Classical Performance

Dr Elizabeth Layton (FHEA UK) is Head of Classical Performance and Senior Lecturer, violin, at the Elder Conservatorium of Music.

Described as ‘one of the most outstanding performers of her generation’ (The Strad), Elizabeth enjoys a varied career performing recitals and chamber music throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Born in London, Elizabeth studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School where, aged twelve, she was invited to join Hephzibah and Yehudi Menuhin for a chamber music concert to celebrate the latter’s Golden Jubilee, broadcast by the BBC from the Royal Festival Hall, London. She continued her studies at the Juilliard School, New York with Dorothy DeLay and Masao Kawasaki, going on to win the Young Concert Artists Trust Competition.

Elizabeth made her UK concerto debut with the Philharmonia and appeared as soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, English Sinfonia, Calgary Philharmonic, City of Barcelona Symphony, Lahti Symphony and many others. Festival appearances include Bath, Edinburgh, Harrogate, Cheltenham, Valencia, Gstaad and numerous music societies.

She has toured chamber music worldwide with the Nash Ensemble, also performing with the Australia Ensemble, Australia Piano Quartet, Ensemble Q, Selby&Friends, Australian String Quartet and Flinders String Quartet. Chamber music festivals include the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Music by the Springs, Coriole Festival, Coramba Festival, Port Fairy Spring Festival, Bendigo Festival, George Town Festival, Penang, MCO Concert Series, ASO ‘She Speaks’ Festival, and at the Melbourne Recital Centre. Broadcasts by the ABC presented her on Sunday Live in recital and as soloist in Raymond Hanson’s Violin Concerto with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

CD recordings include the complete Beethoven piano trios (nominated for a Gramophone Award), violin and piano works by Schubert (Daily Telegraph ‘CD Choice’), Beethoven Folksongs (DG), chamber music by Ravel, Schubert, Brahms, Fauré and Shostakovich (Hyperion, Naxos, BIS and Chandos). 20th Century repertoire includes Arvo Part’s Passio with the Hilliard Ensemble and a critically acclaimed CD of Jonathan Harvey’s ‘Scena’ for solo violin with the BBC SSO under Ilan Volkov (NMC). Recent releases include chamber music with oboe (Bax, Britten, Bridge), Boccherini complete chamber music with flute, and a three CD project of chamber music by William Shield (Naxos).

Elizabeth was Concertmaster of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Associate Leader of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, regularly broadcasting for the BBC as soloist and director. She is a regular guest concertmaster with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and been guest leader with symphony orchestras in Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland, Tasmania, Auckland and Wellington. Passionate about directing orchestras from the violin, she has collaborated with soloists including Michael Collins, Alison Balsom and Martin Roscoe for the BBC, and was guest director of the Scottish Ensemble, Manchester Camerata and Ambache Ensemble. She regularly works in this capacity with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, also directing the Lamda Chamber Orchestra at AYO National Music Camp. She is director of the Elder Conservatorium Chamber Orchestra, giving performances every semester in the Elder Hall Concert Series and in venues around Australia.

Elizabeth taught in London at the Guildhall School Junior Department and at the Royal Scottish Conservatoire, Glasgow. She continues her wider commitment to music education tutoring at the Australian Youth Orchestra Chamber Music Course, and giving masterclasses in South Australia, Victoria, ACT, at the University of Queensland and VCASS Melbourne, as well as working regularly with AUSTA. Elizabeth received her doctorate from the University of Adelaide in 2019 and in 2021 was awarded Fellowship of the Higher Education Authority, UK. She is currently an Artistic Director of the Thursday Recital Series at Adelaide’s Baroque Concert Hall.

Returning to Australia from the U.S. in 2017 Rob was appointed as an Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, taking over as head of the Early Music department and director of graduate studies. From 2020 – 2022 he held the position of ‘Master Musician in Residence’ at the Elder Conservatorium of Music. 

Rob previous taught on the faculty of the Juilliard School for 11 years, at Penn State University for 18 years where he was a Distinguished Professor, and as a Kulas Visiting Artist at Case Western Reserve University. He is past-president of the International Society of Bassists from whom he received a Recognition Award for Historical Performance in 2009 (the third ever given). He hosted the Society’s 2009 Convention at Penn State University bringing together over 2,600 people from 32 countries for 6 days. In 2008 he was awarded a Howard Foundation Fellowship from Brown University. 

Rob received his Bachelor of Music with distinction from the Canberra School of Music and a post-graduate diploma from the Berlin Musikhochschule by courtesy of a two-year DAAD German Government Scholarship. His teachers have included Klaus Stoll, Tom Martin, and Max McBride. 

