AUSTRALIAN HAYDN ACADEMY 2023 TUTORS
Skye McIntosh - Baroque/Classical Violin
Skye McIntosh is the founder, Artistic Director and a Principal Violin of the Australian Haydn Ensemble and a sought after specialist of baroque and classical period violin throughout Australia.
She has performed regularly with Pinchgut Opera (Orchestra of the Antipodes) over the past five years, and has been principal second violin with The Australian Classical and Romantic Orchestra as well as a regular member of The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra for over seven years.
Skye completed a Master of Music degree on full scholarship, specialising in baroque and classical violin performance, at the Sydney Conservatorium in 2011, under the tutelage of Rachael Beesley and Julia Fredersdorff as well as undertaking lessons with numerous specialists including Catherine MacIntosh, Simon Standage and Marc Detrubé. Skye also studied baroque violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London and performed numerous times with the Britten Pears Young Artist Baroque program and was a member of South Bank Sinfonia (London).
As a teacher, Skye has extensive experience having lead numerous education courses and workshops as part of AHE’s activities over the past 10 years. She was also a ensemble, chamber music and violin teacher at the Royal Junior Academy of Music and holds a Licentiate of the Royal Academy in Teaching. She has also held violin and ensemble teaching positions at Melbourne Girls Grammar, SCEGGS Darlinghurst, Colour Strings in London along with numerous other London schools and music schools.
Skye has recently recorded Mozart’s G Major violin concerto with ABC Classics, due for release in late 2022.
Stephen Freeman - Baroque/Classical Violin & Alexander Technique
Inspired by the pioneers of historical performance practice, Stephen pursued his interest in this field at the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague after graduating from the Canberra School of Music in 1991.
Upon completion of his studies and a brief intermezzo back home as principal 2nd with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and teaching at Melbourne Uni, Stephen returned to Europe. Based in Amsterdam for over a decade he performed, toured and recorded with numerous ensembles including Ricercar Consort, Concerto d'Amsterdam, Gabrieli Consort, Capriccio Stravagante, Il Gardellino and New Dutch Academy (concertmaster, 2007-2012).
Alongside his musical career, Stephen trained at the Alexander Technique Centre in Amsterdam qualifying as a teacher in 2010. Back in Australia since 2014 he plays with several of the Sydney based HIP ensembles.
Karina Schmitz - Baroque Viola
Make it stand out
Hailing from the east coast of the United States, American violist Karina Schmitz has settled in Sydney and is thrilled to be immersed in the rich and vibrant musical scene in Australia.
In addition to performing with the Australian Haydn Ensemble, she is principal violist with Orchestra of the Antipodes (Pinchgut Opera), and has performed with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra, Van Diemen’s Band, Salut! Baroque, and Ensemble Galante.
In the United States, Karina was principal violist of the Handel & Haydn Society in Boston, principal violist of Apollo’s Fire in Cleveland, principal violist of the Carmel Bach Festival in California, and founding violinist/violist with New York-based seventeenth-century ensemble ACRONYM.
Karina holds viola performance degrees from New England Conservatory of Music (Boston) and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Her early music studies began as an undergraduate at Oberlin Conservatory with Marilyn McDonald, David Breitman, and Miho Hashizume, and she continued her training in the Apollo’s Fire Apprentice Program.
Simon Rickard - Baroque/Classical Bassoon & Baroque Dance
Simon Rickard is a specialist in historical bassoons. He studied at the Canberra School of Music and the Koninklijk Conservatorium in the Hague. He has toured and recorded with countless period ensembles including Les Arts Florissants, the Gabrieli Consort, Pinchgut Opera, the Orchestra of the Antipodes, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Opera Australia, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Latitude 37, Genesis Baroque, the Australian Haydn Ensemble, Ironwood and La Compañia, as well as his own renaissance consort, Unholy Rackett, named for the bizarre renaissance woodwind instrument in which Simon is a leading specialist.
Daniel Yeadon - Baroque/Classical Cello
Daniel has a love of a wide range of musical genres and is an exceptionally versatile cellist and viola da gamba player, performing repertoire from the Renaissance through to Contemporary. Daniel is a passionate chamber musician, playing regularly with Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra, Ironwood, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Australian Haydn Ensemble and Bach Akademie Australia.
Originally from the UK, Daniel read physics at Oxford University and then completed his postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music in London. For many years Daniel was a member of the exuberant period instrument ensemble Florilegium, Fitzwilliam String Quartet and Concordia Viol Consort. Daniel continues to be guest principal cellist with many of the period instrument ensembles based in London, including the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Daniel has made many award-winning recordings, including: Haydn’s cello concerto in C major with the Australian Haydn Ensemble; an ARIA winning disc of sonatas by J.S. Bach with Richard Tognetti and Neal Peres Da Costa; J.S. Bach sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord with Neal Peres Da Costa; J.S. Bach cantatas and Brandenburg concertos with John Eliot Gardiner and English Baroque Soloists, in addition to many critically acclaimed recordings with Ironwood, Florilegium and the Fitzwilliam Quartet.
