Chamber Music in the Hunter is a regional chamber music initiative presenting intimate, high-quality concerts across Newcastle and the Hunter Valley. In ensembles ranging from duos to octets, with winds, strings or piano, each musician contributes to a uniquely collaborative sound where every part matters.

Among the musicians who play with us are Jennifer St George, a flautist whose performing career spans major symphony, opera and ballet orchestras across Australia and France. She continues to perform regularly in chamber and orchestral ensembles in the region, and has a longstanding commitment to creating performance initiatives, most recently as the founder of Chamber Music in the Hunter.

Violinist Elizabeth Holowell OAM began her career in the Australian Opera Ballet Orchestra and as a foundation member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. She is an internationally acclaimed teacher of violin and viola, having held the position of Head of Strings at universities in Australia and New Zealand for 35 years.

Anthea Scott-Mitchell is a distinguished cellist who has performed on stages around the world with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Lysy Gstaad, and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome.

Born in Taiwan, violinist Catherine Sheng-Cooper is concertmaster of the Lake Macquarie Philharmonic Orchestra and the Opera Hunter Orchestra, and plays with the Pacific Palm Court Orchestra. With her husband Dave Cooper she also performs as the string duo TWO PLAY STRINGS.

Together and in various combinations, these musicians bring deep experience and wide-ranging expertise to the intimate art of chamber music. They make their festival debut this year in the concert featuring Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals.

AT THE FESTIVAL