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Kettering Concerts |
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Jonathan Békés started playing the cello at 10 years old and has studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Australian National Academy of Music. He has learnt with cellists such as Howard Penny, Julian Smiles and Susan Blake and won numerous awards for his performance including the ANAM Director’s Prize, and First Prize in the ANAM Chamber Competition. He is recipient of the 2016 Accenture Australia Scholarship, the Sydney Conservatorium’s Corinna d’Hage String Scholarship, and has attained his AMus and LMus, both with distinction.
Békés is in great demand as a performer, chamber musician and teacher across Australia and has taken his cello across the world, having performed and taught across four different continents. He is member of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, a founding member of the award winning Clarendon Trio and plays regularly with the Australian World Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Békés has performed chamber music alongside such artists as Anthony Marwood, Stephan Dohr, Ole Bøhn, and Timothy Young and has performed in masterclasses for Steven Isserlis, Pieter Wispelwey, Nicholas Aldstaedt and Alban Gerhadt.
Békés has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras around Australia including the Hobart Chamber Orchestra and the Sydney Youth Orchestra. In 2011 he played for a full house at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall as part of the HSC ENCORE program.
In his spare time, Békés is a passionate Sydney Swans supporter and a committed Hobart Hurricanes enthusiast. He is a keen squash player, an avid golfer and loves to get outside to go hiking and mountain biking. For more information go to www.jonathanbekes.com.
Meriel Owen enjoys a versatile musical life and is in demand as a pianist and harpist. A student of the renowned composer and pianist, Larry Sitsky, Meriel graduated from the Canberra School of Music in 1990. She resided in the United States from 1995-2006 and during this time was occupied with a variety of activities including attendance at the Aspen Music Festival and School as a student in the collaborative program in 1998, completing a Master of Arts in Theology in 1999, and playing countless weddings and liturgical events. Meriel graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2002 with a Master of Music in collaborative piano studying with Rita Sloan. Subsequent recital opportunities have taken her to Washington D.C., Houston, Chicago, Italy and Australia.
Principal Clarinet with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO) since 2012,
Andrew Seymour studied with Robert Schubert at the Victorian College of the
Arts. Between 2009 and 2011 he toured nationally as a member of the orchestra
for OzOpera. Andrew was singled out by The West Australian review of OzOpera’s
production of Verdi’s La Traviata, saying “his every note was meaningful.” In
2014 Andrew was featured in recital on ABC Classic FM’s Sunday Live program,
his performance praised by Limelight Magazine as being “soaring and colourful”
and by the Hobart Mercury as “an astonishing display of instrumental
virtuosity.” Andrew has performed as guest principal Clarinet with the
Australian Chamber Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, West Australian,
Melbourne, and Canberra Symphony Orchestras. In 2016 Andrew made his solo debut
with the TSO performing the Copland Clarinet Concerto under the baton of Chief
Conductor Marko Letonja. His performance was described by The Hobart Mercury as
“sensitive and beautifully shaded” and “gloriously vibrant.” As well as
performing the concertos of Mozart and Weber with the TSO, Andrew has featured
regularly as soloist in the TSO ‘Live Sessions’ series where he has performed a
diverse range of pieces from Klezmer and Jazz inspired works alongside new
pieces by Tasmanian composers Jabra Latham and Stephen Cronin. As a chamber
musician, Andrew has been featured in the Tasmanian Chamber Music Festival,
performed with the Southern Cross Soloists and regularly performs with Virtuosi
Tasmania. Since 2017 Andrew has been a staff member at the University of
Tasmania, Conservatorium of Music, where he is Lecturer in Clarinet and
Coordinator of Woodwind. Andrew is a Backun artist and performs on Backun
Clarinets crafted in Cocobolo wood.
'If there was a parallel universe, I would be a photographer - with fancy
cameras, filters and tripods, plus one of those metallic umbrellas to bounce
light on the underside of the world. But I have a very ordinary Olympus OMD.
My camera has always been a relaxer and always hand-held. Taking photographs is
fun and diverts us from the cares of the world to its beauties. I just take
what I see. And mostly of nature in its myriad of stunning moments, none ever
to be repeated, all part of the unbelievable panoply of existence.
Seeing my pictures will not match the real moments of joy any viewer has
experienced in their own lives. Yet sharing them heightens my own joy of
life.'
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