Concert 2 Guest Artists
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Richard Tognetti
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Richard Tognetti Leading The Australian Chamber Orchestra
Photo By Nic Walker
Photo By Nic Walker
Richard Tognetti is Artistic Director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. He has established an international reputation for his compelling performances and artistic individualism.
Richard began his studies in his hometown of Wollongong with William Primrose, then with Alice Waten at the Sydney Conservatorium, and Igor Ozim at the Bern Conservatory, where he was awarded the Tschumi Prize as the top graduate soloist in 1989. Later that year he led several performances of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and that November was appointed as the Orchestra’s lead violin and, subsequently, Artistic Director.
Richard performs on period, modern and electric instruments and his numerous arrangements, compositions and transcriptions have expanded the chamber orchestra repertoire and been performed throughout the world.
As a director or soloist, Richard has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Academy of Ancient Music, Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra, Handel & Haydn Society (Boston), Hong Kong Philharmonic, Camerata Salzburg, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Nordic Chamber Orchestra and all the major Australian symphony orchestras.
Richard created the Huntington Festival in Mudgee, New South Wales and was Artistic Director of the Festival Maribor in Slovenia from 2008 to 2015. In 2016 he was appointed as the first Artist-in-Residence at the Barbican Centre’s Milton Court Concert Hall.
Richard’s arrangements, compositions and transcriptions have expanded the chamber orchestra
repertoire and been performed throughout the world.
He curated and co-composed the scores for the ACO’s documentary films Musica Surfica, The Glide, The Reef and The Crowd & I, and co-composed the scores for Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and Tom Carroll’s film Storm Surfers. Richard collaborated with director Jennifer Peedom and Stranger Than Fiction to create the award-winning films Mountain, which went on to become the highest-grossing homegrown documentary in Australian cinemas, and River, which won Best Soundtrack at the ARIA, AACTA and APRA awards.
His recordings have received accolades around the world, and he is the recipient of seven ARIA awards, including three consecutive wins for his recordings of Bach’s violin works.
Richard was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2010. He holds honorary doctorates from three Australian universities and was made a National Living Treasure in 1999. In 2017 was awarded the JC Williamson Award for longstanding service to the live performance industry.
Richard plays a 1741-44 violin crafted by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù on loan from the ACO Instrument Fund.
Richard began his studies in his hometown of Wollongong with William Primrose, then with Alice Waten at the Sydney Conservatorium, and Igor Ozim at the Bern Conservatory, where he was awarded the Tschumi Prize as the top graduate soloist in 1989. Later that year he led several performances of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and that November was appointed as the Orchestra’s lead violin and, subsequently, Artistic Director.
Richard performs on period, modern and electric instruments and his numerous arrangements, compositions and transcriptions have expanded the chamber orchestra repertoire and been performed throughout the world.
As a director or soloist, Richard has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Academy of Ancient Music, Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra, Handel & Haydn Society (Boston), Hong Kong Philharmonic, Camerata Salzburg, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Nordic Chamber Orchestra and all the major Australian symphony orchestras.
Richard created the Huntington Festival in Mudgee, New South Wales and was Artistic Director of the Festival Maribor in Slovenia from 2008 to 2015. In 2016 he was appointed as the first Artist-in-Residence at the Barbican Centre’s Milton Court Concert Hall.
Richard’s arrangements, compositions and transcriptions have expanded the chamber orchestra
repertoire and been performed throughout the world.
He curated and co-composed the scores for the ACO’s documentary films Musica Surfica, The Glide, The Reef and The Crowd & I, and co-composed the scores for Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and Tom Carroll’s film Storm Surfers. Richard collaborated with director Jennifer Peedom and Stranger Than Fiction to create the award-winning films Mountain, which went on to become the highest-grossing homegrown documentary in Australian cinemas, and River, which won Best Soundtrack at the ARIA, AACTA and APRA awards.
His recordings have received accolades around the world, and he is the recipient of seven ARIA awards, including three consecutive wins for his recordings of Bach’s violin works.
Richard was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2010. He holds honorary doctorates from three Australian universities and was made a National Living Treasure in 1999. In 2017 was awarded the JC Williamson Award for longstanding service to the live performance industry.
Richard plays a 1741-44 violin crafted by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù on loan from the ACO Instrument Fund.
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Satu Vanska
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Born to a Finnish family in Japan, violinist Satu Vänskä has developed an international profile through her role as Principal Violin with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, a position that she has held for the past twenty years.
In that time Satu has both directed and performed as soloist with the ACO, an ensemble regarded as one of the greatest chamber orchestras in the world, hailed for its striking virtuosity and innovative programming.
Satu’s development of solo violin projects is reflective of her desire to continually evolve as a musician and to courageously embrace new musical challenges. She has a passion for dynamic programming that explores the link between old and new music, alongside presenting boundary-blurring cross-genre collaborations, that resonate with today’s classical music audiences.
As a soloist, here in Australia Satu enjoys performing with the country’s leading orchestras including the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven Violin Concerto with Umberto Clerici) the Tasmania Symphony and West Australia Symphony Orchestras (both in a play/direct role).
