In the words of our members: “Resonance inspires commitment in students, chooses interesting music and unique arrangements, brings in experts and runs master classes, and provides amazing, warm, brilliant teachers.”
Zoe Knighton
Artistic Patron
After a long-standing association with Resonance, Zoe’s patronage of the orchestra was formalised in 2019, to the ecstatic delight of all of our members. Zoe’s input includes program planning with the tutor team and Directors of Music and running dynamic rehearsals and workshops for our members, as well as being Guest Conductor and Artist at some of our performances. The teaching team and members alike benefit from Zoe’s inspiring musicianship, insightful contributions and contagious energy!
About Zoe:
After starting cello at the age of nine with Jill Kahans, and graduating from the University of Melbourne with the highest mark of her year, Zoe went on to establish herself as one of the country’s most sought after cellists. Having studied with Christian Wojtowicz, Michel Strauss (Paris) Nelson Cooke, and Angela Seargeant, she is now in demand as chamber coach and teacher at various institutions. A regular panelist for major competitions, Zoe combines many facets of her career with performing.
Zoe has played numerous concertos with Melbourne Orchestras and with pianist Amir Farid, made an impressive debut at the Melbourne Recital Centre to great critical acclaim in 2009. Their partnership has resulted in recordings for ABC, concerts throughout Australia and the release of five CDs on the MOVE label. Zoe and Amir will reunite in 2020 with performances in New York and throughout Australia.
Zoe has been praised for her “thrilling tenor sound” (Limelight Magazine), “sublime phrasing” and “many great technical demands carried off with ease.” She has released three other titles on the MOVE label, including the complete suites for solo cello by J.S Bach.
Zoe is a founding member of Flinders Quartet and plays a 2020 Rainer Beilharz cello made in Castlemaine, Victoria, and a Michael Taylor bow made in 2012. Zoe has been following Rainer's cello making for a number of years. After falling in love with the deep, characterful sound and choosing to make this cello her own, Rainer revealed that he had made it with her in mind.
“Flinders Quartet advocates the relevance of the string quartet in 21st century Australia. With four pillars of activity (Touring, subscription season, industry development and community outreach) they are a powerhouse of creativity.”
Flinders Quartet
Partners of Resonance
Since 2022, FQ have mentored two string quartets from within the Resonance membership. These 8 members receive individual and group support on their chamber music repertoire and are relishing the inspiration and extension that the experience provides.
http://www.flindersquartet.com/
Challenging and championing the role of the string quartet in 21st century Australia.
Flinders Quartet (FQ) is instantly recognisable as one of Australia’s most loved chamber music ensembles. They are a quartet for the 21st century and a highly respected force in Australian chamber music, entering their third decade with acknowledged musical skill and maturity.
“… an exemplary performance … It was a joy to hear this finely wrought music so superbly rendered.”
CLASSIC MELBOURNE, August 2022
Over twenty years, FQ has followed a unique path and continues to live up to its motto of “caring for tradition, daring to be different” through its busy schedule of activities.
Heather Cummins
FoUNDER AND CO-ArtisTic DIRECTOR
TUTOR (VIOLIN)
About Heather:
Heather’s driving professional passion is to create musical communities that are inclusive, joyful and musically engaged. She is committed to the development of community music opportunities in regional areas. Heather currently holds the positions of Violin and Viola teacher at Castlemaine Secondary College. She has an extensive private teaching practice and her professional teaching life has been focused on developing opportunities for music students in regional areas. She holds a Bachelor of Music (Hons) from the University of Melbourne, majoring in Pedagogy and Ethnomusicology. She has benefitted from learning from many teachers including William Hennessey, Andrea Keeble, Deb Fox and Wilma Smith, and is heavily influenced in her teaching by the work of Simon Fischer and Yehudi Menuhin. For eight years she was a member of Quartet ConSpirito, who were also Quartet in Residence for Resonance. She currently plays with Castlemaine Chamber Players, who present regular concerts in the Central Goldfields and beyond (most recently presenting Shostakovich and Beethoven Rasumovsky quartets), holds the position of Principal Second Violin with Bendigo Symphony Orchestra and is a member of the BSO Artistic Council. Heather is an experienced VCE teacher with past students successfully auditioning for music degrees at Melbourne and Monash Universities.
