Strike A Chord Jury

Wilma Smith is Musica Viva Australia’s Artistic Director of Competitions, Second Violinist of the Flinders Quartet, curator/violinist/violist of Wilma & Friends, Guest Concertmaster of orchestras throughout Australia and New Zealand, a regular player with the Australian World Orchestra and a committed teacher.

Born in Fiji and raised in New Zealand, Wilma studied in the US with the legendary Dorothy DeLay. She was founding first violinist of the Lydian Quartet, winner of the Naumburg Award and prizes at Evian, Banff and Portsmouth International String Quartet Competitions.

Invited by Chamber Music New Zealand to return home to establish the New Zealand String Quartet, Wilma was first violinist until her appointment as concertmaster of the NZSO and then the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Since retiring from the MSO, Wilma has prioritised her chamber music roots, enjoying old and new collaborations in the US and New Zealand as well as Australia. With her old friend, Victoria Jones, she is Co-Artistic Director of the annual Martinborough Music Festival.

Wilma plays a 1761 Guadagnini violin and, occasionally, a fine Chinese viola.

Aura Go is a performer, curator and educator. She performs internationally as concerto soloist in repertoire from J.S. Bach to Sofia Gubaidulina, as recitalist and chamber musician in imaginative programs that interweave old and new music, and as narrator and actor in cross-artform and educational projects.

Aura has performed as soloist with the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria. Festival highlights include the Edinburgh Festival, PianoEspoo, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival and the Australian Festival of Chamber Music.

Aura enjoys musical partnerships with Tomoe Kawabata as the KIAZMA Piano Duo, and with Timo-Veikko 'Tipi' Valve (Principal Cellist, Australian Chamber Orchestra). Her discography includes the complete Beethoven cello and piano sonatas and Japanese piano duo repertoire.

Aura is Head of Piano at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, Monash University.

As one of the tallest cellists in the world, Rohan de Korte has enjoyed an unobstructed view of nearly every conductor he has ever worked with. A graduate of the Köln Hochschule fur Musik, Rohan studied cello with Claus Kanngiesser and chamber music with the Alban Berg Quartet. Other teachers include Valter Despalj, Nelson Cooke and Henry Wenig.

In 2000 Rohan returned to Australia to work first with the Sydney Symphony, then as the Associate Principal Cellist with Orchestra Victoria before finally joining the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2009.

Rohan is an active chamber musician, performing in the MSO chamber players series, with Wilma and Friends, and the Roger Young Collective among others. Rohan also teaches cello and chamber music at the University of Melbourne and arranges music for cello quartet.

Brent Miller has a multifaceted career as a timpanist, percussionist, conductor, curator, researcher and educator, and is Head of Percussion at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. Brent's extensive orchestral career includes engagements with most major orchestras in Australasia, including the Australian World Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Brent performs with Plexus and was the founding percussionist of Ensemble Q.

A frequent performer of new music, he has premiered over 100 compositions, including Catherine Likhuta’s Timpani Concerto (2023). Brent is a long-serving member of the Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) and Artistic Director of the Australasian Percussion Gathering. Proudly championing Australian music, Brent records new percussion works in the studio every year with MYRIAD, the Percussion Ensemble of the Melbourne Conservatorium.

Fiona Sargeant is a performer, chamber musician and educator. A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, she continued her studies in Germany under Hermann Voss of the Melos Quartet at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart, and with Ulrich Koch, Wolfram Christ and Gérard Caussé, becoming a finalist at the Maurice Vieux International Viola Competition.

Fiona has held Principal Viola positions with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne (OCL) and Det Jyske Ensemble, and performed Hindemith's Der Schwanendreher with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2025. She is a founding member of the viola section of the Australian World Orchestra, performing under conductors including Zubin Mehta and Sir Simon Rattle.

A regular recitalist and chamber musician, Fiona's collaborators include Yefim Bronfman, James Ehnes and Piers Lane. Fiona has taught at the Australian National Academy of Music and the University of Melbourne.

Australian-American pianist Edward Neeman has performed across five continents and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Juilliard School. A top prizewinner of numerous international piano competitions, including first prize in the Joaquín Rodrigo Competition in Madrid, he has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Madrid Philharmonia, Sydney Symphony, and Melbourne Symphony.

Edward has released three critically acclaimed solo albums: Rachmaninoff & Sitsky (2016), Language of Angels (2022), and Poems for Piano (2025). His live recording of the Concierto para piano by Joaquín Rodrigo with the Prague Philharmonic was released on the Rodrigo Foundation label in 2012.

He currently teaches at the Australian National University in Canberra and the Elly Lim Music Conservatory in Jakarta, Indonesia. www.neemanpianoduo.com 

Mark Bain is a professional trumpet player, music educator, and performance coach based in Hobart. He is currently Tutti Trumpet with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and has performed with leading orchestras across Australasia, Europe, and the Middle East.

Mark studied at the Australian National University (ANU) and the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Mark has held teaching roles at the ANU, the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt am Main, and the University of Tasmania in Hobart. He has been a Brass Examiner for the Australian Music Examinations Board since 2013. 

In 2019, Mark founded Performance Under Pressure, which delivers evidence-based workshops on performance psychology to organisations across Australia and internationally.

Nick Russoniello is a saxophonist, composer, ensemble leader, and educator. A graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Conservatorio di Musica “Giuseppe Verdi” in Milan, Nick has performed with many of Australia’s leading arts organisations, including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra and the Australian World Orchestra.

