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Artists

Kirtley Leigh Paine, Artistic Director and Violin

Kirtley  Leigh   Paine    ~  Violinist  

  “…enthralling … fine playing, the music echoed with delight “                  
                                                           Brisbane Sunday Mail, October, 2005        
“Kirtley wowed the crowds at her Civic Theatre Recital”The Cairns Post, March, 2004
           “Virtuoso Violin with Panache”        Nelson, N.Z. News, September, 2006
  “Kirtley’s violin flirted with the piano of Pascal RogeArts Nexus Magazine, October, 2007
“Her concerto premiere was a match made in Heaven”  NZ Mail, September, 2006


American/Australian violinist Leigh has a career that has taken her across the globe, performing as soloist, in chamber concerts, recitals, and orchestras worldwide. Her performances have been celebrated in over 20 countries. Her home is now Australia , where she has lived since relocating from London 5 years ago. A student of the legendary virtuoso Josef Gingold, she holds a B Mus (honours) degree from Indiana University . The US honoured her with the prestigious American Federation of Music Prize in New York . As a chamber musician and recitalist, Leigh has appeared in the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, and festivals including Aspen, Point-Counterpoint and Chautauqua (USA), St. Endellion and Classics Live (UK), Klassik Aften, Bergen Festspille, and Oslo (Norway), Amsterdam, Vienna, Pollensa (Spain), and Hong Kong. Leigh was a member of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and was on the faculty of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. In Europe she held positions as leader in Amsterdam , and in Norway where, as principal second violin of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, she also led her own chamber music series, performed as soloist and recorded for Norwegian radio. Residing in London for 14 years, Leigh’s Duo gave its debut recital at the international Classics Live Festival. Leigh was in the UK ’s finest chamber and symphony orchestras, including principal second violin of the London Chamber Symphony, Assistant Leader of the Midlands Philharmonic, and member of the Academy of London , Oxford and European Union Chamber Orchestras.  She was also a chamber musician at the Endellion Festival under conductor Richard Hickox. European engagements included performing for Queen Sophia of Spain as Leader of the Pollensa Chamber Orchestra, and for King Olaf of Norway with the Bergen Philharmonic, as well as tours with Pavarotti and the Oporto Orchestra, Portugal , and with Soprano Kiri te Kanawa in France .  Leigh was one of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music’s artists in 2005, giving masterclasses and chamber music performances, recording for the ABC, and leading the chamber orchestra. She gave her Australian recital début in 2004, and in 2005 founded, as Artistic Director, Paradise Concerts international chamber music series in Cairns , Queensland . In ’05 Leigh visited Papua New Guinea , giving a command performance for the Prime Minister at Parliament House.  She is an appointed touring artist for Queensland Arts Council .For the last 3 years she has performed in recital with the internationally acclaimed pianist Pascal Rogé, and appeared as guest leader and soloist with the Barrier Reef Orchestra under conductor John Hopkins OBE. She also performed as soloist with Opera Queensland in 2006, and toured New Zealand , giving recitals, and the world premiere of a Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by composer, Ross Carey. In 2007 she was soloist at “Opera in the Outback” and leader of the Barrier Reef Orchestra .Leigh appeared as soloist/director in the debut of the Paradise Chamber Orchestra for Festival Cairns in The Eight Seasons, an innovative programme of her creation, juxtaposing Piazzolla and Vivaldi 4 Seasons. She is founder of the Paradise Chamber Orchestra, Cairns ’ first professional orchestra. Leigh continues to vigorously champion classical music in our region.  In November, 2007, she was presented a RADF award by Mayor Kevin Byrne in recognition of cultural excellence in the city of Cairns . The Paradise Concerts’ Gala Opening recital of 2008 featured Leigh and international pianist Melvyn Tan in performance together. Leigh was most recently appointed leader of the Cairns Community Orchestra For 2009, engagements include 2 concerto performances in Melbourne in March, and a return to Opera in the Outback in October.

see  www.melvyntan.com

http://www.vbpr.co.uk/vbprmelvyntan.html

French pianist extraordinaire

Pascal Roge

see www.pascalroge.com

This season Paradise Concerts is proud to welcome back International pianist Pascal Roge for his third appearance with us. His expert command of the solo and chamber music repertoire for piano leaves audiences spellbound time after time. Pascal has a flair and passion few commanding the world's stages can surpass, and he brings that vitality to this dynamic programme of giants and greats.

  June Campbell, Violin

This is June Campbell's third year as a devoted chamber musician with Paradise Concerts.  June studied in Melbourne and at the Queensland Conservatorium under Jan Sedivka and Kerry Smith. She joined the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in 1979and was a member and soloist for the next fifteen years. During that time she performed with the QSO Béla Bartók’s second Violin Concerto, and has appeared with celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Elton John and Billy Joel. In 1994 she moved to Cairns and now has a successful music studio teaching Violin and Viola.  She is Director of the Cairns String Orchestra and Leader of the North Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra.

Ross Carey. Composer and piano

Ross Carey's work reflects an eclectic approach to music composition. He gains inspiration from his native Aotearoa/New Zealand—the interweaving of land and sea, sounds of the natural world—as well as from many other traditions, such as the Hindustani classical tradition in which music is seen as 'offering'; the gamelan music of Java; the keyboard works in the European classical tradition; 'contemporary classical' music; sounds of hymns and the early influences from his mother's original church music compositions; and from literature and arts of many other lands and eras.

