THE ENSEMBLE

The Australian Haydn Ensemble, founded in 2012 by Artistic Director and Principal Violinist Skye McIntosh, has quickly established itself as one of Australia’s leading period-instrument ensembles, specialising in the repertoire of the late baroque and early classical eras. It takes its name from the great Joseph Haydn, a leading composer of the late eighteenth century, when style was transitioning from Baroque to Classical. Based around a small core of strings and flute, the Ensemble performs in a variety of sizes and combinations, ranging from string or flute quartet or quintet, to a full orchestra. It has developed a flourishing regular series at the City Recital Hall, the Sydney Opera House Utzon Room and in Canberra, where it was Ensemble in Residence at the Australian National University during 2014. It also performs throughout regional NSW and presents education workshops to students of all ages, focusing on imparting eighteenthcentury historical performance techniques. In January 2019, AHE presented programs at the Peninsula Summer Music Festival and the Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields Festival in Victoria, receiving glowing reviews. In 2022 the Ensemble performed at the Adelaide Festival to great acclaim.

In 2016 the group released its debut ABC Classics recording The Haydn Album which reached number one on the Australian Aria Classical charts. It received rave reviews, one claiming that the Ensemble stood “proudly shoulder to shoulder with the many period instrument ensembles found in Europe”. In October 2017 AHE released Beethoven Piano Concertos 1 & 3 on the ABC Classics label, showcasing newly-commissioned chamber versions of the works in the style of the eighteenth century, in collaboration with Aria award-winning historical keyboardist

Dr Neal Peres Da Costa. Reviewers have been extremely enthusiastic: “This recording is remarkable not only for the pianist’s wonderfully free and fluent playing, but also for the excellent performance of the Ensemble.”

To commemorate its 10th anniversary, the Ensemble recorded its third CD, of music by Mozart, for release in the coming months.

The Ensemble has presented a host of unique chamber music and orchestral programs, working with a range of world-class musicians such as Erin Helyard, Neal Peres Da Costa (Australia), Catherine Mackintosh, Melvyn Tan, Benjamin Bayl, Chad Kelly (UK), Marc Destrubé (Canada), Midori Seiler (Germany) as well as singers Sara Macliver (Australia), Stephanie True (Canada), Simon Lobelson (Australia), Helen Sherman (UK) and David Greco (Australia). It is particularly interested in presenting unusual programs of eighteenth-century chamber versions of larger orchestral symphonic and concerto works by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, as well as bringing to a wider audience some of the lesser-known contemporaries of these composers, such as Abel, Albrechtsberger, C.P.E. Bach, J.C. Bach, David, Graun, Hoffmeister and Vanhal.

Members of the Australian Haydn Ensemble bring a wealth of expertise from first-class period and modern ensembles and orchestras around the world, such as the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Antipodes, Concerto Köln, English Baroque Soloists, English Chamber Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Julliard 415, Les Talens Lyrique, New Dutch Academy, Apollo’s Fire and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Skye McIntosh

Artistic Director and Lead Violin

Skye McIntosh is the founder and Artistic Director of the Australian Haydn Ensemble - now in its eleventh year. This audacious undertaking is a testament to Skye’s musicianship and entrepreneurial spirit. AHE, known for its innovative and ambitious programming, is performed at both the Adelaide Festival and Canberra International

Music Festival in 2022, and continues, to present a strong touring program across the ACT, metropolitan and western Sydney and regional New South Wales.

Skye attended the Royal Academy of Music, London, the Queensland Conservatorium and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, has made numerous concert appearances as a soloist and director and has performed internationally with the Australian Haydn Quartet at The Juilliard School. She has also toured nationally with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, as well as performing with Pinchgut Opera and the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra. In 2023 ABC Classics will release AHE’s third CD, featuring Skye performing Mozart’s Violin Concerto in G major.

David Greco

Baritone

Internationally regarded for his interpretations of Schubert lieder and solo works of J.S Bach, ARIA Award-nominated baritone David Greco has sung on some of the finest stages across Europe and appeared in celebrated opera festivals including Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and Glyndebourne Festival Opera.

