Conservatorium
Concertos Festival
Conductor
FRIDAY 16 AUGUST 2024, 7:30 PM Peter
Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we work. We pay respect to the Elders, past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Peter Wallis Glenn Hunt
Program
Oskar Böhme, Trumpet Concerto (1902)
i. Allegro moderato
Isabella Geeves, trumpet Sergei Prokofiev, Violin Concerto No.2 (1935)
i. Allegro moderato
Luke Hammer, violin
Serge Koussevitsky,
Double Bass Concerto Op.3 (1904)
i. Allegro
i. Andante
Alyssa Deacon, double bass
Bernhard Crusell, Clarinet Concerto No.2 (1815)
i. Allegro
Catherine Edwards, clarinet
INTERVAL
Dale Schlaphoff, That Night the Universe
Breathed* (2024)
Harris-Peck prize winner (2021) - QCGU commission
Isabella Gerometta, Guest Conductor
*World premiere
Béla Bartók, Violin Concerto No.1 (1908)
i. Andante sostenuto
Haneulle Lovell, violin
Franz Liszt, Piano Concerto No.1 (1849)
i. Allegro maestoso
ii. Quasi adagio—Allegretto vivace
iii. Allegro marziale animato
Lavinia Lee, piano
Artists
Peter Luff Conductor
Peter Luff is Head of Brass at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University and Associate Professor in Horn and Brass studies. He holds a Bachelor of Music Performance from Adelaide University’s Elder Conservatorium and a Master of Music specialising in Instrumental conducting from Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University (QCGU). As a conductor, Peter has extensive experience in a diverse array of performance disciplines which include symphonic repertoire, chamber music, brass band and opera. Peter has conducted many orchestras and ensembles including the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Brass Ensemble, Bangalow Festival Orchestra, Brisbane Philharmonic, Brisbane Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Conservatorium Symphony and Opera Orchestras, the Brisbane Excelsior Band and Brisbane Brass. Formerly Associate Principal Horn of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Peter continues to perform with orchestras and ensembles across Australia and internationally.
Isabella Gerometta Conductor
Isabella Gerometta is an Australian composer and conductor, and graduate of the Queensland Conservatorium. She has prepared and directed choruses for a number of events with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and has worked alongside Simone Young, Jessica Cottis and Alondra de la Parra. As an orchestral conductor, she currently studies under Peter Luff as Assistant Conductor with the Queensland Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra. Her original compositions have been premiered and commissioned by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Perth Symphony Orchestra, Camerata - Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra and the Queensland Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra. She regularly composes and arranges music for the Düsseldorf Symphoniker and The Impossible Orchestra (Festival PAAX, Mexico).
Soloists
Isabella Geeves Trumpet
Isabella Geeves, a devoted musician and educator, shares her passion for music through performance and teaching. In 2023, she completed her fellowship with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra as part of the Academy Program. Notable highlights include Swan Lake and AIDA in collaboration with the Queensland Ballet, Opera Queensland, and Opera Australia. Isabella studied her Bachelor of Music in Performance, at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, studying under Sarah Butler, Rainer Saville, and Sarah Slater. She’s had the privilege of performing for esteemed trumpet artists including Phil Cobb, Mark David, and James Fountain. Post-graduation, Isabella continues to freelance and teach to support her international aspirations.
Luke Hammer
Violin
Luke Hammer realised his passion for violin at a young age and has since enthusiastically engaged with various musical opportunities. Originating from Cairns, he is currently studying under Associate Professor Michele Walsh at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University as a Sir Samuel Griffith Scholarship recipient. His recent highlights include performing in the Australian Youth Orchestra and touring in Europe with the Queensland Youth Symphony in 2023. Luke’s passion for chamber music led to a recording and broadcast on 4MBS Classic FM with his string quartet, which also recently travelled to Stradbroke Island for the Stradbroke Chamber Music Festival.
Alyssa Deacon
Double bass
Alyssa Deacon started playing the double bass when she was eight years old and is now in her second year of university, studying Performance at Griffith Conservatorium. She currently receives lessons from Phoebe Russell, principal double bass of Queensland Symphony Orchestra Alyssa is principal double bass of Queensland Youth Symphony and has been a member since 2020. She was also featured as a soloist with QYS and performed Dark with Excessive Bright by Missy Mazzoli. Alyssa is principal double bass of Australian Youth Orchestra and performed in Hobart and Melbourne as a part of their seasons program. She also participated in a fellowship with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Last year, Alyssa enjoyed playing Bottesini’s Double Bass Concerto No. 2 with Brisbane Symphony Orchestra. Alyssa received her ATCL on violin in 2019. In her spare time, she tutors double bass and violin at Somerville House and St Peters Lutheran College.