As a recitalist Satu performs at the most prestigious venues including Melbourne Recital Centre, Ukaria Cultural Centre, Canberra International and Adelaide Festivals. Further afield, Satu performs with the Artik Philharmonic in Norway, with London’s Aurora Orchestra (in the London season of Weimar Cabaret with the late Barry Humphries), Sinfonia Lahti and at the Festival Maribor in Slovenia
Satu is the founder, curator, front-woman, violinist and vocalist of the critically acclaimed ACO Underground, the ACO’s electro-infused, experimental spin-off project. With ACO Underground, Satu has performed collaborations with artists including Midnight Oil’s Jim Moginie and the Violent Femmes’ Brian Ritchie in venues ranging from New York’s Le Poisson Rouge to Sydney’s Phoenix Central Park, and has appeared as part of the Vivid Festival. In 2022 she formed Satu In The Beyond with Richard Tognetti and producer Paul Beard. This is a band that has evolved from ACO Underground over the years with the aim to present audiences with originally written music.
Satu took her first violin lessons at the age of three in Japan, before her family relocated to Finland when she was ten, where she continued her studies with Pertti Sutinen at the Lahti Conservatorium and the Sibelius Academy. She later studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich as a pupil of Ana Chumachenco.
Satu performs on the 1728/29 Stradivarius violin on loan from the ACO Instrument Fund.
In that time Satu has both directed and performed as soloist with the ACO, an ensemble regarded as one of the greatest chamber orchestras in the world, hailed for its striking virtuosity and innovative programming.
Satu’s development of solo violin projects is reflective of her desire to continually evolve as a musician and to courageously embrace new musical challenges. She has a passion for dynamic programming that explores the link between old and new music, alongside presenting boundary-blurring cross-genre collaborations, that resonate with today’s classical music audiences.
As a soloist, here in Australia Satu enjoys performing with the country’s leading orchestras including the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven Violin Concerto with Umberto Clerici) the Tasmania Symphony and West Australia Symphony Orchestras (both in a play/direct role).
As a recitalist Satu performs at the most prestigious venues including Melbourne Recital Centre, Ukaria Cultural Centre, Canberra International and Adelaide Festivals. Further afield, Satu performs with the Artik Philharmonic in Norway, with London’s Aurora Orchestra (in the London season of Weimar Cabaret with the late Barry Humphries), Sinfonia Lahti and at the Festival Maribor in Slovenia
Satu is the founder, curator, front-woman, violinist and vocalist of the critically acclaimed ACO Underground, the ACO’s electro-infused, experimental spin-off project. With ACO Underground, Satu has performed collaborations with artists including Midnight Oil’s Jim Moginie and the Violent Femmes’ Brian Ritchie in venues ranging from New York’s Le Poisson Rouge to Sydney’s Phoenix Central Park, and has appeared as part of the Vivid Festival. In 2022 she formed Satu In The Beyond with Richard Tognetti and producer Paul Beard. This is a band that has evolved from ACO Underground over the years with the aim to present audiences with originally written music.
Satu took her first violin lessons at the age of three in Japan, before her family relocated to Finland when she was ten, where she continued her studies with Pertti Sutinen at the Lahti Conservatorium and the Sibelius Academy. She later studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich as a pupil of Ana Chumachenco.
Satu performs on the 1728/29 Stradivarius violin on loan from the ACO Instrument Fund.
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Stefan Cassomenos
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Internationally praised for his clarity, depth of expression, virtuosity and versatility, Melbourne-born Stefan Cassomenos is regarded as a leading Australian concert pianist, composer and conductor.
His concerto repertoire now exceeds forty works, and has led to solo performances with the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide SymphonyOrchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, Opera Australia Orchestra, and Melbourne Chamber Orchestra.
He has performed as a soloist at Tonhalle Zurich, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Beethoven Festival Bonn,and at concert halls across Germany, Netherlands, England, Italy, Malta, Greece, Slovenia, Poland, Estonia, Russia, China, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia.In 2013, Cassomenos was a grand finalist and recipient of both the Second Grand Prize and the Chamber Music Prize at the International Telekom Beethoven Piano Competition Bonn.
He studied on full scholarship at Melbourne University and the Australian National Academy of Music, mentored by Stephen McIntyre, Margarita Krupina, Ian Munro,and Michael Kieran Harvey.Cassomenos is a founding member of acclaimed ensemble PLEXUS, which has commissioned and premiered over 110 new works.
Cassomenos began composing at an early age, giving the premiere of his own Piano Concerto No 1 with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra at age 16. He has composed for Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Victorian Opera, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir, for German pianist Susanne Kessel and for the Festival Neue Musik Rockenhausen.Cassomenos is currently co-Artistic Director, together with violinist Monica Curro, of the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival.
Cassomenos is generously supported by Kawai Australia.
His concerto repertoire now exceeds forty works, and has led to solo performances with the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide SymphonyOrchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, Opera Australia Orchestra, and Melbourne Chamber Orchestra.
He has performed as a soloist at Tonhalle Zurich, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Beethoven Festival Bonn,and at concert halls across Germany, Netherlands, England, Italy, Malta, Greece, Slovenia, Poland, Estonia, Russia, China, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia.In 2013, Cassomenos was a grand finalist and recipient of both the Second Grand Prize and the Chamber Music Prize at the International Telekom Beethoven Piano Competition Bonn.
He studied on full scholarship at Melbourne University and the Australian National Academy of Music, mentored by Stephen McIntyre, Margarita Krupina, Ian Munro,and Michael Kieran Harvey.Cassomenos is a founding member of acclaimed ensemble PLEXUS, which has commissioned and premiered over 110 new works.
Cassomenos began composing at an early age, giving the premiere of his own Piano Concerto No 1 with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra at age 16. He has composed for Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Victorian Opera, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir, for German pianist Susanne Kessel and for the Festival Neue Musik Rockenhausen.Cassomenos is currently co-Artistic Director, together with violinist Monica Curro, of the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival.
Cassomenos is generously supported by Kawai Australia.