Hayes Collective
Artists
ROSIE GALLAGHER flute
CHRIS PIDCOCK cello
LEE DIONNE piano
PROGRAM: Salon de Virtuosi
Friedrich BACH Trio Sonata in D Major, W. VII/4 B. 29
Alma MAHLER / Alban BERG Four Songs (arr. Lee Dionne)
MENDELSSOHN Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49
About the Artists
Described as “impressive” (NY Times), Australian flautist Rosie Gallagher was born with an undeniable love of music. Her flute playing has taken her around the world to perform on stages including Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and the Sydney Opera House, as well as bringing classical music into less conventional spaces including correctional facilities, healthcare facilities and public high schools.
Rosie has given pre-concert talks for both the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Carnegie Hall. She collaborates with musicians including Lee Dionne, Anna da Silva Chen, Annie Jacobs-Perkins and Chris Pidcock. She received a BM from The Juilliard School and an MM from The Royal Academy of Music.
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Christopher Pidcock is a cellist who equally enjoys performing on historical and contemporary instruments, exploring composer and performer relationships, and fosters the idea that improvisation is part of being a classical musician. Christopher’s openness to discovery, either by his audience or musicians in the community of Sydney, led to the creation of Opus Now, a concert series that draws together historical performance, world indigenous music, and contemporary music into a single concert. Artists and parallels in the programming are painstakingly researched to create memorable concert experiences. Opus Now receives support from Create NSW, affirming its place in the cultural scene of Sydney.
Christopher is currently completing his doctorate under the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Early Music Department, under the supervision of Daniel Yeadon and Erin Helyard. His focus is on researching early 19th century performance practices through emulation of early recordings to reimagine Beethoven’s Opus 102 Sonatas. Christopher aims to demonstrate a continuum of these performance practices over the 19th century to arrive at a style of playing that Beethoven might have expected.
Christopher’s interest in both early and contemporary music led to the release of his 2020 album “Immersed in Bach”. The album is a reflection on J.S Bach’s formidable Cello Suite no. 4 in E-flat major and six contemporary compositions that share similar mathematical elements to the dances they are paired with. It features music written by Enno Poppe, Salvatore Sciarrino, Mark O’Connor, Mary Finsterer, Alex Pozniak, and the famous jazz-meme, “the lick”.
Christopher regularly performs chamber music with violinists Kristian Winther, Shaun Lee Chen and Harry Ward, and pianists Lee Dionne, Gerard Willems AM, Dr Cecilia Sun, Dr Brieley Cutting and Dr Jocelyn Ho.
Christopher is a passionate teacher and educator, working with the Symphony for Life programme, Chicago Symphony’s MusicCorps, and tutoring at the Riverina Summer School in Wagga Wagga. In 2022 Christopher performed at the opening of the Georges Lentz Sound Chapel, located inside a 10-meter-high water-tank in Cobar.
Overseas, Christopher recently gave a solo recital at the Sagrestia del Vasari, inside of the church of Saint Anna of Lombardi, in Naples. The sacristy is named after Giorgio Vasari who painted its vault frescoes in 1545.
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Described as “impressive” (NYTimes), “impeccable” (Fanfare Magazine), and “entrancing” (BBC Music Magazine), pianist Lee Dionne leads a varied, international career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, artistic director, and arranger.
He has performed numerous solo and chamber debut recitals in such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Jordan Hall, Merkin Hall, Spivey Hall, and the Philharmonic in Bratislava.
For six years Lee toured the US and internationally as the founding pianist of the Merz Trio (2017-2023), with which he was a recipient of the prestigious Naumburg Award in Chamber Music and first prize winner of the Fischoff, Chesapeake, and Concert Artist Guild Competitions. Other chamber ensembles and organisations with which Lee has been associated include Yellow Barn Music Festival, Ensemble Connect, and Cantata Profana.
Originally from the United States (greater NYC area), Lee relocated to Australia in 2023, where he joined flautist Rosie Gallagher in founding Hayes Street Studio, an international centre for chamber music in Sydney that presents over forty concerts of chamber music annually, featuring a roster of leading Australian and international musicians.
Within Australia Lee has been presented as a soloist, chamber musician, speaker, and studio artist by such organisations as Piano+, the Sydney Writers’ Festival, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Musica Viva Australia, ABC Classic, and Fine Music Sydney.
As an artistic director, Lee is passionate about crafting vibrant programs that connect with audiences through their diversity of style and compositional voice, as well as their virtuosity, emotional intensity, and sense of play.
Lee has collaborated widely not only with musicians, but also with directors Eugene Lynch, Jon Levin, and Emma Jaster, dancer Caroline Copeland, puppeteers Eric and Shoshana Bass, and filmmakers Ben Ryan and Chris Kitchen. He has curated and contributed music to events hosted by the Yale Art Gallery, Sydney Writers' Festival, and Person Place Thing Podcast with Randy Cohen.
Lee is deeply indebted to a host of former teachers and mentors, including pianists Vivian Weilerstein, Boris Berman, Wei-Yi Yang, Matti Raekallio, Seth Knopp, Patricia Zander, and Wilma Machover; harpsichordist Arthur Haas; musicologists Michael Friedmann and Paul Berry; and chamber musicians Don Weilerstein, Mark Steinberg, Julio Elizalde, Gerhard Schutz, Kim Kashkashian, Isabel Charisius, Merry Peckham, and Alisdair Tate.
Lee is currently a lecturer in solo piano and chamber music at the Sydney Conservatorium. Previous faculty appointments include Yellow Barn's Young Artist Program and Yale University's Performance of Chamber Music Seminar.