AYO National Music Camp – Orchestral Program

Lachlan Bramble is a violinist, educator as well as an occasional union activist and recording producer.

Currently Lachlan is Associate Principal 2^nd Violin of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and violinist with the Benaud Trio. He has also been a guest musician with the Melbourne and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, Orchestra Victoria and the Australian String Quartet.

A passionate educator, Lachlan has tutored violins of the Australian Youth Orchestra, the Adelaide Youth Orchestra and at many National Music Camps. He has also been a tutor at the Chamber Music Summer School – Mount Buller, is Program Coordinator of the Adelaide Chamber Music School and was Director of the Elder Conservatorium Chamber Orchestra from 2011 – 2015. Lachlan also enjoys teaching violin privately.

Lachlan began violin lessons from his mother in the mid-80s. He went on to study music at the University of Melbourne under Mark Mogilevsky and continued with Barbara-Jane Gilby at the Australian National University gaining a Masters degree in Music Performance. Lachlan has also taken lessons in Europe with Lydia Mordkovitch, Howard Davis, Dora Schwarzberg, Peter Sheppard-Skaerved and performed in masterclasses with Cho-Liang Lin and Regis Pasquier. He was a member of the Australian Youth Orchestra from 2001 to 2005, performing as concertmaster in 2005.

In his spare time, Lachlan is a delegate with the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, recording producer plays indoor cricket with the Full Tossers.

The music of composer Maria Grenfell has been described as “expansive, effusive and energetic”, “magic,” and “refreshingly groovy.” She was winner of the Tasmanian State Award for Ten Suns Ablaze in 2013, and Spirals in 2018 at the Australian Art Music Awards. Maria’s orchestral music has been commissioned, performed or recorded by all the Australian and New Zealand major symphony orchestras, as well as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in the UK and the Seattle Philharmonic and Detroit Symphony Orchestra in the USA. Her chamber music is played around the world. Born in Malaysia, she completed composition studies in Christchurch before undertaking further study in the USA. Based in Hobart, Maria works closely with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra as a mentor and composer. In 2013 she was Visiting Professor at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, and in 2019 she was Kerr Composer in Residence at Oberlin Conservatory. Maria’s first film score, for the documentary Quoll Farm (2021), was shortlisted for an Australian Screen Music Award, and her second documentary score Living with Devils (2023), about the Tasmanian Devil, was performed live by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in 2024. Her CD release River Mountain Sky was rated Editor’s Choice by Limelight Magazine in 2024. Maria is an Associate Professor at the University of Tasmania Conservatorium of Music. She is married to guitarist David Malone and they have two children.

French-born Alexandre Bloch assumed the position of Music Director of Orchestre National de Lille at the start of the 2016/17 season. From 2015 – 2021, Alexandre was also Principal Guest Conductor of Düsseldorfer Symphoniker.

Alexandre leads a diverse and thrilling range of repertoire in Lille over the 2022/23 season, performing works in their main concert series by Britten, Bartok, Mahler and Berlioz among others, featuring internationally acclaimed soloists such as Isabelle Faust, Dame Sarah Connolly and Pierre-Laurent Aimard. The season with ONL will also include a tour to Salzburg with Nemanja Radulović. Guest conducting engagements include return visits to Opera de Lyon (Le nozze di Figaro) and Orchestre Métropolitain (Montréal). Debut appearances include Utah Symphony, a UK tour with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and performances at the Bratislava Festival with Slovak Philharmonic and Gil Shaham.

Recent highlights include debuts with Bayerische Staatsoper (Thomas), Berner Symphonieorchester, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (concerts and commercial recording with Daniel Müller-Schott); Tiroler Landstheater Orchester Innsbruck , Gurzenich-Orchester Köln and his acclaimed debut for Opéra de Lyon conducting George Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence. Work with Orchestre National de Lille has included many symphonic programmes, a critically acclaimed Mahler cycle, performances at the Festival de St Denis and at the Philharmonie de Paris, Stravinsky’s major ballet scores and commercial recordings. Earlier seasons have taken him to Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestra of the National Centre for Performing Arts Beijing and Vancouver Symphony, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and a tour to Kuwait with London Symphony Orchestra.

