Guest Soloists

The Apollo Trio

The Apollo Trio was originally formed in 2004 with Maria Lindsay (violin), Thomas Tsai (cello) and Daniel Herscovitch (piano). Since then it has developed and performed a diverse repertoire ranging from Haydn and Mozart to Shostakovich, and including works by Australian composers such as Dulcie Holland, Ross Edwards and Peter Sculthorpe. It also performs the rarely heard Beethoven Triple Concerto. In addition to its regular concerts in Sydney and the Blue Mountains, with the assistance of ArtsNSW it has undertaken a tour of western New South Wales. With support from the Australia Council it has recorded its first CD for the prestigious Tall Poppies label featuring recent Australian works including a new trio by Mike Nock.

Maria Lindsay

Maria Lindsay has an active career as soloist, chamber musician, artistic director, ensemble leader and teacher. She has held positions with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony and Australian Chamber Orchestra, also performing as Guest Principal Second Violin. With these orchestras, she has toured extensively in Australia, North and South America, Europe and Asia. Maria has appeared as soloist and guest concertmaster with several other Sydney orchestras.

Maria is a founding member of the Lindsay Trio and more recently, the Apollo Trio, with whom she performs in Sydney and regional NSW. In 2007, they won an Australia Council grant to record a selection of Australian works. In Austria and Switzerland, she has been performing as soloist and member of the 'Trio Austr(al)ia'.

In.2004, Maria initiated Blue Mountains Chamber Concerts, of which she is Artistic Director and Principal Performer. She actively programs new works and has performed contemporary chamber music with Klangforum Vienna and the Seymour Group Sydney. She appears as a recitalist and chamber musician with many of Australia's finest musicians.

Maria has made broadcasts for the A.B.C. and 2MBS-FM. She is on the teaching staff at Sydney Conservatorium and Sydney Grammar School.

Maria graduated from Sydney Conservatorium of Music with High Distinction and as Student of the Year. She received the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Trust Award to further her studies in Vienna. There she was the recipient of the annual Alban Berg Quartet Foundation Award.

Elizabeth Neville

Born in England Elizabeth started playing the cello at the age of eight. She was in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for four years and during this time was awarded a performing diploma from the Royal College of Music. Having gained a position in the European Union Youth Orchestra, also playing Principal Cello, she worked with many distinguished musicians and conductors such as Ashkenazy, Haitink, and Rostropovitch, and travelled as far afield as South America and Russia. Along with four other members of the orchestra she was also invited to record a recital for Classic FM Radio.

Elizabeth graduated from the University of Nottingham with a BA (Hons) in Music, whilst studying with Tim Hugh, Principal Cello of the London Symphony Orchestra. She performed concertos with the university orchestra and received regular chamber music coaching from the Allegri String Quartet. With the help of scholarships she was able to continue her studies with David Strange at the Royal Academy of Music, London, receiving the highest performing diploma after one year and through the Countess of Munster Recital Scheme Elizabeth was also given the opportunity to perform recitals across the country.

Since completing her studies Elizabeth has performed with various chamber ensembles in and around London, including a masterclass broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and worked with many of the country's leading orchestras, including the London Symphony, Scottish Chamber, Philharmonia, The Philharmonia and City of Birmingham Symphony orchestras. She was a member of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra from 1997 - 2003 and during this time was invited to play with the World Orchestra of Peace, an orchestra made up of Principal members of orchestras from all over the world, conducted by Gergiev.

Elizabeth is now living and working in Sydney, Australia, where she decided to move after participating in a job swap with the Sydney Symphony, in 2001. She has been a permanent member of the Sydney Symphony since 2005 and plays in the Apollo Trio performing concerts in and around Sydney, as well as the newly established Lurline Chamber Orchestra.

