WIND SYMPHONY CREDITS
FLUTE
Esther Battersby
Wiki Chen
Jasmine Evenden
Molly Jenkins*
Matthew Mulherin*
William Rigby*
Jessica Zuk
OBOE
Oscar Gillespie*
Anika Weibgen
Abigail Xu
Jiyou Yang
CLARINET
Amy Broeksteeg
Jes Broeren*
Anna Chung
Ben Curry-Hyde
Brennan Hamilton-Smith
Rory Hughes
Bailey Hume
Kristopher Nash
Ethan Pang
Patrick Vaughan
Tess Waller
Georgia White
BASSOON
William Hanna*
Dominique Mirabella
Mia Quist
Stephanie Sheridan
SAXOPHONE
Mitchell Flynn*
Qi Li
Ryan Lynch
Ben Singh
Mira Stephens
Carlia Van Hoorn
HORN
Clynton Royle*
Gabrielle Kennedy*
Emily Miers
Tom Allen
Henry Langley
Luc Bögemann
TRUMPET
Jennifer Bylund
Tobias Duffy
James Earl*
Bailey Lake
James O'Hehir
Thomas Saar
Benjamin Sametz*
Nicholas Walker
TROMBONE
Stephanie Burger
James Farrough*
Thomas Grayden
Angus Pace
Isaac Williams
EUPHONIUM
Patrick Benger
Isaac Williams*
TUBA
Massimiliano Castor*
Finnlay Hansen
PERCUSSION
Aditya Ryan Bhat
Huon Bourne Blue*
Bridget Bourne
Leah Columbine
Marcus Ian Govan
Oscar Tudge*
Justin Zheng
PIANO/CELESTA
Lily Begg*
HARP
Glavier Aldana*
Abby Griffith-Barrow
*Denotes Section Leader
Members of the Wind Symphony are listed alphabetically to acknowledge each performer’s unique contribution. Every member is considered to be a principal performer in the ensemble.
Percussion Quartet
Huon Bourne Blue started playing percussion at the age of ten. Having been learning piano for a year (studying with Luba Totoeva), he wanted to have a go at playing with other people, and so began playing percussion in Newcastle Conservatorium of Music community ensembles. Huon began percussion lessons in 2015, first studying with Charissa Ferguson, and then from 2016-2018 with Stephan Mühr. He has taken part in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s Playerlink program in 2015, 2016 and 2017, was Principal Percussionist of the Sydney Youth Orchestra in 2018 and has participated in numerous Australian Youth Orchestra programs since 2017 including their International Tour to Europe and China in 2019. Huon has participated in masterclasses and been tutored by musicians including Herman Rieken (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra), Grahame King (Royal Birmingham Ballet), She-e Wu (Northwestern University), Edward Choi (Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra) and Alexander Radziewski (Hamburger Symphoniker). Conductors and soloists Huon has played with include Krzysztof Urbański, Daniel Müller-Schott, Jan Lisiecki, Richard Mills, Alexander Briger, Ariel Zuckermann, Giordano Bellincampi, Matthew Coorey, Tze Law Chan, Richard Davis and Nicholas Milton to name a few. Huon commenced undergraduate studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2018 studying with Daryl Pratt and Mark Robinson (Acting Principal Timpani - Sydney Symphony Orchestra), however relocated to Melbourne in July 2020 to continue his studies at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music studying with Guy Du Blêt (Principal Timpani - Orchestra Victoria). Huon is currently Principal Timpanist of the Australian Youth Orchestra.
Bridget Bourne is currently completing her Bachelor of Music with Honours at the University of Melbourne. Recognised as one of Melbourne’s top up-and-coming percussionists, Fever Pitch Magazine (2019) named her as one of “the finest young musicians you could hope to hear within Australia". Having established herself in classical orchestral performance, including being a member of the University of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Wind Symphony during the course of her studies, she is now consolidating her reputation as an “excellent” (Fever Pitch Magazine) performer in the New Music realm. She has a particular affinity for explorative group performance, as evidenced in her work with the New Music Studio’s 2019 performances of Elena Rykova’s 101% Mind Uploading and Anaparastasis III, The Pianist. She made her solo marimba debut in 2017, performing Paul Creston’s Concertino for Marimba with the Heidelberg Wind Ensemble. As an ensemble member, she has toured to China, Singapore, Scotland, Ireland, and New Zealand as well as extensively throughout Australia. She is honoured to be the 2017 recipient of the Catherine Grace McWilliam Prize, and the 2018 recipient of the Wright Prize in Instrumental Music as well as the Ormond Exhibitions Scholarship. In 2018, she became the inaugural winner of the Australian Marimba Competition Open Vibraphone section and was also awarded Best Interpretation for the 3rd round duet-piece Waltz for Debby as awarded by the arranger Arthur Lipner. Bridget is also an accomplished composer and was honoured to give the world premiere performance of her original percussion trio Con Sequence at the Australian Marimba Competition Gala Concert in 2019.
