Kristian Winther is widely recognized for his ability to perform as a virtuosic violin soloist and as an energetic and brilliant chamber musician, seeking musical challenges performing classic, contemporary and rare works.

As violin soloist, Kristian has appeared with the Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland, Christchurch and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, Auckland Philharmonic, Gruppo Montebello and Orchestra Romantique. He has performed under the batons of conductors including Jessica Cottis, Olli Mustonen, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Marcus Stenz, Oleg Caetani, David Robertson and Fabian Russell.

In the role of leader/director Kristian has performed as Guest Concertmaster of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Melbourne and Western Australian Symphony Orchestras, and as leader/director of ACO Collective.

A devoted chamber musician, Kristian was formerly violinist in the TinAlley String Quartet, winning first prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition, which was followed by tours of the USA, Canada and Europe. He has also performed chamber music with Anthony Romaniuk, Daniel de Borah, Anne Sophie von Otter, Angela Hewitt, Steven Osborne, Anna Goldsworthy, Richard Tognetti, Brett and Paul Dean, Konstantin Shamray, Hue Blanes and Joe Chindamo. As an original musician of the Play On series since 2016, Kristian has performed music from the 16th to the 21st-centuries at diverse venues including an underground car park in Collingwood and a nightclub in Berlin. Other recent solo / chamber music highlights include performing all of JS Bach’s unaccompanied sonatas and partitas at the Canberra Festival in a single day, the complete Schumann String Quartets in one concert on raw gut strings, and Reger’s monumental violin concerto at the Orlando Festival in the Netherlands.

Committed to performing new repertoire, Kristian has performed the world premiere of Olli Mustonen’s Sonata for Violin and Orchestra (with the composer conducting the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra), as well as the Australian premieres of works by Louis Andriessen, Knussen, Kurtag, Salonen, Rihm, Widmann, Kelly-Marie Murphy, and numerous Australian composers. Kristian also gave the Australian premiere of John Adam’s concertante work for string quartet and orchestra Absolute Jest with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the Australian and New Zealand premieres of Brett Dean’s violin concerto The Lost Art of Letter Writing.

Kristian performs on a violin crafted by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, Paris, 1859, on generous loan from UKARIA Cultural Centre.

Beatrice Colombis, 22, is an Italian-Australian violinist who is currently studying at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin with Professor Suyeon Kang. In 2024 she completed her Bachelor Degree of Music Performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music studying with Professor Goetz Richter. She began her studies at the age of 3 with renowned teacher of the Suzuki Method, Yasuki Nakamura, and continued her studies with ACO violinist Ilya Isakovich. Beatrice has performed as a soloist with Concerto Arcana, Caesura Ensemble, and the Sydney Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra. In 2024, she was a semi-finalist in the Max Rostal International Violin Competition in Germany and a finalist in the Tokyo Classic Violin Competition in Japan. She has been a prize winner in several Australian competitions, including the 2nd prize in the Dorcas McClean Travelling Scholarship (2025), 1st and audience prizes at the Kendall National Violin Competition (2023), the Roger Woodward AC OBE Award and runner up prize in the 2mbs Young Virtuoso Award (2024), Richard Mills first prize in the Melbourne Bach Competition (2021) the Anne Kantor Award in the Great Romantics Competition (2024).  In 2020, Beatrice, with her brother and cousins as the Cousin Quartet, won Musica Viva’s Inaugural Strike A Chord national chamber music competition. 

Beatrice was selected as an Emerging Artist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in 2023 and 2024. She has played casually with the ACO, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and has led various programs with the Western Sydney Philarmonic, Sydney Conservatorium Orchestra and Ensemble Apex. She was selected for the Gustav Mahler Academy in Bolzano in 2025/26. 