Through his instrumental and vocal music composed using 'raw materials' of various origins -- written texts, the 'musicalphabet' of Udo Kasemets, pre-existing works (both his own and by others) -- or through an 'old-fashioned' reliance on the touch and sound of the keyboard, Ross Carey fashions new insights from the old. According to musician Irwansyah Harahap, he paradoxically captured the heart of the strength of the percussive gamelan, for example, in the quiet and sustained sounds of his Two Pieces for Three Gamelan Players. In Nga Hau o Kaiaua (The Winds of Kaiaua) composed for Alexa Still, solo flute alternates with taonga puoro (native Maori flutes) traversing the legend of how the Southern Alps of New Zealand gained their impressive height. Great Wall (Souvenir de Visby) premiered by vocalising pianist Gao Ping at the Asian Composers' League Festival in Wellington in early 2007, paints a historical portrait of the Swedish town of Visby on Gotland Island in seven connected episodes, and was composed during a stay at the Visby International Centre for Composers as an ISCM fellow. A Won for Buddha for piano four hands is not so much a narrative, but a 'musical offering', counting again and again through the tones of John Cage's In a Landscape until we arrive at a place of repose. Other offerings include the elegiac Medicine Bundle no. 1: Flower Echoes of Springs, Sun and Mountainside commemorating the Bali bombing of 2002, and written for pianist Ananda Sukarlan. Elegy for string quartet, composed after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, received its premiere at the Auckland Philharmonia Ensemble Philharmonia concerts, in November 2006. Another elegy, Elegy (for a known) was composed for Toronto's Continuum Ensemble, and comments on our daily media diet of disaster reporting; in the crush of news we forget about the humanity of those caught in the crossfire.In all of Ross Carey's work an authentic voice is heard, responding to concerns that are both musical and extra-musical. This approach also informs his work as a performer: he concentrates on performing not only his own pieces but those of other composers, especially from the Asia-Pacific region.In April 2008 he performed at the International Composing Women Festival in Beijing , China , in a concert of new compositions by (mainly) women composers from Australia , Indonesia , New Zealand and Canada . Other recitals have seen him perform with violinist Kirtley Leigh Paine in the 2007 Paradise Concert series in Cairns ; at the National Library in Canberra ; at the Universities of Canterbury, Christchurch , and Hong Kong; at Theatre Utan Kayu in Jakarta where, with pianist Andi Setiawan, he performed his own compositions; and at the Indonesia-America Institute, Medan , Sumatera, and Whakatane. The last mentioned concert was a fundraiser for those who lost homes in the mudslide at Matata in New Zealand ’s eastern Bay of Plenty.Ross Carey ’s scores are available from the Centre for New Zealand Music (SOUNZ). He is a member of the Fellowship of Australian Composers and the Australasian Performing Rights Association. He has taught piano and musicianship at the Mitchell Conservatorium of Music in NSW, Australia . Currently Ross is undertaking a PHD in composition in Melbourne .

 see  www.geocities.com/rossjcarey 

Malcolm Cole, Violin and viola

While Malcolm’s principal instrument is violin, since moving to Cairns with his family in 2005 he has been in much demand as a violist. Malcolm has played viola with the Agincourt Ensemble, Nth. Qld. Philharmonic Orchestra and with the Barrier Reef Orchestra. He has performedand recorded on violin and viola with all of Queensland ’s professional orchestras for concerts, operas, musicals, ballets and tours. Malcolm studied music in Brisbane , Toowoomba , USA , Hungary and Austria and has toured extensively in Australiaand overseas as a player and conductor. A tour highlight was conducting a performance of Australian music in Westminster Abbey at the Service for Australia in 2000 to commemorate the Centenary of Federation. Malcolm has moved to Cairns after 20 years teaching and performing inBrisbane at various schools and as Director of Music at Churchie, an Anglican boys’ school renowned for its music program. He was also lecturerin instrumental pedagogy at the University of Queensland for 18 years. In 1997, Malcolm was awarded a Masters in Music Education from UWA for his research thesis "The Role of the Etude in the Development of the Australian Violinist". He has delivered papers and workshops at national and international conferences and contributes articles to various national publications. Malcolm is currently Director of Arts at St. Augustine ’s College inCairns where he is responsible for the curricular and co-curricular Arts program at the College. In 2006 he conducted the Cairns String Orchestra senior ensemble. Malcolm enjoys playing chamber music, as it requires a true team effort to succeed and has welcomed this opportunity to perform great works from the repertoire with local and international artists. Paradise Concerts welcomes Malcolm back for a third year of chamber music.

Ruth Cummings, Double Bass

Alannah Gould, Bassoon

 Alannah studied for her Bachelor of music on bassoon at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music.  After receiving a scholarship to further her bassoon studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Alannah moved to Sydney where she completed a Graduate Diploma of Music performance.  Returning to Brisbane in 1997, Alannah undertook a Master of Music at The University of Queensland.  Having just recently moved to Cairns, Alannah teaches at many schools and has a thriving music studio in Mt Sheridan

Jacinta Grace, Clarinet

Bob Halstead, Photographer

see www.halsteaddiving.com

Bob Halstead has spent a lifetime mostly underwater, and the way he captures the Coral Reef is breathtaking to behold. His recent membership into the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame has firmly marked him as one of the diving and underwater photography legends of our time.

JoAnne Kemp, piano

Louise King, Cello