Born in Fiji and raised in New Zealand, Wilma studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston with Dorothy DeLay (violin) and Louis Krasner (chamber music). She was founding First Violinist of the Lydian Quartet, winners of the Naumburg Award for Chamber Music and multiple prizes at Evian, Banff and Portsmouth International String Quartet Competitions. She also worked regularly with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and led the Harvard Chamber Orchestra and Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra before being lured back to New Zealand as founding First Violinist of the New Zealand String Quartet. Those early years of the NZSQ were marked by an extensive Australian tour for Musica Viva and a residency and performances at the Tanglewood Festival.

A long and celebrated orchestral career followed as Concertmaster of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and then the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Currently, Wilma is Second Violinist of the Flinders Quartet, curator/violinist of her own chamber music series, Wilma & Friends, and Musica Viva Australia’s Artistic Director of Competitions, overseeing the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and Strike A Chord, the Australian national chamber music competition for school-aged students. In New Zealand, she serves as a Board Director of the NZSO and is Co-Artistic Director of the Martinborough Music Festival, an annual chamber music festival in which she also performs. She relishes the privilege of playing with the Australian World Orchestra at home and around the world and enjoys guest-performing opportunities with the Australian and New Zealand orchestras. Wilma was presented with the 2025 Sir Bernard Heinze Award for her contribution to music in Australia.

Acclaimed as a ‘virtuosic’ performer of ‘unimpeachable artistry’ (NZ Herald), Ashley Brown is an award-winning soloist, chamber musician and recording artist. Currently Principal Cellist of Auckland Philharmonia, he was a founding member of NZTrio with whom he played for 23 years, and is a passionate advocate for new music and its power to express the truth and complexity of our place and time. 

A former student of Alexander Ivashkin (Christchurch), Aldo Parisot (Yale) and William Pleeth (London), Ashley's playing reflects his diverse musical influences, his deep musical curiosity and his love of collaboration. As a young performer he achieved international competition success, winning the National Concerto Competition, Adam International Cello Competition and the ROSL Music Competition, among others. After completing his Artist Diploma at Yale, he went on to gain a Doctorate in Musical Arts at the University of Auckland, exploring the collaborative relationship between composer and performer. 

Ashley has performed, recorded and toured extensively within New Zealand, Australia, Asia, USA, UK and Europe. During his time with NZTrio he was fundamental in the commissioning and championing of more than 70 new works by New Zealand composers,receiving a CANZ Lilburn citation for his contribution to Aotearoa’s musical landscape. 

He has worked with an incredible collection of artists and composers including Dame Gillian Whitehead, Krzysztof Penderecki, Moana Maniapoto, Phil Dadson, Nadia Reid, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Richard Nunns, Xia Jing, Michael Houstoun, Horomono Horo, Kristjan Järvi and Neil Finn - and continues to enjoy a career that explores and embraces the full range of the musical spectrum.

Caroline is a violist and Feldenkrais Practitioner based in Melbourne. She moved to Australia from England in 1993 to be Principal Viola with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and since 2015, she has been Head of Viola at the Australian National Academy of Music. Her busy chamber music life has included appearances with Wilma & Friends, Kristian Chong & Friends, the Stradbroke Island Chamber Music Festival, Music by the Springs, Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, Melbourne Baroque Orchestra and the Martinborough Music Festival in New Zealand.

After studies in the UK at the Yehudi Menuhin School and Guildhall School of Music & Drama where her teachers included Robert Masters, David Takeno & Hans Keller, Caroline began her career as violist in the Mistry String Quartet, Principal Viola with the Scottish Ensemble and in regular guest performances with The Guildhall String Ensemble. She has acted as Guest Principal with the SSO, MSO, TSO, NZSO, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Philharmonia, City of London Sinfonia, Glyndebourne on Tour, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. 

As well as the viola, Caroline also loves to play the violin, though generally with friends who don’t earn their living as performers. Her love of music-making with community musicians came from her father, a passionate amateur violinist, violist and cellist. Working with non-professional musicians and reading chamber music with friends who love to play for fun brings another dimension to her musical life. Caroline has taught on many occasions at the Mount Buller Chamber Music Summer School, a residential camp for chamber music lovers from the community. Caroline’s recent Master of Music Research degree (Griffith) explored creative collaboration through composition and performance.

