Classical Guitarist – Andrew Blanch
Andrew Blanch is that truly rare musician, who combines profound musical intelligence, curiosity and passion with a technique that allows anything. A complete artist.
Howard Penny, Head of Strings at ANAM, Member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
At the age of only 32, Australian classical guitarist Andrew Blanch is already at the very forefront of the country’s classical music industry. His busy concert schedule sees him frequently travel around the country to give sold-out and critically acclaimed shows at the most prestigious venues such as Victoria’s Melbourne Recital Centre, and South Australia’s Ukaria. He’s played multiple sold-out shows at the Sydney Opera House, his most recent being given five stars in a rave review by Sydney Arts Guide, “Five stars for a unique offering. Five stars for setting aside angular, dissonant music for the sake of being “modern” and instead choosing music with wide appeal. Five stars for outstanding performance. Five stars for all the Australian commissioned works. Five stars for style and class.”
Andrew’s the recipient of many accolades including more than 10 prizes in music competitions including 1st prizes in the Melbourne and Adelaide International Guitar Competitions, the Sydney Eisteddfod’s open guitar competition and the Whitworth-Roach Classical Music Competition in Canberra. He’s been nominated for AIR Best Classical Album Award of the Year for his 2020 album Alchemy, and was nominated for Performance of the Year in the 2022 Art Music Awards for his performance of Felicity Wilcox’s Tipping Point with Ensemble Offspring. In November 2019, Andrew was featured on the front cover of Australia’s premiere classical music and arts magazine, Limelight Magazine, as one of ‘30 young Australian musicians destined for greatness’.
In addition to his solo activities Andrew is a serial collaborator with many leading musicians. Andrew has been a member of the New Zealand Guitar Quartet since 2020, with whom he has also recorded a full-length studio album due for release mid-2024. He has performed as a key member of leading Australian new music ensemble, Ensemble Offspring in numerous Australian tours of their show ‘The Surge’, and ‘Barra’, which featured in City Recital Hall as part of the Sydney Festival. Andrew has been an associate artist of the Bowerbird Collective since 2023, and has performed around Australia and the world with orchestras such as the Beecroft Symphony Orchestra, the Christchurch Camerata, the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra, the IDM Orchestra in Valencia, Spain and more. In 2023 Andrew formed a new supergroup of Australian guitarists, the Australian Guitar Quartet, with Vladimir Gorbach and the Grigoryan Brothers, they are 2024 Musica Viva Australia touring artists. Andrew has worked with many leading Australian composers to create new music for the instrument including Elena Kats-Chernin, Robert Davidson, Jessica Wells, Felicity Wilcox, Sally Whitwell, Tristan Coelho, Richard Charlton, Daniel Rojas, all of whom he has commissioned new work from. In 2023 Andrew recorded Daniel Rojas’s new Guitar Concerto No. 1 written especially for him, with an orchestra under conductor Emmanuele Baldini in São Paulo, Brazil.
Andrew’s recording career began with his debut solo album, Spanish Guitar Music (2015), which received glowing reviews, and was dubbed “one of the best debut albums I’ve ever heard” by leading classical guitar journal, Soundboard Magazine (USA). His subsequent albums Alchemy (2021), and Suite mágica (2024) reached No 2, and No 1 on the ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) Classical Album charts respectively, with the latter album being called ‘one of the most extraordinary albums to come out of Australia in a long time’ by Sydney Arts Guide. All three albums are played regularly on Australia’s classical music radio station ABC Classic, as well as appearances on international stations such as BBC Radio 3 and HRT-HR3, an equivalent station in Croatia. Suite mágica was streamed more than 250,000 times in its first three weeks across Amazon Music, Apple Music, and Spotify. In 2023, Andrew recorded a full-length studio album with the New Zealand Guitar Quartet due for release June 2024, and a 20-minute guitar concerto with orchestra in Brazil with the Sao Paulo Chamber Soloists due for release early 2025 on an album of Latin American Music for the guitar.
Andrew is President of the Classical Guitar Society Sydney, is managed by Tier 1 Arts, plays a 2014 Greg Smallman and Sons guitar, and is sponsored by Augustine Strings.
Assistant Conductor – Jennifer Ridgway
Jennifer Ridgway is an accomplished performer, music educator and conductor with a wealth of experience in the industry. She holds a Bachelor of Music Education, specializing in Performance and Elective Conducting Units, which she completed from March 2017 to 2021.
Jennifer currently serves as the Conductor for the Northside Concert Band, Conductor for Sydney Youth Orchestra Winter and Summer Schools and Music Educator and Conductor for Brigidine College. In addition, she has held many other positions as Conductor, Assistant Band Director and Sectional Leader at various schools in Sydney.