Daniel Herscovitch

Melbourne-born pianist Daniel Herscovitch studied with Alexander Sverjensky at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, then continuing his studies under Rosl Schmid in Munich. During his twelve years in Germany he not only performed extensively on the continent and in England but also undertook three extensive Australian tours. He appeared at several international festivals such as the Zagreb Biennale and the Saarbrucken Tage der Neuen Musik, and his performances were broadcast by major European networks such as the BBC, RIAS Berlin and Bavarian Radio.

Since returning to Australia he has been active in both solo and chamber music, and has appeared at the Adelaide Festival of the Arts, the Mostly Mozart Festival, the New Directions Festival and the Festivals of Melbourne and Sydney. He has toured for Musica Viva and his recent New Zealand tours have included performances at the Bay of Islands Festival. He has been guest artist with Synergy, Flederman, the Song Company and the Australia Ensemble and has toured with The Seymour Group. He has also made regular appearances at the Sydney Spring Festival of New Music. At the 2003 Sydney Symphony Contemporary Music Festival he was soloist with Natalia Ricci in the first Sydney performance of the Bartok Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra and in 2004 was again one of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's featured concerto soloists, performing the Mozart Double Concerto with Josephine Allan.

Daniel was a founding member of both Symeron and the eclectic collective and more recently was co-founder of the Apollo Trio with Sydney Conservatorium colleagues Maria Lindsay and Thomas Tsai. Other partners he has appeared with include Wanda Wilkomirska, Rotraud Schneider, Christopher Latham, Carl Vine, Julie Adam, Murray Khouri and Gerard Willems. His repertoire ranges from Bach to Carter and includes contemporary Australian, European and American works, many of which he commissioned and premiered.

His recordings of repertoire ranging from Mozart to Smalley have been released on Tall Poppies, CSM, Continuum, Jade and ABC Classics labels. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where he also lectures in piano pedagogy and chamber music.

Daniel Herscovitch has performed in Europe, North America and Australia. He has recorded CDs for ABC Classics, Tall Poppies and Continuum labels with a repertoire ranging from Mozart to the moderns. During his twelve years in Germany he toured extensively. He currently lectures in piano, pedagogy and chamber music at Sydney Conservatorium.

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Claire Edwardes

Claire Edwardes is an internationally renowned percussionist at the forefront of her field. She graduated as Student of the Year from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (where her teachers were Daryl Pratt and Richard Miller) and subsequently gained a Masters of Music at the Rotterdam and Amsterdam Conservatoriums under Peter Prommel and Jan Pustjens. She also undertook specialist study at courses around Europe with Steve Schick, Andreas Boettger and Kroumata Percussion Ensemble.

In Europe she performed as soloist with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, London Sinfonietta and Radio Chamber Orchestra and was a regular guest performer with Percussion Group the Hague and Asko/Shonberg Ensemble. Her percussion duo, Duo Vertigo performed throughout the UK, Sweden, Belgium and Germany and was the leading ensemble of its kind on the Dutch music scene.

On returning to Sydney in 2006, Claire became the co-artistic director of Ensemble Offspring. Maintaining an energetic performing career throughout Australia and Europe, she values her collaborations with such artists as Bernadette Balkus, William Barton and Natsuko Yoshimoto. Claire performs concertos regularly with all of the Australian orchestra. In 2009 she was featured soloist with the Sydney Symphony, Sydney Youth Orchestra, TOPS and Kammerklang Ensemble.

Claire was 1999 ABC Young Performer of the Year, 2001 Tromp Percussion Competition winner (Holland), 2001 Llangollen International Instrumentalist (Wales), 2003 Gaudeamus International Interpreters Competition prize winner, 2005 Freedman Fellow and 2007 AMC/APRA Outstanding Contributor to Australian Music.

Claire has more than one hundred world premieres to her name including an eclectic array of solo works by such composers as Ross Edwards, Harrison Birtwistle, Damien Ricketson, Matthew Hindson and Elena Kats-Chernin. Equally at home performing a concerto in the Concertgebouw as the Sydney Opera House, Claire is a passionate chamber musician and recitalist committed to the advancement of innovative new music through the medium of percussion.

www.claireedwardes.com