Mozart: Great Mass in C minor

Elizabeth Scott is the Associate Music Director of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and is a Lecturer in Conducting at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She is a graduate of Symphony Australia’s Conductor Development Program and was awarded the Sydney Choral Symposium Foundation Choral Conducting Scholarship in 2008. As an undergraduate at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Elizabeth earned the prestigious Student of the Year Award and the Reuben F. Scarf Scholarship for academic and musical excellence. As the holder of scholarships from the Hungarian Ministry of Education, she then undertook post-graduate studies in choral conducting, vocal performance and aural training in Hungary and Germany before returning to Australia in 2004. Elizabeth completed a Doctorate in Choral Conducting in 2021.

Elizabeth has been the Musical Director of Vox, Sydney Philharmonia’s youth choir since 2008 and has built this ensemble into one of Australia’s leading youth choirs. She regularly works as a chorus master for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and has prepared choirs for international conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Simone Young and Stephen Layton. Appearing recently as a guest conductor for the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and the National Youth Choir of Australia, Elizabeth also regularly works with Gondwana Choirs and Cantillation and has performed and recorded with Pinchgut Opera and The Song Company.

Photo credit: Keith Saunders

Latvian-Australian soprano Lana Kains has taken to the national and international stage with musical works from Baroque to Contemporary.

Lana has strong links to Tasmania, where her family live, and she began her tertiary studies in voice. She performed with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Johannes Fritsch singing Waldgespräch by Alexander von Zemlinsky in 2020. This performance was streamed live and has been broadcast on ABC Classic FM. She also sang her first Messiah by Händel in St. David’s Cathedral in 2019 and has participated in many Festival of Voices projects as a chorister and soloist. She has also performed and produced her own recitals both at the Hobart Town Hall and St. Mary’s Cathedral.

Australian soprano, Lisa Crosato, first took to the professional stage when she was only seven in The King and I in the USA. Since then, she has trained in all facets of theatre, including singing, drama and dance. In 2008, she completed the Post-Graduate Opera Course at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Opera engagements have included: Countess Almaviva Le Nozze di Figaro for Mid Wales Opera; Tisbe La Cenerentola for Garsington Opera; Karolka Jenufa , Giovanetta L'amore dei tre Re (Montemezzi), and Countess Ceprano Rigoletto for Opera Holland Park; Countess Almaviva Le Nozze di Figaro, Lauretta Gianni Schicchi and Vénus Dardanus (Rameau) for RAM; Stéphano Roméo et Juliette for British Youth Opera; Good Fairy Wild Swans (Kats- Chernin) for the Australian Ballet and Mimi La Bohème for Minotaur Music Theatre.

On the concert platform, Lisa has sung Rossini’s Stabat Mater for the Singers of Southern Tasmania, the Mozart Requiem for the Brandenburg Sinfonia in St. Martin's in the Fields, Beethoven Mass in C for the Guernsey Sinfonia Orchestra & Choir, My Heart is Inditing and Joseph Jongen Mass Op. 130 for The Waverley Singers, Schubert Mass in G and Mozart Litaniae K195 for the London Pro Arte Choir, Israel in Egypt in Arundel Cathedral. Her oratorio repertoire also includes Messiah, Vivaldi Magnificat and Gloria, St. Theresa Mass, and Nelson Mass.

In addition to opera, Lisa performed most recently in Tell me on a Sunday during the Australian Musical Theatre Festival. She was also a featured soloist in The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber Beijing & Shanghai for the Really Useful Group and performed in the Ensemble in The Wizard of Oz for GFO Entertainment.

Her television credits include guest solo appearances on the ABC, Seven and Ten Networks in Australia, and she appears internationally on CD and DVD.

Joshua Oxley is a tenor based in Sydney. His operatic roles include, Tamino (Mozart, Die Zauberflöte), Ferrando (Mozart, Così fan tutte), Don Ottavio (Mozart, Don Giovanni,), Alfredo (Verdi, La Traviata), Jenik (Smetana, The Bartered Bride), Mozart (Rimsky-Korsakov, Mozart and Salieri), Sam Polk (Floyd, Susannah), Brighella (Strauss, Ariadne auf Naxos) Remendado (Bizet, Carmen), and Prince Charles (Rimes, Annus Horribilis, world premiere). Joshua toured with Opera Australia in two productions for schools, and made his debut in 2018 as Meister Zorn in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger.