Jennifer has participated in several professional development programs and workshops, including ABODA 2022 Conducting School Level 2 in February 2022, the Midwest Clinic Conference 2014 and 2019 as well as the Conducting Artistry Workshop in July 2020. She also completed Conducting 1, 2, and Advanced Units at Sydney Conservatorium between February 2019 and November 2020, achieving high distinctions consistently. She has worked with renowned conductors and educators such as George Ellis, John Lynch, and Stephen Mould, and participated in workshops with Dr. Mary Schneider, Dr. Rob McWilliams and Mark Camphouse.
Jennifer has significant performance experience and has played in many orchestras and ensembles such as the Sydney Youth Orchestra, Regional Youth Orchestra, North Shore Wind Symphony, Northern Beaches Orchestra, Northern Sydney Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Sydney Conservatorium Flute Ensemble, and Ensemble Da Capo.
Anita Carmon-Crawford
As a scholarship holder, Anita completed her undergraduate studies on viola at the Australian Institute of Music, studying with Winifred Durie and later, Dr. Deborah Lander. Her conducting studies were supervised by Henryk Pisarek and Nikolai Sokolov. During and after these undergraduate studies, she worked as a freelance violist with a variety of ensembles including the Sydney Sinfonia Orchestra, the Opera Australia Orchestra, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney University Graduate Choir Orchestra. Anita completed her postgraduate studies with Jeremy Williams at the Tasmanian Conservatorium (on full scholarship) and was invited to participate in the 2013 Soloist IsaMasterclasses held in Semmering, Austria.
In 2019, she attended (as an observer) both The TSO’s Australian Conducting Academy Summer School and the Queensland Conservatorium’s Orchestra Conducting School. In 2022 she participated in the Carlo Montanaro Opera Conducting Masterclasses held in Sydney. In both 2022 and 2023 she participated in the NSSWE Conducting Development Program.
Anita has taught both viola and violin since her undergraduate studies. She currently works as both an instrumental tutor and a conductor for the Amadeus Music Education Program.
Andrew Mee
Andrew graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with a Bachelor of Music Studies (2019), majoring in Piano performance under the guidance of Dr Kirill Monorosi. Since then he has completed a Masters degree in Secondary Teaching, and currently works as a Music Teacher.
He has built up a diverse range of conducting and teaching experience as both an instrumental teacher and coordinator of school programs.
Elsen Price – Double Bassist
Elsen Price is an Australian double bassist who performs as a soloist and chamber musician, plus performs classical, jazz, pop, folk and experimental music.
Elsen started music at an early age in rural North-West NSW, starting violin at 5 years old with Leonore Leake, then taking up double bass at 8 years old after seeing the Sydney Symphony perform a regional tour in Tamworth NSW. Through primary school and high school, Elsen performed in regional community orchestras, regional programs led by the late Richard Gill, and performed at large school events including multiple years in the Schools Spectacular orchestra.
In 2008 at 18 years old, Elsen won the position for double bass in the NSW Police Band, which over the following 2 years included performances with Australian pop acts Leo Sayer and Stan Walker, Australian blues act Gail Page, Homebush Stadium for the Masters Games, The NRL, and the Edinburgh Tattoo.
In 2010 Elsen won a scholarship to study at the Sydney Conservatorium with Alex Henery (Principal SSO), plus studying with Maxime Bibeau (Principal ACO) and Kees Boersma (Principal SSO), later also studying with Andrew Meisel (Principal AOBO). In 2015 Elsen was offered a Masters of Performance at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.
From 2012 Elsen has built a career as an independent performer, producer, composer, ensemble director, recording artist and collaborator.
As a soloist and chamber musician, Elsen has toured Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India, Taiwan, Czech Republic and the UK, with highlights including BassEurope, Wells Cathedral UK, Palmerston Place Edinburgh, St Xaviers College Mumbai, Yilan International Art Festival, Auckland University, and in Australia: Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Recital Centre, MONA, Her Majesty’s Theatre Adelaide and many others.
Elsen has premiered numerous works for solo and ensemble by Australian and International composers including Caitlin Yeo, David Heyes, Teppo Hauto-Aho, P Kellach Waddle, Keyna Wilkins, Elena Kats-Chernin and many others. As a composer/performer, Elsen won the ‘Best Soundtrack’ Award at the 2016 International Independent Film Awards, released critically-acclaimed solo album ‘Descent of the Free’ (ABC/Universal) 2019, plus many albums as a soloist and ensemble director.