Daniel, a graduate of the Griffith Conservatorium of Music and the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), has enjoyed a multitude of experiences as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician. He has performed with leading ensembles including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, Elision Ensemble, and the Australian World Orchestra. His collaborations span an eclectic range of artists such as Anthony Marwood, Sigur Rós, Gurrumul Yunupingu, Katie Noonan, and Hiatus Kaiyote’s Nai Palm.

A founding member of the award-winning Partridge String Quartet (PSQ), Daniel has performed at major festivals including the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, Canberra International Music Festival, and Bendigo Chamber Music Festival. PSQ are recipients of multiple national and international awards, including First Prize in the Queensland International Chamber Music Competition (2019), First Prize in the ANAM Chamber Music Competition (2018), and the Musica Viva Prize (2017). They also received the Canadian Husky Energy Award to attend the Banff Centre’s “Evolution of the String Quartet” program and were selected for an international residency at the Curtis Institute of Music (USA). The ensemble were Musica Viva’s FutureMakers (2020-21) and featured artists for Musica Viva at the Melbourne Recital Centre in 2022.

In 2024, PSQ shared the production Twofold with the Australian String Quartet and Sydney Dance Company. That same year, PSQ were artists-in-residence at both Monash University and the Coffs Harbour Regional Conservatorium, mentoring chamber music students and performing feature concerts.

Daniel is also the cellist and co-director of Eclective Strings, a multi-genre ensemble that performs throughout Victoria, including collaborations with the Art Gallery of Ballarat performing alongside Stefan Cassemanos and Aleksandr Tsiboulski, and the 2025 Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, performing alongside LIOR, Phil Arkinstall, and Ring of Bells.

He performs regularly with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria, and in 2020-21 was selected as an Emerging Artist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, touring nationally with ACO Collective.

Melbourne based violinist, James Armstrong, enjoys an exciting and varied freelance career across Australia. 

Born and raised in Sydney,  he studied with Janet Davies at the Sydney Conservatorium and was the recipient of the Ted and Susan Meller Memorial Scholarship Fund. He continued his studies at the Australian National Academy of Music with Sophie Rowell and Adam Chalabi. 

James was an Emerging Artist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in 2024 and continues to tour with the ACO Collective. He performs regularly with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and has recently performed with the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Australian Classical and Romantic Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and the Penny Quartet. 

Beyond the classical realm, James has performed live and recorded with Godtet, Ngaiire and for ABC Jazz. He has performed in masterclasses with renowned musicians including Wayne Foster-Smith, Louis Creac’h, Midori Gotō, Shunske Sato, Anthony Marwood, the Brodsky Quartet and Leila Schayegh.

21-year-old violist and composer, Jamie Miles, is a recent graduate of the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) and the University of Melbourne (B.Mus) studying with Caroline Henbest. He was Principal Viola of the Australian Youth Orchestra for their 2025 international tour, and also of the University of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In 2026, he is a member of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Academy. 

In 2023, Jamie was the only Australian competitor in the ARD International Viola Competition in Munich, Germany.He was the Richard Mills 1st Prize winner in the Melbourne Recital Centre Bach Competition and was awarded Second Prize in the 2022 3MBS Young Performer of the Year Awards. 

Jamie has performed as soloist with several Melbourne community orchestras and as guest tutti viola with Melbourne, Sydney and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Australian Chamber Orchestra in 2026. 

Jamie is also a keen composer, with two of his compositions performed at ANAM in 2025: Viola Octet and Elegy for Strings. His Suite for Solo Viola (2019) is included in the Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) Syllabus for Certificate of Performance level.  He participated in AYO National Music Camp in January 2026 as a composer.

Born in Scotland and raised in Australia since the age of four, Kana’s exposure to different cultures has positively coloured her life. Before moving to England on the International ABRSM scholarship at 18, she built a solid foundation as a young professional violinist at home where she won the National Young Concerto Competition and the Dorcas McClean Travelling Award.

Kana has enjoyed the opportunity to perform as soloist with Orchestra Victoria, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, ERT Greek Radio OrchestraSchlesishe Philharmonie and the Capella Istropolitana. 

