Elgar’s Cello
Program
ELGAR Cello Concerto in E minor, Op.85
Duration: approx. 1 hour, no interval
Conductor
CARLO ANTONIOLI
Cybec Assistant Conductor Fellow at the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Carlo Antonioli, was previously Assistant Conductor to Principal Conductor Asher Fisch at the West Australian Symphony Orchestra where he regularly conducted the orchestra and led them on their 2019 regional tour. Carlo has also worked with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, assisting Vladimir Ashkenazy, Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, and Chief Conductor Simone Young.
Rapidly establishing himself both with Australia’s leading symphony orchestras, and with vibrant, cutting-edge ensembles, some of Carlo’s most recent and upcoming engagements include Book of Longing (Philip Glass), The Loser (Lang) and To Hell and Back (Heggie) for the Australian Contemporary Opera Company, MSO on regional tour, return invitations to the Queensland, Tasmanian and Canberra Symphony Orchestras, Orchestra Victoria, the Australian, Sydney and Melbourne Youth Orchestras, Australian National Academy of Music, Ensemble Apex Sydney and the Stonnington Symphony. Carlo is also a composer and member of the Sydneybased Dreambox Collective.
Carlo holds a Master of Music Studies (Conducting) from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and is a member of the Australian Conducting Academy.
NICHOLAS BOCHNER
After training in Adelaide and London, Nicholas spent 3 years as Artist-in-Residence at the University of Queensland as part of the ensemble Perihelion, forging a strong reputation as an exponent of contemporary music. He joined the MSO as Assistant Principal Cello in 1998. Since then he has appeared as a soloist, chamber musician and recitalist. He has also taught cello and improvisation at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM). Nicholas has always had a strong commitment to music education and community engagement. In 2010 he was awarded the Dame Roma Mitchell Churchill Fellowship to study the LSO’s iconic Discovery program and the use of improvisation in training classical musicians at the Guildhall School of Music.
In 2016, Nicholas’ considerable experience as an orchestral musician and his passion for communication led him to undertake a fellowship at ANAM where he developed, conducted and presented educational concerts for primary school children. During the fellowship he was mentored by Paul Rissmann, Graham Abbott and the legendary Richard Gill AO. Since then he has presented educational concerts for children and adults for MSO, ANAM and the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra.
In 2020 he was named the MSO’s Cybec Assistant Conductor for Learning and Engagement. He is also the conductor of the Melbourne University Biomedical Students’ Orchestra. In support of his work as an education presenter, Nicholas has been studying conducting with Benjamin Northey and won a coveted place at the TSO’s 2019 Australian Conducting Academy.
The Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) is dedicated to training the most exceptional young classical musicians from Australia and New Zealand. It is the only professional performance training institute of its kind in Australia, and one of few in the world.
ANAM musicians fly between the stage and the studio; performing in over 180 events each year and receiving more than 60 hours of one-on-one training and hundreds of hours of coaching from an esteemed Faculty and impressive list of national and international guest artists. From taking meditation classes, singing Bach chorales, laying down a concerto, or building a buzz around their forthcoming gig, to learning how to work a scale, work a fugue, work a room, or work towards securing a vibrant future for classical music. They find themselves sitting crosslegged on the floor with a class of local third graders one day, to performing with the world’s finest artists on stages all across the country the next.
With an outstanding track record of success, ANAM alumni work in orchestras and chamber ensembles around the world, performing as soloists, contributing to educating the next generation of musicians, and winning major national and international awards.
ANAM aims to inspire these future music leaders and encourages audiences to share the experience.
Isaac Davis is currently undertaking his second year at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), under the tutelage of Howard Penny. Coming from a musical family, cello has always been the most cherished part of his life.
In recent years his passion for cello has flourished, winning the 2022 ANAM Concerto Competition, and now leading the Australian Youth Orchestra in 2023. He has been thoroughly looking forward to joining his friends Nadia and Josh, with the MSO, to delve into Elgar’s marvellous cello concerto.
