Josephine Vains

Cello

Josephine is a versatile and engaging performer, heard regularly in concert around Australia and overseas as a cellist and chamber musician. She has worked with myriad artists on diverse projects including piano trio / quartet / quintet, string quartet, opera, baroque ensembles, contemporary and electronic music, and Argentine tango music. She is a passionate educator, currently training the next generation of musicians at Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne. She is a regular tutor for Melbourne and Australian Youth Orchestra, Mt. Buller Chamber Music, Clunes Music and internationally for Pettman Junior Academy (NZ) and iartschool (China).

Josephine is a founding member of Firebird Trio, currently presenting innovative and engaging programs around Australia. Equally at home on modern and period instruments, Josephine performs and records regularly with other ensembles including Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Kammermusik, Accademia Arcadia, Ludovico’s Band, Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra, Elysium Ensemble and Melbourne Baroque Orchestra.

In Australia she has performed for Melbourne Digital Concert Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre, Musica Viva, the Sydney and Melbourne Arts Festivals, Noosa Long Weekend, Castlemaine and Port Fairy Festivals, Woodend Winter Arts and Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields Festivals. International performances include at the Musicfest Vancouver, the Hannover Brahms and Schumann Festivals, White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg and more recently at the Longyou Caves Festival (China) and Akaroa Chamber Music Festival (NZ).

Josephine features on a number of albums including; Royal Children's Hospital HUSH, ABC Classics, Resonus Classics, Tall Poppies, and has been reviewed in GRAMOPHON Magazine. In 2020 she was the winner of the Moreland Award for Arts and Culture for her contribution to community during Covid-19 lockdown with a series of Letterbox Concerts. She is a Laureate of MICMC 1999 with Trio 303, and was the winner of the inaugural National Chamber Music Competition. She performs on a Thomas Kennedy Cello, 1850 (London) and a Thomas Dodd Cello, (1800) London.