Nick’s projects—including his acclaimed solo show Air Mass—have been featured by Sydney Festival, Royal College of Music (London), Musica Viva Australia, ABC Classic FM, Conservatorio di Milano, Strasbourg Cité de la Musique and Phoenix Central Park.

Nick was awarded the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year and the 2MBS Fine Music Kruger Scholarship. A prolific composer, Nick’s music is frequently performed by saxophonist around the world.

Nick holds a doctorate from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and is a Yamaha Australia Artist and a D’Addario Woodwind Artist.

Nicole Canham is a clarinettist and tarogato player. As Head of Woodwind at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance at Monash University, she is dedicated to supporting the next generation of musicians to develop rewarding and sustainable careers in music.

Nicole’s passion for chamber music has led to performances in Mexico, the USA, France, the UK and Belgium. Orchestral highlights have included work with Sydney Symphony Orchestra, The Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Her repertoire includes pieces written for her by Aaron Wyatt, Elena Kats-Chernin, Nick Tsiavos, Drew Crawford, Robert Davidson, Su Min Lee, Paula Matthusen, Carlos Lopez and Rodrigo Sigal.

She is currently working on a VCE clarinet repertoire project, recording Australian works for clarinet and piano composed after 1990.

Patrick Murphy teaches at the University of Queensland’s School of Music and is the cellist of the Tinalley String Quartet, whose recent ABC Classics release met with critical acclaim.

Patrick is a founding member of the Tankstream Quartet, competing in the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. The Tankstream Quartet studied with the Alban Berg Quartet, Milan Skampa, Walter Levin and Rainer Schmidt.

Patrick is a member of the Southern Cross Soloists, The Sydney Soloists, and Nexus Piano Quartet, with whom he has performed at major Australian and international music festivals. Patrick works with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Opera Orchestra, and the Australian World Orchestra. He studied with cellists Alexander Ivashkin, Gregory Baron, Michael Goldschlager and Rosemary Iversen.

Sonia Croucher is Principal Piccolo of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared as guest principal piccolo with the Australia World Orchestra, NZSO, and major Australian orchestras. During 21 years as Principal Piccolo of the 43-nation Malaysian Philharmonic, Sonia performed over 2,000 concerts and collaborated with luminaries including Lorin Maazel, Joshua Bell, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, José Carreras, and Branford Marsalis.

Sonia's passion for nurturing young talent runs deep: from mentoring hundreds of MPO Youth Orchestra musicians, to her current teaching at the University of Western Australia, and delivering masterclasses at ANAM, Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland Conservatoriums. Her adjudication experience spans national and international panels, including Australian Youth Orchestra auditions, the Lyrical Flute International Championship, and WA state competitions.

Concertmaster of Orchestra Victoria, violinist Sulki Yu enjoys a vibrant career as a chamber musician, orchestral leader and soloist. Sulki studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London under David Takeno and with Augustin Dumay at the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elizabeth in Brussels.

A prize-winner at the 2006 Yehudi Menuhin and 2007 Szigeti-Hubay International Violin Competitions, Sulki has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic, Orchestre Nationale de Lille, Budapest Symphony and Royal Wallonie Chamber Orchestras.

As a passionate chamber musician, Sulki has been invited to many international chamber music festivals and is the founding member of the award-winning Fournier Trio.

Until 2020, Sulki served as Principal First Violin at the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. Future engagements include guest concertmaster appearances with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

An internationally acclaimed musician, educator, and neurodiversity advocate, Celia Craig is recognised as one of the world’s leading performers with synaesthesia.  Celia’s career spans five continents and includes performances across Europe, the Americas and Asia; recording at Abbey Road Studios; playing for the Royal family; for Doctor Who; touring Australian schools improvising as Colours of Home duo with electric guitar.

Following diagnoses of ADHD and anxiety disorder in addition to her innate synaesthesia, Celia is classed as a Twice Exceptional (2E) musician: with rare insight into the intersection of creativity, leadership, and neurodivergence, combining lived experience with evidence-based understanding and compelling storytelling. An EMCC-qualified coach, Celia’s ability to connect with audiences was shaped early through personal coaching by Leonard Bernstein. 

As a Chairman of London’s flagship BBC Symphony Orchestra, Celia helped deliver the world’s largest classical music event, Last Night of the Proms, to an audience of approximately 40 million. She has held senior educational, curatorial, and advisory roles nationally and internationally. In 2026, Celia is a Biennial Artist through CreateSA in Australia’s UNESCO City of Music, Adelaide, Associate elected by the Royal Academy of Music (1997) and Visiting International Lecturer, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff.

Melbourne/Naarm based violinist Madeleine Jevons enjoys a vibrant freelance career, and is a founding member of the Penny Quartet. Melding her passions for music-making, curation and community, she inhabits a varied space in the Australian music scene. 

She studied at the former Victorian College of the Arts and the Australian National Academy of Music, receiving multiple chamber music and achievement awards throughout, including a Freedman Fellowship nomination in 2019. She has toured throughout Europe, to the United States and across Australia. 

As a sought-after chamber musician, Madeleine collaborates at festivals and as a guest musician in many leading arts organisations. She is a lover of all musical genres, and appears regularly on contemporary recordings and live performances. She has performed extensively in many of Australia’s symphony and chamber orchestras, and is a member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra Collective. She has featured as a soloist with ACO Collective and the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. 

In 2025-6, Madeleine is undertaking the Musica Viva FutureMaker fellowship and  is Artist In Residence with Liza Lim’s ARC project, working with community on Barkandji Country.