Born and raised in Sydney for the first twenty years of his life, Isaac is eager to explore musical avenues in different places around the world and is currently loving his time in Melbourne. He aspires to continue studying cello performance (in solo, chamber and orchestral contexts) further overseas.
Regarding career prospects, he would be beyond thrilled to work with an Australian orchestra, but content as long as he is working in a musical environment where he is stimulated, and simultaneously learning and teaching beside his colleagues.
ISAAC DAVIS cellistNadia Barrow has delighted in performance opportunities that have taken her throughout the USA, Australia, France, and New Zealand, appearing on some of the world’s great stages such as Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House.
Nadia achieved her Bachelor of Music, with Distinction and the Robert S. Alva Memorial Award for best overall results, at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University in 2020. Recipient of the Sir Samuel Griffith Scholarship, the Nora Baird Audition Bursary, and the George Alexander Foundation Scholarship, Nadia was winner of the Piatti Prize and Ross Peters 4MBS Chamber Music Prize. Nadia took great joy in leading the cello sections of the Conservatorium Symphony and Opera Orchestra, and has appeared as a soloist with the QCGU and Norwood Symphony Orchestras.
Currently training at the Australian National Academy of Music with Howard Penny, Nadia has been awarded the Gwen Nisbet Encouragement Award (2022) and ANAMobbligato Chamber Music Prize (2021). Nadia has performed as principal cellist to the ANAM Orchestra, associate principal alongside ACO’S Timo-Veikko Valve in 2022 and 2023, and will perform in the ANAMQuartetthaus Season this May.
Brisbane born Joshua Jones has studied cello with Howard Penny since 2020 and commenced training at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) in 2022.
Joshua was a recitalist in the 2019 National Youth Concerto Competition and a finalist in 2021. His piano trio, Amogus Trio, won the Musica Viva’s Strike-A-Chord Competition in 2021.
Joshua has performed as Principal Cello with the Queensland Youth Symphony (QYS) and is currently a member of the Australian Youth Orchestra. He has toured with QYS to Germany and China in 2017. As a soloist, Joshua performed the Rococo Variations with the Brisbane Philharmonic Orchestra, a solo recital performing both Britten First Suite and Kodaly Solo Sonata on Australian Digital Concert Hall ‘Rising Stars Program’. He also represented ANAM in the final concert of a Cello Festival combining University of Melbourne, VCASS and ANAM students. Joshua holds both Licentiate and Associate of Music Australia (Distinction) diplomas, and he is four-time prizewinner of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra Young Instrumentalist Prize, and a three-time winner of the Australian String Teachers Association Concerto Competition.
NADIA BARROW cellist
JOSHUA JONES cellist
Quick Facts
EDWARD ELGAR
(1857–1934)
Elgar Cello Concerto
• The work was composed in 1919 and was Elgar's last significant composition.
• The premiere in October 1919 was not a success and the work received few subsequent performances, only achieving widespread popularity after Jacqueline du Pre's recording made in 1965
• Elgar was an early adopter of recording technology with a recording of this concerto with Elgar himself conducting made in 1920. The work had to be cut in order to fit on 4 sides of 78rpm discs.
• In his final years Elgar himself declared his intention to haunt a particular place in Worcestershire, and told a friend that if, after Elgar’s death, he should hear someone whistling a theme from the Cello Concerto on the Malvern Hills, ‘don’t be alarmed, it’s only me'.
Glossary
Concerto
a three-movement composition for one or more solo instruments accompanied by an orchestra that became standardised in the 18th century
Cadenza
an unaccompanied solo interlude that was traditionally improvised, showcasing the virtuosity and musicality of the soloist
Recitative
a style of vocal writing where rhythm and accents mimic spoken dialogue
Nobilmente
a term used almost exclusively by Elgar to indicate a ceremonial or noble style of playing, particularly in moments of emotional intensity
colla parte
an indication for the orchestra to follow the soloist in relation to tempo, ‘with the part’
Rubato
‘stolen time’ - a musical term to direct the soloist to take expressive and rhythmic liberties with the tempo
1 & 3 June / 7.30pm