Daniel is in much demand as a teacher. Associated with the Sydney Conservatorium of Music since 2005, his research interests are musical group learning experiences and historical performance practices.
Pippa Macmillan - Double Bass
Pippa Macmillan is a renowned specialist of historical bass instruments. She is a core member of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Toronto, though she is currently on leave of absence and is exploring performing opportunities in Australia, including with Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera, Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra, and Australian Haydn Ensemble. The first undergraduate of the Royal Academy of Music to specialise in Baroque Double Bass, she then completed a Masters in Historical Performance at The Juilliard School.
Between 2015 and 2019 Pippa was Professor of Baroque Double Bass at the Royal College of Music, London. She is a fully qualified Suzuki cello teacher, as well as a trained Suzuki double bass and piano teacher, and students of hers have gone on to study at the Royal College of Music Junior Department, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and be members of the National Children’s Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Recently she worked with students from all over the world at the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute in Toronto, teaching historical performance practice.
Melissa Farrow - Baroque/Classical Flute
Melissa is in much demand as a traverso player in Australia, both as an orchestral player and as a soloist. She is also passionate about teaching period flutes, recorder and baroque style on modern instruments and teaches baroque flute at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Melissa has performed and recorded since 2004 with the Orchestra of the Antipodes as principal flute/recorder/piccolo player and is proud to say that she has played in 12 operas with Pinchgut Opera and Orchestra of the Antipodes. Melissa is featured as flute soloist with Pinchgut Opera and Orchestra of the Antipodes in the Gretry flute concerto with the opera L'amant Jaloux.
Melissa is also principal flute of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and the Australian Haydn Ensemble. She has performed with several other Australian ensembles on traverso including Australian Chamber Orchestra, Latitude 37, The Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra, The Marais Project and Ironwood.
Melissa appears on several recordings including Brandenburg Celebrates with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, performing as soloist in the Telemann Flute and Violin Concerto. With the Australian Haydn Ensemble she appears on recordings the Haydn Album and Beethoven Piano concertos in chamber arrangements with Neal Peres da Costa and AHE.
Joel Raymond (UK) - Period Oboe and Performance Practice Approaches
Joel Raymond was inspired by the sound of period instruments at an early age having attended his first period instrument concert at the Wigmore Hall at the age of 7.
After Studied modern and period oboes at Birmingham Conservatoire he received a scholarship to study historical performance at the Royal Academy of Music graduating with their highest award for performance in 2004, and was made an Associate in 2011.
Joel has performed world-wide in over 20 countries with amongst others The European Union Baroque Orchestra, The Hanover Band, The Australian Chamber Orchestra, The Academy of Ancient Music, Ex Cathedra, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The Gabrielli Concort, The Brook Street Band, Norwich Baroque and Manchester Baroque.
Joel received a 2014 Fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust to study original 18th century oboes, visiting museums in 6 countries. He designs, builds oboes, and continues to research...
Rosalind Halton Harpsichord
Rosalind is a harpsichordist and researcher in the field of Italian baroque music. She developed a love of combining research and performance while studying at the University of Otago, New Zealand, and after graduating D. Phil. at Oxford University (1980), went on to focus on the rich but largely unperformed secular vocal repertoire of the great Sicilian composer Alessandro Scarlatti. She has devoted many years to studying and promoting Scarlatti’s music.
Since 1986 she has lived in Australia, where she has performed in major Festivals with Australian and touring period instrument ensembles. In 1997, while based at the University of New England, Rosalind founded the ensemble chacona, with whom she broadcast many programs on ABC Classic FM and directed the major recording project, Venere, Adone e Amore: Serenatas and Cantatas of Alessandro Scarlatti (ABC Classics, 2007, 3 CDs of newly edited works).
Her editions include two volumes of Scarlatti’s vocal music for A-R Editions and many cantata editions available online. She has also recorded award-winning discs of solo French harpsichord music (The French Harpsichord, ABC Classics, Louis Couperin and Friends, 2005).
She is currently Associate Professor at the University of Newcastle, Australia and an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
“We are delighted to welcome the Australian Haydn Ensemble to the Central Coast Conservatorium in September for the second NSW Regional Academy. This is an incredible opportunity for students from across the state to come to the NSW Central Coast to learn from and perform alongside world class musicians from one of Australia's finest historically informed orchestras and chamber music groups.”
Patrick Brennan - Artistic Director - Central Coast Academy of Music