Rob’s performing experience covers Contemporary, Jazz, traditional Orchestral, and Historical Performance Ensembles, with a career that has spanned Europe, the U.S. and Australasia. He has performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, The Gothenburg Symphony, The Oslo Philharmonic, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, The Melbourne, and West Australian Symphonies, the Tasmanian Symphony Chamber Players, the Australia Ensemble, The Australian World Orchestra and the Australian String Quartet. He has acted as guest Principle Bassist with the Halle Orchestra, the London Mozart players, the Sydney and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, The Australian Opera Orchestra, and held the position of Principle bass with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. As a soloist he has performed concerti with the Australian Chamber, Adelaide and Darwin symphony orchestras and Handel and Haydn Society. 

Rob has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Classical, EMI, Naxos, Virgin, Tall Poppies, RCA, Decca, Channel Classics and ABC Classics and can be heard on over 60 commercial CD recordings. Recent releases include Louise Farrenc quintet for piano and strings with Ironwood on ABC Classics, a CD of music for double bass and viola duos by American composers, Barry Coyngham’s double bass concerto on ‘Move’, and his first solo CD, entitled ‘Tremor’, was released on the U.S. ‘Ablaze’ label in 2022.  

His recording on the English ‘Coro’ label of Mozart’s “Per Questa Balla Mano” was the first on Viennese bass and his duo CD of the repertoire of Dragonetti and Lindley was released in Oct 2012. A review in the ‘Strad’ described how the players ‘demonstrate their virtuosity and excellent rapport’. 

A specialist in historical performance, he has been principal bassist with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra since 1997 and a member of both Ironwood and Adelaide Baroque. He was principal bass of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society since 2003, and also principal bass of the Boston Early Music Festival and Juilliard Baroque. He has performed with the English Baroque Soloists, Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, Concerto Caledonia, Washington Bach Consort, Rebel, Florilegium, The Smithsonian Chamber Players, The Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra, Muffat Collective, Bach Akademie Australia, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. 

Rob is also active in commissioning new works and has premiered more than forty compositions for both solo bass and chamber music featuring the bass, championing in particular the music of Australian composers. In these performances he has worked both alone and with such groups as the London Sinfonietta, Gruppe Neue Musik Berlin, Australysis, the Music Theatre of Wales, and the Sydney Alpha Ensemble. In 2009 he premiered a new concerto by Barry Conyngham and by Doug Bailliet in 2016. He has performed recitals in Europe, Scandinavia, China, the U.S. and Australia. 

Edith Salzmann is a German/NZ cellist with an extensive career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. She began her studies at the Music Academy in Detmold in Germany at the age of fourteen and went on to study at Indiana University, Bloomington (USA), where she studied with Janos Starker. She has performed She was a member of the Tibor Varga Chamber Orchestra, the Corda String Quartet, the Musikfabrik Duesseldorf, and various other New Music ensembles and has performed extensively all over Europe, America, Asia, and Australasia.As a chamber musician and soloist, she has performed in major European concert halls, such the Berlin Philharmonie, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, Cologne Philharmonie, Gasteig Munich, the Barbican London, and the Tonhalle, Zuerich with, amongst others, Heinz Holliger, Christoph Poppen, Eduard Brunner, Gustav Rivinius, Menahem Pressler, Nobuko Imai, Erick Friedman, Luba Edlina, Clio Gould, Hansjoerg Schellenberger, Michael Endres and others. Her discography includes many releases on Naxos, Stradivarius, EMI Germany, Atoll, and Rattle records. Recent recordings for Naxos records include the complete chamber music of William Shield with the Dorrit Ensemble and the Hummel Beethoven Symphonies and the Pleyel trio with the Pettman Ensemble.

Edith is a highly successful teacher, with many of her former students now having careers in professional orchestras or as chamber musicians. She was Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland and has, in recent years taught at the University of Melbourne. She is in demand for masterclasses and regularly teaches in Korea, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Italy, Germany, Poland, and Switzerland.

In 2005, she founded the Pettman National Junior Academy, a privately sponsored scholarship program for highly talented young musicians. To date, this program has been going from strength to strength, with multiple international prize winners coming out of its ranks. Edith is the artistic director of the International Akaroa Music Festival, a chamber music and masterclass festival in Akaroa, NZ, and the Director of the Pettman Open Chamber Music Program, a concert career-development program for young musicians. She regularly tours with the Pettman Ensemble, the Jade String Quartet, and the Dorrit Ensemble.