Since 2018, Kana has lived in Leipzig, working as Associate Concertmaster in the Gewandhaus Orchestra. As well as regular chamber music with her orchestral colleagues, she has played with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra Hamburg as an extra member and curated and directed the Manchester Cosmos Strings for performances at the Malta International Arts Festival.

Passionate about charity work, Kana had the honour to play on a violin made of tsunami debris from the 2011 Japanese disaster for a concert in her hometown of Melbourne in 2018. She is a founding member of charity concert series, Handshake, in Leipzig. 

Her teachers include former concertmaster of NZSO and MSO, Wilma Smith, in Melbourne and Professor Yair Kless in Manchester.

Slava Grigoryan was born in Kazakhstan and immigrated with his family to Australia in 1981. At the age of 6, he began studying guitar with his violinist father, Edward, and 11 years later, he won the Tokyo International Classical Guitar Competition as the youngest finalist in the history of that competition. Sony Classical Label signed him up shortly afterwards. His relationship with Sony Classical, ABC Classics in Australia, ECM in Germany and his own label, Which Way Music, has led to the release of over 30 solo and collaborative albums spanning a vast range of musical genres.

Aged18, his first tour was with guitar legends, Paco Pena and Leo Kottke. He has since travelled the world as recitalist and soloist with orchestras, including London Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Halle, Dresden Radio Orchestra, Israel Symphony and Hong Kong Sinfonietta. In Australia, he has won four ARIA awards for Best Classical Album and performs as soloist with all the Australian orchestras.

Collaborations have been pivotal in Slava’s career, most notably the guitar duo with his younger brother, Leonard. They have toured the world and released more than ten duo albums, appearing on many others. From 2017 to 2019, they played to sell-out audiences in Australia, the US, the UK and Ireland as part of k.d. lang’s Ingénue Redux tour. Other collaborators have included Goldner, Flinders, Australian, Endellion, Skampa and Chilingirian String Quartets, Southern Cross Soloists, Michael Kieran Harvey, pianist, and José Carbó, baritone. Slava is a founding member of Saffire, the Australian guitar quartet, and has a duo with his wife, eminent cellist, Sharon Grigoryan. He has premiered many new works written especially for him, working particularly with composers, William Lovelady, Nigel Westlake and Shaun Rigney. Since 2010, he has been Artistic Director of the Adelaide Guitar Festival.

Outside the classical world, Slava enjoys MGT, a guitar trio with jazz icons, Muthspiel and Towner, and a duo with Austrian electric bassist, Al Slavik. With Joseph and James Tawadros and his brother, Leonard, he has formed Band of Brothers, performing a fusion of contemporary jazz, classical and Middle-Eastern music. 

Melbourne-based pianist, Yasmin Rowe, has garnered international acclaim as a soloist, collaborator, and recording artist across Europe, Asia, and Australia. Known for her expressive and captivating performances, Yasmin was a major prize winner at the 2022 Australian National Piano Award, winner of the Moray International Piano Competition in Scotland and the Young Musicians Award in Portugal.

A graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music in the UK, Yasmin holds a BMus with first-class honours and an MMus with distinction, studying under Murray McLachlan and Stephen Savage. In 2014, she was one of only four instrumentalists awarded the RNCM’s prestigious International Artist Diploma.

Yasmin has performed as soloist with Pro Musica, Stonnington Symphony Orchestra and the Manchester Camerata in the UK. Her work as guest pianist for the Melbourne Symphony Chorus under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis, Celeste player for Melbourne Symphony Orchestra recordings, and guest Principal Pianist with Orchestra Victoria further showcases her versatility. She has performed internationally in China, North America, Canada, UK, Peru and Portugal in renowned venues such as Wigmore Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Shanghai and Forbidden City Concert Halls, and the Wuxi Grand Theatre, as well as Melba Hall, Hanson Dyer Hall, and the Melbourne Recital Centre closer to home.

Alongside her solo work, Yasmin is an active chamber musician, performing in the duo, Y-Squared, and the trios, Rock Paper Scissors and Collide. Her recent collaborations include performances with esteemed musicians, Daniel Grimwood, Ian Munro and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. Her dedication to chamber music was recognized with the Geoffrey Parsons Award for collaborative excellence in 2021.