Beatrice has travelled and performed with various string quartets, including touring NSW and taking part in masterclasses and festivals in Finland, Austria and Germany. In 2024 her quartet Elvina gave their debut recital in Melbourne after returning from a residency in Munich with the Schumann Quartet. They also performed at the Craven Creek Chamber Music Festival in 2024 and the Orange Chamber Music Festival in 2025.  Other chamber music collaborators include Anthony Marwood, Julian Smiles, Roger Benedict, Kristian Winther and the Brodsky Quartet. 

Born and raised in Sydney, Marlena Stanhope is emerging as a pre-eminent Australian violist, performing chamber music with Anthony Marwood, Roger Benedict, Opus Now and the Alma Moodie Quartet. She was a recipient of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra AYO Fellowships in 2022, and has performed in both the Sydney and Queensland Symphony Orchestras. She was also a participant in the Korean National Symphony Orchestra’s International Academy program in 2023. At the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, she received the prestigious Corinna D’Hage Mayer String Scholarship for four years and was awarded First Class Honours in a Bachelor of Music (Performance) in 2024. Marlena is currently studying with Volker Jacobsen at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover in Germany, and is a member of the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover internship program and the Gustav Mahler Academy. Outside of music, she received a Diploma of Language Studies with a minor in Korean Studies from the University of Sydney in 2025.

After a career spanning more than 20 years as a gifted cello soloist and orchestral musician, Umberto Clerici is widely regarded for his seamless transition to the podium now as an acclaimed conductor. The 2025 season will mark Clerici’s third as Chief Conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in addition to being a frequent guest with several leading orchestras.

Umberto began his career as a virtuoso cellist making his solo debut at the age of 17 performing Haydn’s D Major cello concerto in Japan. After years of performing on the stages of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, Umberto took up the position as Principal cello of the Teatro Regio di Torino following which he was Principal Cello of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from 2014 to 2021. It was in Sydney in 2018 that Umberto made his conducting debut with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House. Following a swift trajectory of prestigious conducting engagements, Umberto is now in high demand with the major symphony orchestras throughout Australia and New Zealand.

As a cellist, Umberto is beloved by audiences worldwide, having performed internationally as a soloist at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Vienna’s Musicverein, the great Shostakovich Hall of St Petersburg, Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, the Salzburg Festival and is one of only two Italians to have ever won a prize for cello in the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition.

Daniel de Borah is recognised as one of Australia’s foremost musicians, consistently praised for the grace, finesse and imaginative intelligence of his performances. His busy performance schedule finds him equally at home as concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician.

Since his prize-winning appearances at the 2004 Sydney International Piano Competition, Daniel has given recitals on four continents and toured extensively throughout the United Kingdom and Australia. As a concerto soloist he has appeared with the English Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland, Tasmanian, Adelaide and Auckland Symphony Orchestras.

An avid chamber musician, Daniel has enjoyed fruitful collaborations with many leading soloists including Vadim Gluzman, Andrew Haveron, Dale Barltrop, Kristian Winther, Baiba Skride, Li-Wei Qin, Nicolas Altstaedt, Umberto Clerici, Roderick Williams, Steve Davislim and Andrew Goodwin. His festival appearances have included the Musica Viva Festival, Adelaide Festival, Huntington Estate Music Festival and the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. Daniel is a founding member of Ensemble Q, ensemble-in-residence at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University since 2017.

During his studies Daniel won numerous awards including 3rd Prizes at the 2004 Sydney International Piano Competition, the 2001 Tbilisi International Piano Competition and the 2000 Arthur Rubinstein in Memoriam Competition in Poland. In 2005 he was selected for representation by the Young Classical Artists Trust, London. Daniel is also a past winner of the Australian National Piano Award and the Royal Overseas League Piano Award in London.

Born in Melbourne in 1981, Daniel studied at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, the St. Petersburg State Conservatory and the Royal Academy of Music, London. His teachers have included Zsuzsa Esztó, Mira Jevtic, Nina Seryogina, Tatyana Sarkissova and Alexander Satz. Daniel now lives in Brisbane where he serves as Head of Chamber Music at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University.