Emma Wade
FOUNDER AND Co-Artistic DIRECTOR
TUTOR (VIOLIN/VIOLA)
About Emma:
Emma has performed on viola as a member of orchestras, chamber ensembles, folk groups and string quartets in Sydney, Northern England and now Central Victoria. She was a founding member of the Bachetal String Quartet, Co-Principal Violist of the Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic and TOPS Orchestras, and member of the Sydney Chamber Players. In the UK, she founded the Corroboree String Quartet, was Co-Principal Violist of both the Stockport Symphony and Wilmslow Symphony Orchestras from 2006-2008, formed The Heatons Chamber Players and Cheshire Ceilidh, and toured the concert halls of Northern England as a soloist and chamber performer. Returning to Australia, Emma now resides in Central Victoria where she performs regularly with local chamber groups and Quartet Conspirito.
Sam Goble
Tutor (cello)
About Sam:
Sam has been teaching cello in Melbourne and Central Victoria for several years. Settled in Castlemaine, he enjoys a schedule of teaching and performing as a chamber and orchestral musician. Sam completed his Masters of Music Performance in 2006 at the Victorian College of the Arts, including 16 months of specialised cello tuition in Germany under Tilmann Wick at the Hannover Hochschule fur Musik und Theater. During his undergraduate study, Sam was awarded numerous Scholarships and Awards for his solo and chamber music performances. In 2000, with a Queens Trust Grant, he, as part of the Abraxas Trio travelled to Singapore, London and Wales for concerts and lessons. Sam toured with the Cologne Youth Philharmonic through Wales and Northern France later the same year, in part as soloist. In late 2006 he was invited to England to audition and then trial for a position with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Heather, Emma and Sam all perform together regularly as Quartet Conspirito.
In 2023, Resonance is thrilled to have a team of guest tutors working with us:
Sarina Walter (Tutor: Violin/Viola): Dynamic and diversely skilled educator, clinician, and strings specialist, Sarina Walter is driven by a clear purpose: to vastly improve universal access to high-quality music education, and ignite in her students an unwavering passion for life and music alike. Residing in Central Victoria since 2022, Sarina has built a music program that reaches 150+ students each week at Maryborough Education Centre. Previously, she has worked as Co-Coordinator of Music and Head of Strings at Lauriston Girls’ School, and as Lead Teaching Artist, Pedagogy & Practice at Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s (MSO) flagship community music program, The Pizzicato Effect. Sarina is a sought-after guest educator and facilitator (Melbourne Music Summit, Border Music Camp, SEVR Stringfest, Melbourne Youth Orchestras) as she is known for facilitating rich, joyful artistic experiences fueled by the values closest to her heart: access, inclusion and relentless creativity.
Lizzy Welsh (Tutor and Guest Director for our June Baroque concert): Lizzy Welsh is internationally renowned as a music-maker and performer of early music, new music and experimental improvisation, principally on the baroque violin and modern violin.
As a baroque violinist, Lizzy’s “characterful virtuosity” has cemented her as one of Australia’s leading early music performers, who has appeared with Freitags-Akademien (Berlin, Germany), Latitude 37, Van Diemen’s Band, The Night Watch (Wellington, NZ), Orchestra of the Antipodes, Accademia Arcadia, La Compañia, Ludovico’s Band, Consort Eclectus and Harken Well.
Lizzy has been invited to perform at the Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music, the Adelaide Festival, the Melbourne International Arts Festival, the Melbourne Jazz Festival, the University of California San Diego’s Springfest, Darmstadt Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, London Jazz Festival, Jazztopad Wrocław, Sacrum Profanum Festival (Krakow), Jazzfest Berlin, Sacred Realism (Berlin), Shanghai International Arts Festival, Shanghai New Music Week, and Metropolis New Music Festival.
Lizzy has presented scores of Australian and World premieres with ensembles including the Argonaut Ensemble, Golden Fur New Music Project, ELISION Ensemble, Chamber Made, and the Australian Art Orchestra. Lizzy is Artistic Director of Australia’s leading new music string quartet, the Argonaut Quartet.
An advocate for creating new music for early instruments, Lizzy has a Doctor of Musical Arts in this field, and has developed one of the world’s largest repertoires of new music for the baroque violin and viola d’amore, premiering many of these works at leading international festivals including the Darmstadt Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik (Germany) and Sacrum Profanum Festival (Poland).
Lizzy has curated and produced performances for organisations including Arts House, the Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music, the Festival of Live Art, and the Metropolis New Music Festival. Lizzy was the Producer of Tasmanian baroque ensemble Van Diemen’s Band from 2019-2023.
Lizzy’s compositions have been presented by Australian Art Orchestra, Punctum, The Letter String Quartet, Sacred Realism (Berlin), and Vahideh Eisaei.
The Executive Committee
President: Liz Wilson
Vice-President: Jasmin McFarlane
Secretary: Di Taylor
Treasurer: Karlana Williamson
Co-Artistic Directors: Heather Cummins and Emma Wade
