Paul Terracini

Dr Paul Terracini was born in Sydney and has enjoyed a career in Australia and internationally as an instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He has held permanent positions as Principal Trumpet in the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra; Lecturer in Trumpet, Brass Ensemble and Big Band at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music; and Solo Trumpet in the Danish Chamber Players, Denmark.

As an instrumentalist, he performed as soloist in Australia, Europe, USA, and Asia. Within Australia, his solo performances included concertos with the Melbourne, Queensland, West Australian, and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras.

Paul Terracini has appeared as an opera conductor at the German Rossini Festival in Bad Wilbad, for the Danish Bel Canto Society in Copenhagen, and the Storstroms Symphony Orchestra, also in Denmark. Since assuming the role of artistic director of the Penrith Symphony Orchestra in 2010, he has, apart from programming and conducting the symphonic repertoire, pioneered the performance of chamber opera in western Sydney. For many years he has been invited as a guest conductor/composer to music schools and universities in Europe, USA, China, and Australia. He appears regularly as conductor for the Conservatorium High School, in Sydney. As a choral conductor, he has recorded for ABC Classics with Ars Nova Copenhagen, and the Sydney based choir, Cantillation.

As a composer and arranger, his music has been heard throughout the world in a variety of genres, performed by, amongst others, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass, the Danish Chamber Players, the Australian Brass Quintet, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Brass, and at festivals and conferences on every continent. His music for the two part ABC television series, Hymns of the Forefathers, in which he developed many of the traditional English hymns into symphonic poems, received international acclaim and was released on CD and DVD by ABC Classics. His title music for the television series, Classical Destinations, which was produced for three seasons, was featured on the ‘Number 1 Classical Album of the Year,’ released by Decca.

His CD, Paul Terracini: Music for Brass, was released on the Tall Poppies label in May 2015. On this recording, he conducted his own music with Sydney Brass, featuring members of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Paul Terracini also holds a PhD from the University of Sydney, having earlier completed a Bachelor of Theology and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours). His book, John Stoward Moyes and the Social Gospel, was published in 2015.

Teresa Yang

Teresa Yang graduated as music scholar and Head Prefect at Meriden School in 2024. She currently studies with Ms Janet Davies, and will commence her Bachelor of Music on a full-tuition scholarship at the Juilliard School with Ms Catherine Cho this year. She previously studied with Professor Peter Shixiang Zhang.

Teresa has won numerous competitions, including the John Curro National Youth Concerto Competition, the KPO NSW Secondary Schools Concerto Competition and the Sydney Eisteddfod NSW Doctors Orchestra Instrumental Scholarship. As a soloist, she has had the privilege of performing with orchestras including the Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra, the Penrith Symphony Orchestra, the North Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Queensland Youth Symphony.

As an emerging artist, Teresa strives to interpret music in creative and meaningful ways, and loves to explore a wide variety of repertoire. She enjoys participating in the Australian Youth Orchestra programs, and her string quartet, Lumina, was a finalist in the 2024 Strike A Chord competition. She has also participated in masterclasses with Paul Kantor, Cho-Liang Lin, Emily Sun, Satu Vänskä and Andrew Haveron. Outside of music, Teresa enjoys running, reading, and spending time with family and friends.

Teresa is currently playing on the 1946 A.E. Smith, kindly on loan from Emily Sun through the KPO NSW Concerto Competition’s Emily Sun Violin Prize.