Simon Oswell - Artistic Director 2026
Simon Oswell (viola) trained in Australia and the United States. He gained awards in the National Concerto competition and co-founded the Petra String Quartet in Tasmania. Simon has performed and recorded as a soloist and chamber musician in Australia, Europe and South East Asia and subsequently in the United States in the LA based chamber music groups, the Capitol Ensemble and Pacific Serenades. In California he occupied several Principal Viola positions including the Carmel Bach Festival, Mozart Classical Orchestra and Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and recorded for the motion picture industry. Since returning to Australia Simon has appeared as Principal Viola with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Tasmanian, Queensland Symphony Orchestras, the Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra (ARCO), Australian World Orchestra, and chamber music groups, Ensemble Liaison, Firebird Trio, Wilma and Friends, Quartz, Trio Dali, Ironwood, and the Australian Festival of Chamber Music.
A recent recording, on ABC Classics, of the Sydney based IRONWOOD ensemble, playing the Piano Quintets of Louise Farrenc and Camille Saint-Saens garnered critical acclaim. Other highlights have included performances in the UK at the Oxford May Chamber Music Festival, the North York Moors Festival, and performances with the Australian World Orchestra and Zubin Mehta and Simon Rattle, in Sydney, Melbourne, Mumbai, Chennai and New Delhi.
Markiyan Melnychenko violin
Currently Lecturer of Violin at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Ukrainian-Australian violinist Markiyan Melnychenko studied at the Eastman School of Music with Professor of Violin – Oleh Krysa. In 2012 he received a Bachelor of Music, granted with Distinction, and Eastman's Performer's certificate. In 2014 he obtained a Master of Music and Eastman's highly prestigious Artist Certificate, being the first violinist to receive this award in over 50 years. Further studies include Pierre Amoyal, Cyrus Forough, and also Alice Waten and William Hennessy at the Australian National Academy of Music.
In 2014 he won 1st prize in the Melbourne Recital Centre's National “Great Romantics” competition. In the same year he was also awarded the 'Australian Development Prize' from the Michael Hill International Violin Competition. In 2013 he was shared 1st prize winner of the Oleh Krysa International Violin Competition in Ukraine. He has participated in the Queen Elizabeth (Belgium), Pablo de Sarasate (Spain), Lysenko (Ukraine), Leopold Mozart(Germany), Seoul (Korea) and Sendai (Japan) International Violin Competitions. In 2013 he was selected to perform in a quartet at the US Capitol for the Inaugural Luncheon at Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration.
He has had solo performances in New York (Alice Tully Hall), Washington DC (Kennedy Centre), Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo, Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra. He has made a number of solo appearances with orchestras including performances with the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, Kobe City Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria.
Markiyan has served as a concertmaster of the Huntingtower String Orchestra in tours to New Zealand, Tasmania, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. In 2014he led the orchestra in their equal 1st prize award at the International Summa Cum Laude Youth Festival competition in Vienna. He has been a casual member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria.
Elinor Lea - Violin
Elinor Lea is currently a violinist with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Previously she was a member of the Australian String Quartet, touring extensively within Australia and overseas. While in the ASQ she made many recordings for the ABC Classics and Naxos labels. She has been awarded an Australian Centenary Medal for Services to Australian Society and the Advancement of Music as well as an Advance Australia award for Outstanding Contribution in the Arts.
Rosanne Hunt - Cello
Rosanne Hunt loves cello more and more as she gets older. She cut her cellistic teeth in the 1970s with the Melbourne Youth Orchestra, touring Europe with them when she was just 13, and progressed to leading the Australian Youth Orchestra cellos on their 1984 European tour. She has had fascinating and superbly enriching times studying with philosopher-cellist Anner Bylsma in The Netherlands, and with Irene Sharp in San Francisco, but the huge value of her early grounding with her mother, iconic cello teacher Marianne Hunt, and then with Christian Wojtowicz in Hobart is not to be underestimated.
There were detours into studying medicine and organic farming, but music always has wooed her back. She has had fabulous times over the years playing with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, the Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra, the ELISION (founding member) Libra and Aphids contemporary music ensembles, the Melbourne Symphony, Orchestra Victoria (sometimes as principal cellist), and is now very involved in the Melbourne Baroque Orchestra (founding member) and Forest Collective, as well as chamber engagements with pianist Brian Chapman, flautist Kim Tan (for ABC radio’s “The March of the Women”), pianist Danae Killian (recording works of Haydn Reeder for MOVE records), and with this festival’s very own Jaso Sasaki (violin) and Simon Oswell (viola).
Rosanne is in high demand as a teacher, both at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School and at her private studio. She loves working with students to find the path that suits them best and engenders a love for the instrument.
Rosanne set up the Hunt Family Memorial Fund, which honours her mother Marianne, father Kenneth (who was a fine clarinettist alongside his career as an engineer) and cellist sister Tanya. The fund helps disadvantaged young musicians attend the Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camp.
Ian Munro - Piano
Born in Melbourne and educated at the Victorian College of the Arts, Ian Munro was taught piano by Roy Shepherd, a pupil of Alfred Cortot. While completing his studies in Vienna and London, Ian received a number of prizes in international competitions at Barcelona, Lisbon, Busoni and Leeds, which led to solo performances across Europe, America and Asia as well as recordings for the BBC, Hyperion, Naxos, ABC Classics and Tall Poppies.
In 2000, Ian returned to composing. His first major work Dreams (2002) was awarded Premier Grand Prix at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. Since joining the Australia Ensemble, many of his works are written for chamber ensembles and performed by a range of soloists and groups, including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, clarinettist Sabine Meyer, l’Orchestre National de Belgique, Brentano, Goldner and Modigliani string quartets and the St Petersburg Symphony. Ian’s recent commissions include a flute concerto for the Melbourne and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras and a song cycle for soprano Sara Macliver.
ARTISTS