Past symphonic guest conducting has also included Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National d’Ile-de-France, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre National de France, the Nash Ensemble, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Danish National Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain (Montréal), Brussels Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Filharmonia Poznanska, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Australian Youth Orchestra. He has conducted opera in concert with Orchestre National de Lille, including Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles (Lille and Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées), Bernstein’s Mass and Carmen. Opera highlights also include Donizetti’s l’Elisir d’Amore at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and Tosca at Opera de Lille.

Shortly after his Donatella Flick Competition success he made his debut with Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, replacing Mariss Jansons at short notice to conduct three performances of a challenging programme including Richard Strauss’ Tod und Verklärung and a Jörg Widmann commission for large orchestra. He was named one of “2012’s Talents” by the ADAMI (French Performing Right Society) and was a conducting fellow at the 2012 and 2013 Tanglewood Music Center Festival. He also drew the attention of conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Charles Dutoit, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Sir Mark Elder and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Under Alexandre’s direction, the Orchestre National de Lille was named a finalist for the Gramophone Orchestra of the Year Award 2020.

Born in 1985, Alexandre first graduated with diplomas in cello performance, harmony and conducting from Tours, Orléans and Lille. He then entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, to further his studies in composition and conducting. In 2012, he completed his Master’s Degree in Conducting in the studio of Zsolt Nagy, prior to gaining a Diploma and the Sir John Zochonis Junior Fellowship (2012/13 season) at the Royal Northern College of Music. Admired for his musicality, enthusiasm and energy, his First Prize at the 2012 Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition attracted international attention and brought him the opportunity to serve as Assistant Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.

Commercial releases (Alpha Classics/Outhere) with Orchestre National de Lille include a new recording of Mahler Symphony No. 7, two recordings with Veronique Gens shining light on the work of Ernest Chausson and Francis Poulenc, and a recording of Ravel’s La Valse and Rhapsodie Espangnole. Upcoming releases with Lille will include Bartok Concerto for Orchestra. Many of the orchestra’s concerts have been broadcast on its virtual concert hall “Audito 2.0”, or on TV/radio, including France Musique and Mezzo.

Aiko Goto is a core member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

She began her violin training at the age of three with the Suzuki Method and studied at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Japan. Aiko received a scholarship to study at the Juilliard School in New York under Dorothy DeLay and Masao Kawasaki, graduating in 1994.

In 1995 she made her New York debut at the Carnegie Weil Recital Hall and in 1997 she performed for the International Refugee Fund attended by the Japanese Royal Family. Aiko was the Coordinator of Strings at Newark School of the Arts in the USA until 1998.

She has been a member of the Saito Kinen Orchestra since 1995 (directed by Seiji Ozawa) and has been Concertmaster for several of its programs since 2014. She has played annually in Nobuko Imai’s Viola and Chamber Music Festival. Since 2000, Aiko has held annual charity concert at the Japanese Embassy in Canberra and she has held solo recitals around Australia, and in 2006 gave recitals in Tokyo for the Australia–Japan Year of Exchange.

In 2011 Aiko was invited to be Guest Director and soloist with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra, and produced and performed in ‘Concert for Japan’, raising funds for the Tohoku Japan Earthquake and Tsunami appeal.  

Aiko greatly enjoys teaching and sharing her love of music with young musicians. She is a mentor for the ACO Emerging Artists Program and ACO Collective, has been the director of the ACO Academy Program, the ACO’s annual program for talented young string players, since 2012. And she has tutored at the Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camp, led string workshop for the Penrith Youth Orchestra, and has been a tutor at the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy Japan since 2017.

In August 2016, Aiko received a commendation from the Japanese Foreign Ministry on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Basic Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Japan and Australia.