Leah Columbine is currently a second-year percussion student studying a Bachelor of Music in Performance at the University of Melbourne. Leah commenced percussion at the age of ten as a student at Methodist Ladies’ College (MLC) in Kew, previously learning cello, voice, and keyboard. Throughout high school, she was an active member of many ensembles including the Percussion Ensemble, Symphonic Band, Concert Orchestra, Drum Line and Marching Band, participating in events including the Melbourne Anzac Day Parade and the Glenferrie Festival. Post involvement in the Robertson Youth Orchestra (RYO), Leah commenced as a member of the Melbourne Youth Orchestra from 2016-2020, while holding the position of principal timpanist in 2017 and 2018. As a member of this orchestra, she played alongside the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and received tutoring from many outstanding percussionists including Steve Falk, John Arcaro and Scott Weatherson. Leah has also participated in multiple annual Australian Percussion Eisteddfods, receiving first in Junior High Timpani (2015), Intermediate 2-Mallet (2017) and Intermediate Snare Drum (2017). In 2018, Leah achieved her Associate of Trinity College London (ATCL) Diploma in Percussion Performance with Distinction and was awarded the Angela Sharman Memorial Music Scholarship at MLC. Currently, Leah is a member of the University of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Wind Symphony, Philharmonic Orchestra and Percussion Ensemble.
Justin Zheng, a twenty-year old Brisbane native, started playing percussion at the age of six at the J Percussion Music School located in Sunnybank Queensland. At age nine, he began the AMEB (Australian Music Examination Board) process starting with Grade 3 – 6 as a primary school student, then Grade 7 – LMUSA as a high school student. Justin has participated in competitions since 2012 gaining valuable solo experience. The Beenleigh Eisteddfod was his first competition at age twelve, followed by the Australian Percussion Eisteddfod (APE) at age thirteen. Throughout these competitions, he has earned numerous of awards, trophies and certificates, including placing in the Queensland Symphony Orchestra Young Instrumentalist Competition, and being the first percussionist in history to be named a finalist. In 2019, Justin moved to Melbourne to begin the Bachelor of Music course at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne. Since the move to Melbourne, he’s enrolled in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Snare Drum Award and has enjoyed this experience designed to provide further development of audition skills and performance techniques in a professional environment, as well as a potential one-year mentorship with the MSO. He is currently a third-year student at the Conservatorium studying with Rob Cossom (MSO) and performing in the Percussion Ensemble, Wind Symphony and Symphony Orchestra.
Dr Nicholas Williams
Conductor
One of Australia’s newest international conductors, Dr Nicholas Enrico Williams is an Associate Professor of Music and conductor of the University of Melbourne Wind Symphony and Melbourne Conservatorium of Music Concert Band. Prior to his appointment in Melbourne, Nicholas flourished for sixteen years as the Assistant Director of Wind Studies, the Conductor of the Wind Ensemble, Brass Band, and Concert Band, as well as the Director of Athletic Bands at the University of North Texas, one of the most significant institutions for wind band activity in the world. For a decade, he was the Conductor of the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra Wind Symphony and continues to be a frequent guest conductor of the Dallas Winds (formerly Dallas Wind Symphony), one of America’s few professional civic wind bands.
As an advocate of chamber music, Associate Professor Williams was the founder and conductor of the East Plano Brass and was the principal guest conductor for the Harmoniemusik chamber ensemble. In the wind band world, he has been a guest conductor with the United States Air Force Band; Dallas Wind Symphony; Lone Star Wind Orchestra; at the annual Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, Illinois; the College Band Directors National Association regional conference; the Texas Bandmasters Association Convention; and the Texas Music Educators Association Annual Clinic/Convention in San Antonio, Texas.
Nicholas is active in Australia, Canada, Europe, Southeast Asia, and the United States as a conductor, clinician, adjudicator, consultant, and arranger; his arrangements and transcriptions for wind band, percussion ensembles, drum corps, and school pageantry ensembles are performed by outstanding organizations throughout the world. A member of the Recording Academy (GRAMMYs), Nicholas is a sought-after recording session producer, associate producer, editor, and conductor, having been involved with numerous CDs and DVDs on the Klavier, Mark Records, and GIA labels, as well as UNT projects, including the 2019 worldwide release of “FIESTAS” by the University of North Texas Wind Ensemble. In addition to his work in the recording arts, he has written several conductor study guides published in the multivolume series of Teaching Music Through Performance in Band. He is a primary consultant of Women of Influence in Contemporary Music and is an honorary member of Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity for women. His professional affiliations include the Australian Band and Orchestra Directors Association, Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Bandmasters Association, College Band Directors National Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and Phi Beta Mu, an international bandmasters fraternity.