The Annual

 Glebe Music Festival

In conjunction with The Glebe Society Inc

28th Annual Glebe Music Festival

Saturday 25^th November at 7pm
Glebe Town Hall, 160 St John’s Rd, Glebe

St Cecilia 2017 - Josie and the Emeralds
Josie Ryan, soprano
Brooke Green, director, treble viol
Laura Vaughan, guest artist, viols
Fiona Ziegler, tenor viol
Catherine Upex & Annika Stagg, bass viols

WP = World Premiere
* = end of bracket — please applaud at these points!

Please click here for a complete copy of the Program Notes (PDF Download).

Josie and the Emeralds are Josie Ryan and The Emerald City Viols. Based in Sydney, Australia, the group performs rarely heard works from the Renaissance and arrangements and compositions by their director, Brooke Green. They have also performed contemporary repertoire by Ross Edwards, Elena Kats-Chernin, Arvo Part and Andrea Pandolfo. Brooke Green's arrangement of Pandolfo's Albanese - a moving lament from the perspective of a refugee mother — has been popularly viewed on You tube. Josie and the Emeralds' programmes have been variously themed around topics as diverse as the lives of Jeanne d'Arc, Orlando Gibbons and Dorothy Porter. One of their most sumptuous programmes was for the National Gallery of Australia: Music and Painting of the Italian Renaissance exploring connections between music and art. Since 2011, Josie and the Emeralds have presented concerts in Sydney and Canberra and appear each year at the Glebe Music Festival. They have been critically acclaimed for performing "…adoringly: not merely with precision and finesse, but a palpable and abiding admiration..." (Brad Syke, Australian Stage 08/01/2013). Their recordings have been broadcast on ABC Classic FM. Their CD The Emerald Leopard is on Tall Poppies: "No polishing required when emeralds shine this brightly" (Paul Bell-Cross, Limelight, July 8, 2015)

Laura Vaughan
Melbourne-based viola da gamba specialist Laura Vaughan is a dynamic and well-recognised member of the early music movement in Australia.  Following her return from studies at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, she has established an active performing career encompassing a wide range of solo and chamber repertoire across Australasia.  Passionate about the unique sound world of the viol, Laura is committed to bringing this exquisite repertoire to audiences around the world.  She is also one of the few exponents of the rare lirone.

Laura records regularly for ABC Classic FM as a soloist and chamber musician and appears on numerous CD recordings. She performs with numerous ensembles including the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Orchestra of the Antipodes, Adelaide Baroque, Auckland Philharmonia, Ironwood, Song Company, Accademia Arcadia and is a founding member of the multiple ARIA award nominated trio Latitude 37.

Josie Ryan
graduated from Sydney Conservatorium of Music and a grant from the Dutch Government enabled her to complete her Masters degree specializing in Early Vocal Music and Historical Performance Practice at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. She studied with Rita Dams, Jill Feldman, Barbara Pearson and Diane Forlano, participating in master classes and private lessons with Emma Kirkby, Evelyn Tubb and Barbara Schlick. During her thirteen years in the Netherlands Josie performed as an ensemble singer with various leading groups across Europe, including The Tallis Scholars, The Amsterdam Baroque Choir and Collegium Vocale Gent. Her operatic roles include Rameau’s Les fetes d’Hebe (Iphise), Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Ninfa) and Cavalieri’s Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo (Anima beata). Josie is frequently engaged as a soloist with ensembles including the St Mary’s Singers, the Choir of Christ Church St Laurence, Australian Baroque Brass, The Sydneian Bach Choir, Coro Innominata, SUMS, Sydney University Graduate Choir, The Oriana Chorale, Sydney Chamber Choir, The Sydney Consort, Salut! and The Marais Project. A regular performer with Pinchgut Opera, The Australian Brandenburg Choir and Cantillation, she is a frequent guest with the Choir of St James’ King Street and a member of the St Mary’s Cathedral Special Services Choir and Hallelujah Junction. Her numerous CD and DVD recordings include the role of Liebe in Schmelzer’s sepolcro Stärke der Lieb, Monteverdi’s 5th and 6th books of Madrigals, and Vivaldi’s Magnificat in duet with Emma Kirkby. The ABC Classics CD Mysteries of Gregorian Chant, which topped the ARIA Classical Charts for several months in 2014, featured Josie as a soloist with The Singers of St. Laurence. She has recently appeared as a soloist with the Australian Brandenburg Ensemble on tour throughout NSW and will feature with the same ensemble in performances of Rembrandt Live, a theatre piece directed by John Bell, at the Art Gallery of NSW as part of the Rembrandt exhibition in January 2018.

