bring live music to so many schools. It feels good know that this is definitely the industry I want to be in. It would be an absolute dream to work in concert operations and touring or festival work!

There really is nothing like the AYO Orchestral Management program and I’m so glad I was able to do it! You will meet a whole range of passionate people while developing a whole range of skills – you’ll really understand what it takes to be a part of the industry. It really has opened up so many doors and helped me build a very strong foundation in these initial steps of my career in the arts. Since doing the program, I know that working in the arts is where I want to be and I have no idea where I would be today if it wasn’t for this wonderful program!

Flute

AYO: 1980

Virginia Taylor has given recitals in all capital cities of Australia and performed as a soloist with almost all of the Symphony Australia Orchestras, as well as having been guest Principal Flute for many of these orchestras. She is currently Principal Flute of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and Coordinator of the Australian National Academy of Music’s Flute Program. She has won several flute awards and is involved in numerous flute events, institutions and festivals as a lecturer, performer and Artistic Director.

Wendy’s Medal of the Order of Australia was in acknowledgement of her contributions to the musical life of the Geelong community. Currently she is the President of Geelong Symphony Orchestra. 

How did your musical journey begin? 

I started playing the violin at the age of six after watching a trio of musicians who played regularly on the Manly Ferry! I loved watching the violinist and he knew I was watching. I asked my mother if I could have a violin and learn to play like that. She took me to a violin maker in Sydney called Mr Yakimov and we bought a beautiful quarter size violin. Then my mother enrolled me for lessons at the Sydney Conservatorium with the beautiful and kind Georgina McLean. I knew that practising was part of the process and gradually became proficient. I did regular AMEB exams and also the City of Sydney Eisteddfod every year. I always had a new dress for that! 

Tell us about your experiences and memories with AYO. 

My first Music Camp was an overwhelming experience. Being a boarder was new and living in a dormitory with other young musicians was unsettling but exciting. I went to three music camps – Frensham NSW, Geelong Grammar School, Vic and St Peters, Adelaide. The first AYO came out of the Music Camps. I remember playing at the first Adelaide Festival in 1959 and some concerts in the Sydney Town Hall. 

John Bishop and Ruth Alexander were inspiring figures and I was in awe of the more senior and experienced students who seemed very worldly and sophisticated.  

Georg Tintner was an inspiring conductor. In 40 degree heat in Adelaide one summer when we complained that it was too hot to have a rehearsal, he said “It is only in the mind. I will put on my sweater and then we will play. Are you all ready?” A perfect demonstration of choosing what is important. 

My years with the Music Camps and the AYO were formative and thrilling. I still remember playing some of that great repertoire for the first time and being part of the sound world that is a symphony orchestra and to relish the sound and the interplay of all the sections. I believe that is one of life’s greatest experiences. To have the opportunity to work as a team where every individual is important and everyone CARES deeply about every note, dynamic and quality of sound. We who have that experience are truly blessed. 

Can you tell us about your impact on the musical life of Geelong? 

After 4 years living overseas, my husband David and I came back to live in Melbourne. We lived for some years in Werribee and then made the move to Geelong. There were excellent schools for our 3 children and many opportunities for me to teach and start playing again. 

But there were not many musical opportunities in Geelong in the early 1980s so I decided I had better get busy and set some up. I was instrumental in establishing the Chamber Orchestra of Geelong, the Geelong Philharmonic, the Bay City Strings, a Geelong Youth Orchestra and the Geelong Summer Music Camp. There were orchestras to “fix” for various choral groups who did fine performances of some of the gems of the choral repertoire – the masses, requiems and regular Messiah performances as well as private concerts and some high-quality musicals in various schools in Geelong. I also set up a much in demand string quartet and Palm Court Orchestra group for hire.