Our 2024 Artists

PAAVALI JUMPPANEN

Piano

Finnish virtuoso Paavali Jumppanen has established an international career as an orchestral and recital soloist, recording artist, artistic director, and frequent performer of contemporary and avant-garde music. He has been the Artistic Director to the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne since 2021.

Born in Espoo, Finalnd, Paavali began piano lessons at age five at the Music Institute, entering the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki in 1992. From 1997 to 2000, he studied with Krystian Zimerman at the Basel Music Academy. He has performed extensively in the US, Europe, Japan and Australia and has collaborated with many great conductors including David Robertson, Sakari Oramo, Susanna Mälkki, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Jaap van Zweden. Paavali has appeared with the Melbourne Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, at numerous festivals and has been a regular soloist with Finland’s leading orchestras.

A co-founder and lead-curator of the Väyläfestival, an arts festival in northern Scandinavia, Paavali writes a popular blog called Paavali’s Studio. In 2017, the Wall Street Journal published his article relating the fascinating story of the Beethoven’s “Appassionata,” the pianist’s favourite piece of music—and one he will play for us at the Martinborough Music Festival.

DAVID GRIFFITHS

Clarinet

David Griffiths is a member of two of Australia’s leading chamber music ensembles: the Australia Ensemble@UNSW and Ensemble Liaison. He also holds the position of Associate Director and Associate Professor of Music at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, the University of Melbourne. A passionate performer and educator, he has presented performances and masterclasses in Asia, Europe, US, South America, the Middle East, New Zealand and Australia.

He has held positions as Associate Principal Clarinet with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Principal Clarinet of the Macau Orchestra and Principal Clarinet of the Shanghai Radio Orchestra.

He was acting Principal of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the Malaysian Philharmonic and has performed with the New World Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the China Philharmonic, the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra and the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra. 

David’s recordings with Ensemble Liaison of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time for the Melba Recordings label and Trios of Brahms, Beethoven and Bruch for the Tall Poppies label have won high praise from critics around the world. He is a Backun Clarinet performing artist.

HARRY BENNETTS

Violin

Harry is currently the Associate Concertmaster of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. After studying at the University of Melbourne and the Australian National Academy of Music he spent two years at the Karajan Academy, a training institute associated with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Back in Australia, as well as orchestral playing, he has joined Ensemble Q (a band of exceptional players, based in Brisbane) and played in the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Harry performed at the 2022 Martinborough Music Festival. He plays a 1716  violin made by Giovanni Battista Grancino, one of a family of Milanese luthiers active in the 17th and early 18th centuries.

DONALD ARMSTRONG

Violin

Donald Armstrong is Associate Concertmaster of the NZSO.  Formerly Principal Second Violin of the Tivoli Sinfoniorkester in Denmark and Co-Concertmaster of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice in France, he performs regularly in New Zealand as a chamber musician and conductor and has taught as an artist teacher at the New Zealand School of Music. He is Conductor in Residence of the Kapiti Concert Orchestra and Co-Artistic Director of the Martinborough Music Festival.

Donald was Music Director of the NZ Chamber Orchestra from its inception in 1987 until 2005. His incisive leadership was a major force in creating the dynamic and exciting style of the NZCO heard both in live concert and on its many commercial recordings. His chamber group, the “Amici Ensemble” is currently in its 37th year of concerts.

Donald is interested in preserving and advancing New Zealand’s musical heritage. As a violinist, teacher, conductor and mentor he encourages young instrumentalists while continuing his quest for the wild, wacky and wonderful in music. He plays a violin by Nicolo Gagliano of 1754.

WILMA SMITH

Violin

Born in Fiji and raised in New Zealand, Wilma studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston with Dorothy DeLay (violin) and Louis Krasner (chamber music). She was founding First Violinist of the Lydian Quartet (winners of the Naumburg Award for Chamber Music and multiple prizes at Evian, Banff and Portsmouth International String Quartet Competitions). She eventually returned to New Zealand as founding First Violinist of the New Zealand String Quartet.

Following distinguished tenures as Concertmaster of the New Zealand then Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, Wilma has returned to her chamber music roots as Second Violinist of the Flinders Quartet, also curating her own series, Wilma & Friends.

She is Musica Viva Australia’s Artistic Director of Competitions, overseeing the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and Strike A Chord while active in New Zealand as Co-Artistic Director of the Martinborough Music Festival and Board Director of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

SVETLANA BOGOSAVLJEVIC

Cello

Originally from Belgrade, Serbia, Svetlana studied at the Special High School of the Tchaikovsky Conservatorium of Music, Moscow, and the Cologne Hochschule of Music.

As an orchestral musician Svetlana held the position of Associate Principal Cello with the Rheinische Philharmonie and has worked with the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker, Cologne Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony and Singapore Symphony Orchestras. She has also toured Europe as a principal cellist of the ensemble Double Sens.

Svetlana is a founding member of Ensemble Liaison and has appeared with many other major ensembles including the Australia Ensemble UNSW. For over two decades, she has shared her knowledge and experience as a cello and chamber music teacher at the Australian Institute of Music, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the University of New South Wales, Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, Monash University and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.

CHRISTOPHER MOORE

Viola

After nine years playing and travelling the world with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, as Principal Viola, Chris joined a much bigger band – the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for which he is now the Principal Viola.

Born in Melbourne, he started out on the violin but after many years as a violinist in the Adelaide and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras he took up ‘a less highly strung string instrument’ and shifted his focus and energy to the viola.

Christopher plays a viola attributed to Giovanni Paolo Maggini, dating from circa 1610, loaned anonymously to the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

GILLIAN ANSELL

viola

At 19 an Associated Board Scholarship took Gillian  to the Royal College of Music in London to  study violin, viola and piano for three years. Her next step was the Musikhochschule in Cologne.  

After playing professionally in London she returned to New Zealand to become the second violinist of the new New Zealand String Quartet, where she eventually changed to viola.

Gillian is the Artistic Director, with Helene Pohl, of the Adam New Zealand Festival of Chamber Music.  As a member of the NZSQ she holds two positions in the New Zealand School of Music – Te Kōkī – at Victoria University of Wellington: as Artist in Residence  and  an Associate Professor for classical performance. She plays a 1619 Nicolo Amati viola, loaned by the Adam Foundation.

TIMO-VEIKKO VALVE

Cello

Timo-Veikko Valve, known by audiences far and wide as ‘Tipi’, grew up in a musically oriented family in Finland. At six years old, he was encouraged to pick up the cello after a teacher at the local music school declared with considerable conviction that “he looks just like a cellist!”. Tipi is still somewhat puzzled about what that statement actually meant, but the teacher seems to have been right!

Tipi was appointed Principal Cello of the Australian Chamber Orchestra in 2006. Before his Australian adventure, Tipi studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki before continuing to the Edsberg Music Institute in Stockholm.

Tipi moves between modern and period instruments and enjoys a diverse career as a musician, curator and director, directing from the cello as he plays and appearing as a soloist with many of the major orchestras across his two home countries, Finland and Australia. Tipi is also a sought-after collaborator and frequently appears as a chamber musician. Tipi plays a Brothers Amati cello from 1616, on loan from the ACO Instrument Fund.