Lunchbox Concert: Mini Van Diemen's Band
Credit: Albert Comper
Program
To be announced
About the artists
Simon Rickard studied modern bassoon at the Australian National University School of Music in Canberra, before moving to the Netherlands for postgraduate study in historical bassoons at the Koninklijk Conservatorium (Royal Conservatorium) at the Hague.
Simon has performed, toured and recorded with international period instrument ensembles including the Gabrieli Consort and Players, Les Arts Florissants and Florilegium. In Australia he played principal bassoon with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra for 11 years (1992-2003). He has appeared as guest principal bassoon with the Australian Chamber Orchestra (Mozart’s Mitridate, 2001), Opera Australia and Victorian Opera for their forays into period instruments.
More recently Simon has enjoyed playing with many of the newer ensembles in Australia’s burgeoning early music scene. He plays and records with the Orchestra of the Antipodes, Melbourne-based renaissance groups Consort Eclectus and La Compañia, the Ironwood Ensemble, Latitude 37, Camerata Antica, the Australian Haydn Ensemble, and the Peninsula Summer Music Festival. Simon is very proud to have played principal bassoon for Pinchgut Opera since its inception.
Melbourne-based viola da gamba specialist Laura Vaughan is one of Australia’s most engaging and expressive early music performers. Known for her vivid musicianship and warm stage presence, she has become a dynamic voice within the country’s early music scene. After studies with Miriam Morris at the University of Melbourne and with Wieland Kuijken and Philippe Pierlot at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Laura forged a vibrant performing career across Australasia. A versatile musician, she moves fluently between the viola da gamba, violone, lirone, and baryton, performing an expansive repertoire that spans centuries.
Simon Martyn-Ellis began playing the lute after finding the classical guitar repertoire too restrictive for ensemble performance: continuo collaborations remain a mainstay of his activities.
Simon returned to Australia in August 2019 after 17 years abroad, having lived and worked in first Germany for a decade, and then the United States. Intensely grateful for his experiences, he looks immensely forward to working with past, present and future colleagues from home and around the globe.
Now based in Nipaluna/Hobart, he maintains an active performance schedule with Pinchgut Opera, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Latitude 37, the Australian Haydn Ensemble, Van Diemen’s Band, ARCO, Salut! Baroque, Ensemble Galante, the Sydney and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, as a founding member of Notturno and Duo Corbetta, along with other small but special collaborations.