Guest Soloists

Julien Smiles

Julian is well known to Australian audiences as one of the country's leading cellists. As a member of the Australia Ensemble, the University of New South Wales' acclaimed resident chamber music group, and of the Goldner String Quartet, he has a busy career performing and recording in Australia and internationally.

As a student with Nelson Cooke at the Canberra School of Music Julian rapidly established a position of prominence among young Australian musicians with successes in various major competitions and concerto appearances with youth and symphony orchestras around Australia. He had, by the age of 20, performed as soloist in the Dvorak, Elgar and Shostakovich concertos, the Brahms Double Concerto, and the Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations.

In 1989 Julian was appointed principal cellist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, a position he held for three years, and with the move to Sydney became increasingly active and recognized as a chamber musician. During 1990 he also undertook advanced studies as a member of Janos Starker's class at Indiana University.  Julian accepted an invitation to join the Australia Ensemble in 1991.

  Over the last few years Julian has had frequent invitations to perform as Guest Principal Cellist with the Sydney Symphony and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. He has tutored gifted young musicians individually and as chamber groups at the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne, and for the Australian Youth Orchestra, and held teaching positions at the Sydney Conservatorium and Canberra School of Music.

  In 2007 he was a member of the Jury for the fifth Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, and with wife Dimity Hall will perform piano trios in July with contestants in the Sydney International Piano Competition.

  Julian plays a cello by Lorenzo Ventapane, made in 1827.


Ros Dunlop

Ros Dunlop is one of Australia's leading clarinetists/bass clarinetists and she has been a strong advocate of new music for the clarinet for most of her professional life. She has commissioned and premiered many new compositions and has had many others written especially for her by composers all over the world.

She has performed throughout Australia, New Zealand , Canada, the UK, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, East Timor and the USA, including many International festivals in Holland, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, Japan and the U.S.A. Her three solo CDs have received International acclaim. Recent comments from reviews of her playing at the "Totally Huge New Music Festival" in Perth in May 2007. "Ros Dunlop was so impressive, both in her playing and her social/performing - a true top-level community artist - what a star.. "

She is a member of the chamber ensemble Charisma, with whom she has commissioned and premiered many new works including many multimedia premieres. Ros and cellist Julia Ryder have collaborated in performances for over 20 years, they have created through commissions and composers hearing them and being inspired to write for them, a huge amount of repertoire for clarinet/bass clarinet and cello (many with multimedia).

Collaborations with composer Martin Wesley-Smith have taken her on many national and international tours presenting serious art music in a multi-media concert format which also delivers a message.

In addition to a hectic performance schedule Ros also teaches clarinet at Sydney Conservatorium of Music.