Yasmin’s debut solo album on Willowhayne Records was acclaimed as “thrilling” and was selected as BBC Music Magazine’s Editor’s Choice in September 2016. Her second album, a collaboration with cellist, Yelian He, received equal acclaim and both albums featured in British Airways’ in-flight entertainment. In 2021, Yasmin recorded Luke Severn’s ‘And Other Lines’, a seven-movement piece composed for her, oboist, Briana Leaman, and saxophonist, Joseph Lallo, for the ABC Classic label.

Born in Saskatoon, Canada, Bede Hanley began learning the oboe at nine, eventually going on to earn his Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music where he studied with John Mack, legendary Principal Oboe of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Following several seasons with Spain’s Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, Bede joined the Auckland Philharmonia as Principal Oboe for the 2008 and 2009 seasons before his appointment as Principal Oboe of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, a position he held for four years before rejoining the Auckland Philharmonia in 2013. His orchestral career has taken him as a guest to many other orchestras internationally, including the Cleveland Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), Toronto Symphony Orchestra, NZSO, Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife, and the Rossini Festival Orchestra (Italy).

A frequent soloist, Bede has an extensive concerto repertoire and gave the highly acclaimed world and Canadian premiere performances of Gary Kulesha’s tour-de-force Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra, written especially for him. His performance of Christopher Rouse’s oboe concerto, a premiere outside the US, was praised by the composer for its “beauty and aplomb”. 

Bede is also an active chamber musician. In Canada, he was a member of the Canadian Oboe Trio and performed in Winnipeg's Chamber Music Society, Groundswell, Phoenix Collective,Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, Music Niagara Festival, Banff Centre’s Margaret Greenham Series and the Festival of the Sound. In his new home, he performs regularly with the Tieke Trio and with his Auckland Philharmonia colleagues in their ”InYour Neighbourhood” series. As well as touring the country for Chamber Music New Zealand, he has also given recitals in Canada, the USA, Spain and Australia. 

Inspired by his own teachers and mentors, Bede has taught oboe in North and South America, Europe and Australasia, serving on the faculty of the Universities of Ontario and Manitobaand recently, the John Mack Oboe Camp in North Carolina. He is currently Artist Teacher at the University of Auckland and a busy private teacher in the Auckland community.

Acclaimed cellist Yelian He earned recognition from The Strad magazine as a "consummate master of the bow." His exceptional artistry has been celebrated through notable honours, including the 2009 Royal Over-Seas League String Competition (London) and both the Grand Prize and Audience Prize at the 2014 Australian Cello Awards.

He completed his formal training at the University of Melbourne and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, where he spent five years under the tutelage of Tchaikovsky Competition Gold Medalist Karine Georgian. His musical development has been shaped by distinguished teachers including Liwei Qin, Janis Laurs, Christian Wojtowich, and Nelson Cooke. He has also received guidance from renowned artists such as Antonio Meneses, Jian Wang, Ralph Kirshbaum, Julian Lloyd-Webber, Roels Dietens, Gary Hoffman, Lawrence Lesser, Valter Despalj, and Hannah Roberts.

As a soloist, He has performed at the world's premier concert venues, including Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Bridgewater Concert Hall, City Recital Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, and Hamer Hall. His orchestral collaborations feature an impressive roster of ensembles: the Sydney Symphony, West Australian Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Philharmonia, Auckland Philharmonia, Shanghai Philharmonic, Malaysian Philharmonic, and the Hallé Orchestra.

He had the distinct honour of performing for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on two occasions: at a 2011 reception celebrating outstanding Australian achievers in the UK, and in a private 2013 performance at Buckingham Palace for the Queen and Commonwealth guests.

Beyond his musical pursuits, He is an accomplished practitioner and instructor of Wing Chun Kung Fu, studying under Master Darryl Moy in UK. This martial art, famously practiced by Bruce Lee and featured in the celebrated "Ip Man" film series, informs his unique "Kung Fu Cellist" series at the Melbourne Recital Centre, where he explores the nuances of discipline and expression.