Brooke Green
graduated with a Masters in Early Music Performance from the Early Music Institute, Bloomington, Indiana University, where she studied viol and vielle with Wendy Gillespie. Previously, as a baroque violinist, Brooke spent several years in London, performing with ensembles such as The Hanover Band, The Brandenburg Consort, The London Handel Orchestra, Midsummer Opera and The City of London Chamber Players. In Australia, Brooke has performed as a soloist with The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, led various baroque ensembles and played in others led by Fiona Ziegler. From 1993 as director of Backgammon, Brooke directed many innovative programmes of music on period instruments, in London, Sydney, Tasmania and Honolulu. For The Viola da Gamba Society of America, Brooke has given a recital of 17th century music for solo treble viol and directed a program of Australian contemporary music for viol consort. As a vielle player, Brooke has toured with the US-based Ensemble Lipzodes and directed multi-media, theatrical productions including Machaut’s Le Remede de Fortune, Queer Medieval Tales and O Fortuna for MONA FOMA. In 2014, Brooke performed with Consort Eclectus and The Hilliard Ensemble for The Festival of Sydney. In 2013 Brooke’s The Shades for Viol Quartet won the Audience Prize at the Leo M.Traynor Tenth International Competition for New Music for Viols, Viola da Gamba Society of America. Her suite for Viol Quartet Shades of Presence Past and her songs for soprano and viols: Emerald Elixirs are published by PRB Music, San Francisco. Brooke Green's Perfumed with Blood arranged for soprano and orchestra was premiered in March 2016 by The Bourbaki Ensemble.

Fiona Ziegler
began her violin and piano studies with her mother, violinist, Eva Kelly, later studying violin with Christopher Kimber and Harry Curby, piano with Nancy Salas and cello with Lois Simpson. Fiona, also a prominent baroque violinist has performed with Ensemble de la the Reine, The Marais Project, The Sydney Consort, Concertato, The Australian Forte Piano Trio, the Renaissance Players and The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. She has also performed regularly with The Sydney Chamber Choir, Coro Innominata, The Sydney Soloists and has led the Sydney Philharmonia since 1992. As a chamber musician Fiona has performed with the Gagliano String Quartet, The Sydney String Quartet. Trio Pollastri, the Vuillaume Trio, the Grevillea Ensemble; and Plektra and Completely Plucked on mandolin and mandola. Fiona is an Assistant Concertmaster of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Catherine Upex
studied cello with Dorothy Sumner and Georg Pedersen. She attended the University of Sydney, graduating with a BMus (Hons) (majoring in Performance) in 1997. In 1994, while studying Baroque performance as part of her degree, Catherine started learning the viola da gamba with Jennifer Eriksson. Since 2000, Catherine has performed regularly with the Marais Project and played on several Marais Project CDs including Viol Dreaming (2007), Love Reconciled (2009) and Lady Sings the Viol (2012). She has also performed on the viola da gamba in masterclasses with Wieland Kuijken, Jaap ter Linden, Susie Napper and Margaret Little and has played with several ensembles including the Renaissance Players, Salut! Baroque, the Sydney Consort, La Folia, Backgammon, Thoroughbass and The Opera Project. As well as the bass viol Catherine enjoys playing treble viol and has performed on it with the Seaven Teares viol consort since 2010. She has also taught cello at several Sydney schools and currently teaches at the Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School and Lane Cove Public School.

Annika Stagg
began cello studies at the age of ten, studying with Liz Huggett at the Central Coast Conservatorium. In 2004 after a year of study with Anthea Scott-Mitchell, Annika commenced her Bachelor of Music degree at Sydney Conservatorium where she has studied with Susan Blake and Julian Smiles. In 2005, Annika played with Sydney Conservatorium Early Music Ensemble and this inspired her to commence baroque cello and viola da gamba lessons with Daniel Yeadon. In 2009 Annika moved to Bremen, Germany where she completed her advanced studies degree under Stephan Schrader at the Bremen University of the Arts. During her studies she worked as the intern Cellist at the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra. In her final Semester she was offered the position of cellist at the Operettenhaus, Hamburg, where she continued to work until her return to Australia this year.