Lavinia Lee Piano
Lavinia is a second-year international student at Queensland Conservatorium, studying under Oleg Stepanov. She has won first prizes in various international piano competitions, including the St. Petersburg International Music Competition in Russia, Kyiv International Piano Competition in Ukraine, and the 31st Young Musician International Competition “Citta’ di Barletta” in Italy. Other wins include competitions in Malta, Romania, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Singapore. Lavinia earned her Grade 5/Teacher’s Grade Certificate from Yamaha Music at 13. At the conservatorium, she received the Ruby C. Cooling Prize in 2023 and performed in multiple concerts. She was also a first-round candidate in the 2024 Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition.
Haneulle Lovell
Violin
2024 QSO Academist Haneulle Lovell is a passionate violinist and musical collaborator. An invested chamber musician, Haneulle has explored many exciting collaborations whilst pursuing a Bachelor of Music at the Queensland Conservatorium, such as projects alongside members of the Australian String Quartet as well as Ensemble Q. She brings her love and commitment for musical togetherness into all aspects of her playing, including during a recent trip with the Orleigh Quartet, representing the Conservatorium at the Musical Chairs Chamber Music Festival in Montreal, as well as being a part of the Australian Youth Orchestra from 2022-2024. When not rehearsing or listening to music, Haneulle enjoys bike rides out and about in her neighbourhood, or a spot of cooking.
Catherine Edwards
Clarinet
Catherine Edwards is Bachelor of Music candidate at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, where she is under the tutelage of renowned clarinettist and composer Paul Dean and QSO principal clarinettist, Irit Silver. In her fourth and final year, Catherine performed at the 2024 Opera at Jimbour, alongside QPAC’s ensemble in residence, Ensemble Q. As an orchestral musician, she has performed as principal clarinettist with the Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Youth Orchestras and Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra’s Young Mannheim Symphonist’s program. She is a casual clarinettist with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. In 2023, Catherine took part in the Belgian Clarinet Academy under the guidance of Dr Robert Spring of Arizona State University. She has also refined her skills in lessons with internationally renowned clarinettists, such as the London Symphony Orchestra’s previous principal clarinettist Andrew Marriner, and Philippe Cuper, principal clarinettist of the Opera National de Paris Orchestra.
Dale Schlaphoff Composer
Dale Schlaphoff is an emerging Australian composer, performer and improviser drawn to the exploration of contemporary, electro-acoustic musical landscapes. Dale graduated from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in 2021, completing his Bachelor of Music (Composition) with distinction under the mentorship of Dr. Gerard Brophy. Composing and arranging for acoustic, electronic and blended media, Dale has been commissioned by the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) in 2021, and by the Queensland Wind Orchestra in 2023. Dale’s performance background as a classically trained pianist, oboist, flautist, and saxophonist also strongly informs his approach to new music creation, having played with Australia’s leading community ensembles and been invited to participate in the DOTS+LOOPS performance fellowship. Blending both performance and compositional approaches, Dale cofounded the electro-acoustic new music collective New Resource in 2022 alongside fellow collaborator Samuel Carrick. Performing across Sydney and Brisbane, New Resource is streamable on all major platforms.
That Night the Universe Breathed is a study in orchestral timbre devised to reflect on the colourful world that surrounds each of us. The work is formed around a structural, shape-motif, where the orchestra continually appears to expand and contract, somewhat breathing like a living organism.
The principal concept of the work finds itself in the balance between two contrasting states: calmness and chaos. The world is a place filled with great vibrancy, and movement and as such, it can often be a great challenge to find havens of calm amongst this noise. That Night the Universe Breathed, was written and devised during a period in which I was living in Cape Town, South Africa at my uncle and aunt’s house. This environment, surrounded by nature at the foot of Table Mountain, was one such haven for me, offering respite from the noisy and exciting world beyond. It is the relationship between these two states that this commission seeks to interrogate through the primary lens of timbre; the feeling of the universe expanding and contracting around us; breathing.
Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra
The Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra consists of approximately 90 of the most talented young instrumentalists in Queensland. The orchestra, from its home at the Griffith University South Bank campus, performs an annual series of orchestral concerts, large choral works, and operatic and musical theatre productions, in addition to a range of creative collaborations both on site as well as in the wider community. Students in the Queensland Conservatorium orchestral program have the unique opportunity to perform under the baton of a variety of conductors, instilling a flexibility required in the profession. Resident conductors Johannes Fritzsch, Peter Luff and Peter Morris are joined each year by distinguished guest conductors from around the world, providing students with the rich depth of experience they will find when entering the profession. Notable guest conductors have included Sir Neville Marriner, Peter Sculthorpe, Jessica Cottis, Nicholas Braithwaite, Richard Mills, Natalia Raspopova, Larry Rachleff and Elim Chan, to name a few.
Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra
Concertmaster
Jonah Spriggs*
Violin 1
Ingram Fan
Madeleine Crosby
Sophie Shih
Alisha Dunstan
Melissa Buddle
Allan Leslie
Mirage Hunter Demecs
Kezia Marvela
Lily Song
Emily Thompson
Irene Shim
Ally Liu
Viola
Felix Hughes Chivers*
Jasmine Smith
Ella Pysden
Harriet Dykes
Alexandra Kho
Dylan Weder
Eben Yeh
Chinsia Burns
Violin 2
Yuro Lee*
Amira Ryan
Kaia Scheidler
Imogen Revill
Teresa Kao
Ava Gilbert
Miles Le Goullon
Yvonne Spina
Jade Leong
Lauren Moon
Evie Scott
Aliza Kerr
Amalie Grime
Chris Park
Violoncello
Caleb Christian*
Laura Boon*
Milo Duval
Stirling Hall
Liam Gane
James Pollard
Kathryn Phun
Contrabass
Sophia Buchanan*
Jessica Clarke
Rylan Baird
Daniel Wilesmith
Piccolo
Bonnie Gibson*
Flute
Nathan Smith*
Thomas Mallet
Oboe
Ethan Seto*
Ruby Cooper
Clarinet
Hamish Cassidy*
Bianca Cassiano
E-flat Clarine
Libby Prentice*
Bass Clarinet
Hinata Nishimura*
Bassoon
Georgina Sinclair*
Mairin Thompson
Contrabassoon
Layni Cameron*
French Horn
Jude Austen Kaupe
Hannah McLellan
Thomas Ferreira-Montague
Lachlan Smith
Trumpet
Megan Barber
Mikaela Gonzales
Ethan Kircher
Trombone
Nicholas Lord*
Matthew Redman
Bass Trombone
Joshua Sephton
Tuba
Jack Gawith*
Timpani
William Smith*
Percussion
Connor Dinneen*
Thomas Quelhurst
Jaymee Homeming
Holly Tate
Harp
Myiesha Maisuria*
Ariel Chang
Piano
Phuong Do*
* Principal
Special thanks to Queensland Conservatorium supporters and donors.
Philanthropy plays a vital role at Queensland Conservatorium. Only through your support can our students experience valuable learning opportunities through productions such as this one. To invest in the future of music and performance in Queensland, contact us on +61 (0)7 5552 7218 or email giving@griffith.edu.au.
Queensland Conservatorium thanks our generous donors and supporters. We would like to acknowledge our instrument bank donors supporting the students in tonight’s performance.
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Conservatorium staff
Director
Professor Bernard Lanskey
Deputy Director (Learning and Teaching)
Associate Professor
Donna Weston
Deputy Director (Research)
Dr Alexis Kallio
Head of Ensembles & Orchestral Conducting
Professor Peter Morris
Professor of Opera and Orchestral Studies
Professor Johannes Fritzsch
Head of Strings
Associate Professor
Michelle Walsh
Head of Woodwinds
Associate Professor
Tim Munro
Head of Brass
Associate Professor
Peter Luff
Head of Percussion
Rebecca Lloyd-Jones
Head of Composition
Dr Gerardo Dirie
Conservatorium Manager
Stuart Jones
Technical Team Leader
Cameron Hipwell
Front of House
Operations Manager
Michael Hibbard
Executive Officer (Engagement)
Dr Natalie Lewandowski-Cox
Program Coordinator (Ensembles) & Orchestra Manager
Daniel Fossi
Operations Administrator
Clare Wharton
Technical Officers
Keith Clark, Amy Hauser, Len McPherson
Venue Officers
Grace Royle, Joshua White, Joseph Gale-Grant
Administration Officer
Liz Tyson-Doneley
Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University
140 Grey Street, South Bank 4101
Concert enquiries: (07) 3735 6241
griffith.edu.au/music
griffith.edu.au/queenslandconservatorium
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Correct at time of publication.