He has been tenor soloist for St. Andrew’s Cathedral Handel's Messiah and several of J.S Bach's Cantatas. Other major solo concert performances include Evangelist in St Matthaüs Passion (Bach), Stabat Mater (Rossini), Elijah (Mendelssohn), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Mozart’s Requiem, arias in St John Passion (Bach), Petite Messe Solennelle (Rossini), Te Deum (Nicolai), and the Bernstein Mass (Conservatorium Centenary). This year he also appeared as a featured soloist in Peter Shaffer's play, Amadeus at the Sydney Opera House.

Competition success includes winning the Joan Carden Award, the Opera and Arts Support Scholarship, the John Fulford Prize at the Herald Sun Aria, the BBM scholarship for music, the Cowra Eisteddfod Aria, and twice receiving the Ronald Dowd Memorial Prize.

British Baritone, Benjamin Hayward Segal, trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he was awarded the Harold Rosenthal Prize – continuing his studies at the National Opera Studio. He has attended and performed in many major music festivals and masterclasses working with Walter Berry, Graham Johnson, Eugine Asti, Iian Burnside, and Robin Bowman. He was a recipient of a Samling Foundation Scholarship partaking in performances at the Sage Gateshead and a participant in many Britten-Pears Young Artist Programs working with John Shirley Quirk, Sir Thomas Allan, Graham Johnson and performing in a fully staged version Albert Herring as part of the Snape Malting Festival directed by Lindy Hume.

Benjamin has performed at many renowned Opera Houses and Concert Halls including Glyndebourne Festival Opera House, where he debuted in Die Zauberflöte under the baton of Sir Charles Mackerras. He has also sung and understudied roles at Opera North, Scottish Opera, Garsington Festival Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, Opera Holland Park and Mid Wales Opera.

Benjamin Hayward Segal’s concert engagements include performances at the Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, the Royal Opera House Crush Bar, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Colston Hall, St John Smith’s Square, St James’ Piccadilly and the Sage Gateshead; with performances of Missa Solemnis; The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Adrian Partington and Bristol/Birmingham Choral Society, The Serenade for Music at the Edinburgh Festival; Bach B minor Mass under the direction of Maasaki Suzuki at the Aldeburgh Festival, St John Passion at Dorchester Abbey. Most recently, he sang Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Singers of Southern Tasmania.

The Hobart Chamber Orchestra was established in 1987 and is primarily a string orchestra. It has developed a reputation for high-quality performances, initiative, innovation, building enduring collaborations, and fostering the emerging talents of soloists, conductors and composers. Membership is drawn from semi-professional musicians, Conservatorium students, music teachers and experienced amateurs pursuing other careers.

The orchestra regularly performs under the direction of local conductors Gary Wain, Greg Stephens, Emma McGrath, Simon Reade and virtuoso violinist Peter Tanfield. It features and accompanies outstanding local and visiting soloists. Repertoire is drawn from the core classical string and symphonic orchestral canon, music of Australian composers, lesser- known contemporary orchestral music and works of women composers, and choral works, and has included world premières.

Highlights are many and have included all of the Brandenburg Concerti of J.S. Bach, Tippett’s Concerto for Double String Orchestra, Piazzolla’s Four Seasons in Buenos Aires, Bartok’s Divertimento for Strings, Carl Rütti’s Requiem , the world premiere of Don Kay’s Symphony No. 4 and his Mathinna in the Red Dress, and the world première of composer Angus Davison’s Mountain. HCO also performs regularly as part of the Festival of Voices in works which have included Mendelssohn’s Elijah, the Requiems of both Brahms and Cherubini and the world première of Don Kay’s opera The Bushranger’s Lover with Deborah Cheetham.

HCO from time to time collaborates with other musical organisations such as the Loose Canon Chamber Singers and Allegri Ensemble. HCO generally presents four or five programs per year in Hobart and occasionally tours regionally.