One of Australia’s best known oboists and teachers, Anne Gilby has enjoyed a varied and rewarding musical career.

 

Anne studied for a time in Adelaide with Jiri Tancibudek before travelling to Aberdeen with the Canberra Youth Orchestra in 1974 to participate in the International Festival of Youth Orchestras. Whilst there Anne won the Festival Scholarship to study oboe with the great English oboist Leon Goossens, and ultimately, further assisted by an Australia Council travel/study grant, remained in Europe for seven years.  Her studies took her to London (Goossens), Paris (Maurice Bourgue) and Detmold (Helmut Winschermann), finally spending four years as Principal Oboist of the Bremerhaven Theatre Orchestra in the north of Germany.   In 1981 she was appointed Principal Oboist of the Elizabethan Melbourne Orchestra and subsequently played for four years in Sydney as Principal Oboist of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. She went on to complete four years in Perth as Lecturer at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, six years as Head of Woodwind at the Victorian College of the Arts, and four years as Lecturer in Ensemble Studies at Monash University’s School of Music-Conservatorium.  

 

Anne currently combines a busy teaching schedule with her performance engagements as concerto soloist, chamber musician and recitalist and has appeared on the baroque, classical and modern oboes.  Anne has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.  She has had a long association with the Melbourne Musicians, Director Frank Pam and Pro Musica, Director Dr John Ferguson, appearing as soloist with much of the major concerto repertoire for oboe. She forged a highly regarded musical partnership with Darryl Coote (Team of Pianists), and appeared nationally with the Trigon Ensemble and with guitarists Peter Constant and Anthony Field, and in the United States with clarinettist Peter Handsworth.  Anne commissioned new works for her chamber ensembles Collage and Baroque Fest, and, with Ensemble Vasse, was a recipient of an Aria Award for the performance of new Australian music.  

 

Anne has a passionate interest in the education of young musicians.  For six years she chaired the Artistic Committee of the Australian Youth Orchestra Ltd, and also devised innovative teaching programs for young musicians for both the Australian National Academy of Music and Monash University.  She is well known as an adjudicator and examiner and has been a judge for the Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year finals.  Anne was the Founding President of the Australasian Double Reed Society and co-hosted the 33rd International Double Reed Society Conference held for the first time in Australia, at Monash University in 2004. 

 

Anne sat on the Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts and was a member of the Boards and Chair of the Artistic Committees of the Australian Youth Orchestra and the Victorian Opera. She currently serves on the committees of the Musical Society of Victoria and the Association of Music Educators. 

 

Along with a teaching practice that includes students all ages and aspirations Anne has assisted oboe players and musicians internationally including in Taiwan and Afghanistan.

Following a four-year engagement as Assistent Generalmusikdirektor at the Volksoper Wien and a seven year tenure as Erster Kapellmeister at the Luzerner Theater, Warwick Stengårds is an Australian/Swedish freelance conductor based in Vienna.

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In Europe and Australia, Stengårds has studied with such notable conductors as Peter Eötvös, Vittorio Parisi, Ronald Zollman, Robert Rosen and Vladimir Verbitsky.

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In addition to an extensive symphonic canon, Stengårds has a music-theatre repertoire of over 100 works performing with companies such as Vienna State Opera, Volksoper Wien, Folkoperan Stockholm, Opera Australia, Victoria State Opera, Chamber Made Opera and West Australian Opera where, in 1991, he was appointed Music Director.

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Operatic highlights include the world premieres of Koehne’s Love Burns, Tahourdin’s Heloise and Abelard, Ingham’s Transfigured Night, Koukias’ Mikrovian, Australian premieres of Turnage’s Greek, Williamson’s Our Man in Havana, Swiss premieres of Greek, Kraus’ Soliman II and Joplin’s Treemonisha and regional premieres of Wozzeck and The Rake’s Progress. Stengårds is highly acclaimed for his interpretations of Mozart, Puccini and Verdi, in particular successful seasons of The Magic Flute and Madama Butterfly. His performance of Rigoletto with West Australian Opera “had shattering intensity, both vivid and impressive” (The Australian).

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Stengårds also has wide experience with choral groups. In addition to a four year term as Director of Queen’s College Chapel Choir, he was Music Director of the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir for four years followed by a three year appointment with the University of Western Australia Choral Society. He has conducted the West Australian and Tasmanian Symphony Choruses, the undergraduate choirs at the Universities of Melbourne, Monash, Macquarie and Western Australia, the Ashton Smith Singers, the Newcastle University Choir, the Willoughby Symphony Choir and Harmonia Sacra.

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In Europe, aside from the internationally acclaimed Johann Strauss Capelle and Schönbrunner Schlossorchester where he was appointed Chefdirigent in 2004, Stengårds has conducted the Ulster Orchestra in a series of concerts and recordings for the British Broadcasting Corporation, the SL Orkester, the Uppsala Kammarorkester, Klangforum Wien, the Wroclaw Philharmonic, the Rundfunk Sinfonie-Orchester Saarbrücken (featuring soloist Andreas Scholl), DalaSinfoniettan, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the European Doctors Orchestra and the Nürnberger Symphoniker.

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Concerts with the Australian Philharmonic, Monash Academy, the Luxemburg Philharmonie, Klangforum Wien and the Malta Philharmonic are among future projects.

Louisa Breen was born in Melbourne, Australia, and started her piano lessons with Nehama Patkin. After attending the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, she graduated with Bachelor of Music Honours from the University of Melbourne. In the same year she began her postgraduate studies on the piano at the Royal College of Music in London, supported by a Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Scholarship, an Associated Board International Scholarship, and the Clarke Scholarship. After gaining a Distinction for her Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Performance, Louisa completed her Masters in Musical Performance, followed by two years as an RCM Junior Fellow.

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While in the UK, Louisa won many prizes including the highest prize for piano at the Royal College of Music, the Chappell Gold Medal. She has toured Asia and Australasia as a member of the RCM Premiere ensemble and performed regularly as a soloist and as a chamber musician in concerts throughout London and the UK, including such venues as the Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields, and St John's Smith Square. She has performed concertos with orchestras in Australia, the United Kingdom, Europe and New Zealand, including the European Premiere of Australian composer Carl Vine's Piano Concerto with the RCM Sinfonietta. In 2004, Louisa won the piano section of the prestigious Royal Overseas League Music Competition, followed shortly by her solo Wigmore Hall debut.

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In 2005 Louisa returned to live in Melbourne, and has been working as a freelance pianist since. She performs regularly as a solo and chamber musician, and is a regular pianist with the Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras. As half of the Brown and Breen piano duo, she has released a CD of Australian compositions for 2 pianists, and has had works written for her by Peter Sculthorpe and Ross Edwards.

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As well as her musical life, Louisa enjoys good food, riding her bicycle, and being the mother of two little bouncy boys.