Simon Cobcroft is the Artistic Director of the Coriole Music Festival, and for almost 10 years has served as Principal Cello with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. He is a member of the critically acclaimed Lyrebird Trio, familiar to audiences around Australia and further afield, since winning the 2013 Asia Pacific Chamber Music Competition. Simon studied at the Queensland Conservatorium and the Australian National Academy of Music. Since graduating, he has held principal positions with the Queensland Symphony and Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestras, and has performed with London's Philharmonia Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony, Denmark’s Esbjerg Ensemble, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and as principal with the Tasmanian and Singapore Symphony Orchestras. 

Recent highlights include performances as guest principal cello with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Australian String Quartet, Tinalley Quartet and with Pinchas Zukerman and friends. He has appeared as principal and soloist at the Aldeburgh, Pacific and Salzburg Music Festivals. Simon has performed the cello concertos by Haydn, Elgar, Saint-Saëns and Bruch with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, winning the 2016 Adelaide Critics’ Circle Award for his performance of the Elgar Concerto. In previous years he appeared as soloist with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Sydney’s Metropolitan Orchestra, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria. Simon studied with Matthew Farrell, Janis Laurs, Alexander Baillie, David Strange and Michael Goldschlager. He plays on a beautiful English cello made in 1840 by Thomas Kennedy. In his spare time, he loves to cook.

Australian violist Stephen King performed with the Australian String Quartet from 2012-21. Prior to this, he was a member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra for nine years. With the ASQ, Stephen developed projects with First Nations artists, young players, new Australian commissions and recordings, and innovative digital collaborations. As the ACO's education representative, he played a major role in founding and building the Emerging Artists program and ACO2.

Growing up in Canberra, Stephen learned the violin but fell for the darker world of the viola studying with Elizabeth Morgan. He completed his studies in the USA with James Dunham, Kathy Murdock and Michael Tree. From 1997 Stephen was violist of the Coolidge String Quartet based in Washington D.C. He holds a Doctorate in Chamber Music, having worked closely with the Emerson and Guarneri Quartets.

Stephen was also Associate Principal Viola of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and a member of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. He was faculty of the New England Conservatory Prep Division in Boston and the ASTA Workshops. Recently Stephen has been a regular guest principal of the TSO and plays with AWO and ARCO. Stephen teaches viola and chamber music at the University of Adelaide, Elder Conservatorium and regularly tutors at AYO National Music Camp.

Helen Ayres is a Doctoral graduate of the University of Melbourne and current violin teacher at the Open Music Academy, University of Adelaide. She is a founding member of Seraphim trio, resident leader of the Adelaide Hills Chamber Players Hendrickson Strings ensemble and has appeared as guest with numerous Australian ensembles.

As a founding member of Seraphim, Helen has commissioned new works by Brett Dean, James Ledger and Jakob Jankowski and has performed at various Australian festivals with musicians Paul Kelly, Lucinda Collins, Konstantin Shamray and Elizabeth Layton. Helen’s chamber music concerts are regularly broadcast on ABC and MBS-FM radio stations and she has also presented for Radio 5MBS-FM in Adelaide. In 2019, Seraphim’s recording with Paul Kelly, James Ledger, and Alice Keath, Thirteen Ways to Look at Birds, won the ARIA award for Best Classical Album.

Helen held a permanent position with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and has since performed in England, Scotland, Germany, Austria and China with the BBC Scottish Symphony and London Philharmonic Orchestra. She is currently acting Principal First Violin with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

Helen is passionate about increasing performance opportunities for young Australian musicians. To this end she is appears on the board of Recitals Australia and convenes the String and Ensemble Divisions of the Adelaide Eisteddfod Society.

Suzanne Handel earned her Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, studying with Susann McDonald, having previously studied with Marcel Grandjany and Nancy Allen.

She toured the USA and Europe as a soloist, won numerous American Harp Society competitions, was a frequent Fellowship recipient to the Aspen Music Festival and won a place at the Marlboro Music Festival, specialising in chamber music. She was the Principal Harpist of the Sarasota Opera before joining the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, where she was Principal Harpist for 29 years. She has given master classes at harp festivals and played concertos with many Australian orchestras, tutored at National Music Camp, and been heard frequently on ABC Classic FM. She brings her extensive experience as a solo performer, chamber musician, and orchestral player to her teaching, emphasising the importance of a broad spectrum of tone quality and dynamics, as well as musical phrasing and clean technique.