Artist Biographies
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ESMERALDA TINTNER
Creator Artist
Esmeralda Tintner grew up surrounded by the inspirational music making of her extraordinary family. Her father was the conductor Georg Tintner, her grandmother Kathy Tuohy was a student of Casals. Esmeralda's early violin teachers were Natan Gutman and Alice Waten. She then had the opportunity to study at the St. Petersburg (Leningrad) Conservatoire, where her teacher was legendary Concertmaster of the Kirov Theatre Orchestra, Antonina Maximovna Kazarina. In Russia it was possible to explore a unique repertoire, including Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Szymanovski, Tanayev, Roslavets, Schostakovich and Schedrin. Esmeralda specialises in performing music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her heartfelt and expressive playing style touches audiences and has led to various dedications. She is sought after as a chamber music partner by Australia’s most gifted musicians.
LISA STEWART
Violin / Illustrations
Lisa Stewart is recognised as one of Australia's most accomplished and charismatic violinists. She has recorded as a soloist for the Klavins and Naxos labels. Ensembles and Orchestras Lisa has worked with include the Cologne Chamber Orchestra (Concertmaster and soloist), Concerto Koln, Ensemble Funf, Gurzenich Orchester Koln, WDR Sinfonieorchester, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada and the Beethoven Orchester Bonn. Lisa was Guest Concertmaster of the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Bernard Haitink.
When the Vienna Philharmonic made the historic decision to accept women, Lisa was one of the first invited to apply.
Lisa now leads the Acacia Quartet based in Sydney. She is also an established illustrator - her children's picture books are published by Scholastic, Random House, Hachette, Lothian Christmas Press, ABC Books and Harper Collins.
LULU LIU
Pipa
Lu Liu (刘璐) is a pipa performer, educator and researcher. Her main focus is Chinese musical culture, and specialise in pipa music and its history. She studied at the Shenyang Conservatory of Music and the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She subsequently taught pipa at a Beijing University and gained her Masters degree from Griffith University in 2001. Lulu has performed extensively in China, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. Career highlights include performing for an audience of 7000 at the “World Peace” Outdoor Festival in South Korea, and featuring on the long-running BBC Radio Program “On the Wire”. Also as a soloist, she was invited to join the production and performed “Play me a story- Nut cracker” at Sydney Opera House in 2015. She has released two solo albums, three collaborated albums and also performed on the soundtrack of “Mao’s Last Dancer”. Lulu currently is a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney under the supervision of Dr Michael Webb and Dr Catherine Ingram; previous supervisors included Professors Keith Howard and Jonathan Stock. Her research article “Contemporary Chinese Pipa Music and its Future” was published in the Journal of the Council for Asian Musicology in 2012. She was invited to attend many musicology and ethnomusicology conferences and symposiums such as MSA in Australia, ICTM in China, symposiums at SOAS and BEF in England.
She is one of the currently leading teacher of Chinese Music Ensemble at Sydney Conservatorium of Music as well as the president of Australian Pipa Association.
ANA INTERIANO
'Chocolate'
Ana Interiano is emerging as an important figure for the current generation of flamenco dancers in Australia. Her debut performance as a solo artist at the Sydney Opera house occurred in 2009 alongside the Arrebato Ensemble with whom she toured for several years. In 2013 she joined the “Encuentros Espanoles” festival where she collaborated with other artists in exploring the nexus between classical Spanish music and dance and performed for the closing concert at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Most recently, she starred in Opera Australia’s 2011 and 2014 production of Carmen.
JOSHUA HILL
Percussion
Joshua Hill completed his undergraduate and postgraduate study at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He also studied Korean Traditional Music at the National Gugak Centre in Seoul, South Korea. Joshua is a member of Australia’s premier Percussion ensemble SYNERGY Percussion and has performed with many of Australia's leading orchestras and ensembles including the Sydney Symphony, Halcyon Ensemble, Opera Australia Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
CARMELA REZNIK
Violin
Carmela started studying the piano when she was 3. When she was 4, she asked to play the violin, and so she started studying with Yasuki Nakamura.
Carmela has attended international violin schools in Japan and Switzerland. Last year she studied with Emile Cantor at the Cathedra Emili Pujol in Cervera in Catalonia, where she was the youngest student. She was Concertmaster of the Youth Orchestra for the course under the direction of Maestro Manel Valdivieso.
Carmela is now 13 and she is a student at International Grammar School in Sydney.
Her violin teacher is Ilya Isakovich.