Music Festivals Melbourne 2015

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. 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 Hollywood Bowl, and recorded for the motion picture industry.

Since returning to Australia Simon has appeared as Guest Principal with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Tasmanian and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Australian World Orchestra, Ensemble Liaison, Firebird Trio, Wilma and Friends, and the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. Recent highlights have included performances in the UK at the Oxford May Chamber Music Festival and the North York Moors Festival. He currently teaches at the University of Melbourne.

Violinist Curt Thompson performs throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia as a concerto soloist, recitalist, concertmaster, and chamber musician in such prestigious venues as Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Salle Gaveau (Paris), Teatro Naçional de Costa Rica (San José), Shanghai Concert Hall, and others. Thompson’s debut recording of the violin sonatas by Charles Ives (Naxos) has received outstanding reviews worldwide, including Gramophone, The Strad, The Wire, and The New York Times, where it was included in a listing of “Critics’ Favorites” and was called “…a hole in one…perfectly demonstrating [Ives’] spicy, earthy rawness and appeal….” The recording has been broadcast world wide, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, National Public Radio’s Performance Today, WRR 101.1 FM (Dallas), WGBH 89.7 (Boston), Aspen Public Radio and others. His live performance of the four Ives sonatas was included in the annual “‘Top 10’ Musical Events of the Year” listing in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Concerto appearances include the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra (China), Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra (Colombia), the Corpus Christi, San Angelo, Las Colinas, Arlington and Garland symphonies, and the Texas Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Thompson has been a featured artist in the Copland/Shostakovich Festival (Rio de Janeiro), the Festival de Primavera (Oaxaca, Mexico), the Seventh Centennial Festival of Villarobledo (Spain), Inter-Harmony International Music Festival (Hinterzarten, Germany) and Clefworks Chamber Music Festival (Montgomery, AL). In addition, he is Concertmaster of the Corpus Christi, Las Colinas and San Angelo Symphonies, the Texas Chamber Orchestra, and has served as Concertmaster of the Fort Worth Symphony (by special invitation) and the Spoleto Festival Orchestra (Italy).