In jazz, Elsen has performed/recorded alongside various artists including Andrea Keller, Dave Panichi (Buddy Rich Band), Matt Mcmahon, Paul Cutlan and many others.
In pop music, Elsen has performed/toured with International artists including Grammy award winner Josh Groban, Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Mike Patton (Faith No More), plus Australian artists including Pinky Beecroft and many others.
In folk/world music, Elsen has performed/toured with International artists Chris Stout and Catriona Mckay (UK), Sharam Nazeri (Iran), Alireza Ghourbani (Iran), Adnan Karim (Iraq) and many others.
As a recording artist, Elsen has numerous ongoing recording credits for International and Australian film, tv, video games, anime and soundtrack production.
As an educator, Elsen has directed workshops at Wells Cathedral, Scottish Bass Trust, BassEurope, regional Taiwan, Auckland University, and throughout Australia. Elsen has a number of local Sydney students, online international students, plus a part-time contracted conductor.
Aija Draguns – Assistant Conductor
Aija Draguns (b.1999) is a Sydney-based emerging conductor and composer, specializing in vocal music. Her compositions are inspired by her Latvian heritage, specifically from the folk and choral genres. Aija holds a Bachelor and Honours degrees in Music Composition from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and is currently completing her Masters studies specializing in language in vocal composition. She also teaches music theory at the university. Aija is an orchestral and choral conductor, awarded the ‘Create NSW conducting fellowship for 2022-23’ with Sydney Youth Orchestras. This year, Aija was selected for the Australian Conducting Academy “Conductor Launchpad” program with Tasmania Symphony Orchestra and Benjamin Northey, as well as completed masterclasses with Jessica Cottis, Zahia Ziouani, and Kira Omelchenko. Aija regularly conducts ensembles across Sydney, including Leichhardt Espresso Chorus and Sydney Latvian Male Choir: the longest running diaspora Latvian male choir in the world. In October. she will conduct the premiere of her new opera “In Cosmic Utero” at NIDA Parade theatre alongside director Lindy Hulme. To Aija, composing and conducting go hand-in-hand, providing unique insight into each artform, which she hopes to share with her players, singers, and audiences.
Joanna Dionis – Mezzo Soprano
Joanna Dionis Ross is quickly gaining recognition as a rising young dramatic mezzo-soprano. U.S. engagements include Baba the Turk (The Rake’s Progress) at the Princeton Festival, Composer (Ariadne auf Naxos) at the Johanna Meier Opera Theater Institute, Mrs. Nolan (The Medium) with Taconic Opera, and Mrs. Sedley (Peter Grimes) and Cornelia (Giulio Cesare) with One World Symphony. Joanna debuted the role of Aunt Nicey in Stefan Weisman’s new opera The Scarlet Ibis with American Opera Projects in New York.
Joanna has been a young artist at the Phoenicia Festival of the Voice, singing Ortrud in excerpts from Lohengrin with acclaimed Wagnerian baritone Alfred Walker. She is an American Prize Chicago Oratorio Award Finalist, and the recipient of a Wagner Society of New York grant.
Joanna earned a professional studies diploma in voice performance from Mannes College the New School for Music. She made her Australian operatic debut as the Secretary in Menotti’s The Consul with The Cooperative in 2020,
and returned to sing the title role in Sāvitrī in 2021, Miss Jessel in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw in 2023, and Mme. de Croissy in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites in 2024.
Angus Davison – Composer
Angus Davison composes music with “considerable poignancy” (The Mercury) and “an uncanny ability to capture the beauty of small things” (ClassikON). His recent music has explored topics such as the religious life of worms, thermonuclear fusion, and the true story of a bird that fell in love with a statue.
Angus’s music has been performed in Australia, North America, Europe, and in 2023 his work represented Australia at the ISCM World New Music Days Festival in South Africa. Performers of his work include the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Omega Ensemble, and Michael Kieran Harvey among many others.
Angus holds a Master of Music from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where he studied with Matthew Hindson. Alongside university scholarships, his awards include the TSO Student Composition Prize, Audience Choice in the 5th International Tampa Bay Symphony Orchestra Prize, and runner up in the Jean Bogan and Willoughby Symphony young composer awards.
He has been selected for all of Australia’s most sought after young composer programs, including the Layton Emerging Composer Fellowship, Australian Composers’ School, and Cybec 21st Century Composer Program, and Omega Ensemble CoLAB: Composer Accelerator Program. He has also participated in Composing in the Wilderness, a summer school in Alaska.
Angus is from Hobart and now lives in Sydney. He is represented by the Australian Music Centre.