In 2014 he became the first Australian appointed to a position with the Sistine Chapel Choir in the Vatican, Rome.

An acclaimed interpreter of oratorio and concert work, he appears regularly with Australia’s finest orchestras such as the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, and notably the Sydney Symphony in their Helpmann Award-winning concerts of Bach’s Cantata, Ich habe genug. Most recently he made his debut with West Australia Symphony Orchestra in Britten’s War Requiem, and in 2023 will also debut with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in the same work.

Equally experienced on the operatic stage, he has been a principal artist with Opera Australia in The Eighth Wonder and The Love of Three Oranges. He is a frequent artist with the celebrated Pinchgut Opera, his performance of Seneca in their production of The Coronation of Poppea receiving critical acclaim.

As a recording artist David has an impressive catalogue of international recordings including Jack Body’s Poems of Love & War on the Naxos label and Solo bass cantatas of J.S. Bach, with the Netherlands-based Luthers Bach Ensemble on the Brilliant Classics label.

David is an active researcher into historical performance of 19th-century voice and in 2020 received his doctorate from the University of Melbourne. His PhD led to the first Australian recordings of the historically informed performance of Schubert’s songs cycles Winterreise and Die schöne Müllerin with duo partner Erin Helyard on ABC Classic, the latter disk receiving an ARIA nomination for Best Classical Album in 2020.

In 2023 Erin and David will collaborate on the Australian premier historical recording of Schubert’s Schwanengesang with ABC Classic.

David is also a Lecturer in Voice and Opera at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Melissa Farrow Flute

Based in Sydney, Melissa has a very active career as a historical flautist, recorder player and teacher.

She has been Principal flute with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra (ABO) since 2003, and programmed their Regional touring concerts from 2011 until 2021. Melissa is also principal flute with Australian Haydn Ensemble (AHE) and the Orchestra of the Antipodes, and performs with many orchestras including the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO), the Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra (ARCO) and NZ Barok. She is a member of Notturno, an ensemble of flute, viola and guitar, performing music of the Classical and Romantic era.

As a traverso soloist, Melissa has performed many flute concertos including CPE Bach's Flute Concerto in D minor, Vivaldi's La Notte Concerto, Mozart’s Flute and Harp Concerto with harpist Marshall Macguire, and Hasse’s Flute Concerto to name a few. She recorded Vivaldi's La Notte Concerto and Hasse’s Flute Concerto for Sacro Amor, AHE's first filmed digital recording; for ABO’s digital recording platform Brandenburg One, Melissa has recorded excerpts of solo JS Bach and Telemann, Mozart’s Flute Quartet in D and her own program Ayres and Graces.

Melissa's discography includes Grétry's Flute Concerto and many opera recordings with Pinchgut Opera, with AHE Beethoven Piano Concertos 1 and 3 in Chamber Arrangements, as well as The Haydn Album, with ABO she has recorded The Romantics - Grieg/

Mendelssohn/Paganini with Shunske Sato as soloist in the Paganini Violin Concerto, Australian Brandenburg OrchestraBrandenburg Celebrates, featuring her as soloist in the Telemann Flute and Violin Concerto in E minor, Smorgasbord with The Marais Project and touchons du bois released in 2013. Stay tuned for the new ABC Classics album with Erin Helyard for Romantic flute and fortepiano to be released in August, 2023!

Melissa studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and her postgraduate studies were at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in modern flute, recorder and traverso (historical flute). She has had 30 years’ experience teaching flutes and recorders, and has given workshops/lectures, private lessons and masterclasses at several Australian Conservatoriums, Camberwell Grammar School, MLC School, Flute Connections Studio, Australian Flute Festival, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Australian Haydn Ensemble, Young Mannheim Symphonists (ARCO) and the Albany School of Music in Auckland, New Zealand. Melissa is a lecturer in historical flute at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, has a busy private teaching studio in Sydney for early flute and recorder, and enjoys teaching baroque style for modern flute.