First violins

Dene Olding: Concertmaster

Dene Olding is one of Australia’s most outstanding instrumentalists and has achieved a distinguished career in many aspects of musical life.

As a soloist, he appears regularly with the Australian symphony orchestras and has given the Australian premieres of Lutoslawski’s Chain 2, Carter’s Violin Concerto, and the Glass Violin Concerto, as well as concertos by Ross Edwards and Bozidar Kos, and Richard Mills’ Double Concerto, written for him and his wife, violist Irina Morozova.

A graduate of the Juilliard School, in 1985 he was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship and was a Laureate of the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium International Violin Competition. He rejoined the Sydney Symphony as Co-Concertmaster in 2002, having held the position from 1987 to 1994. Other concertmaster positions have included the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He is also first violinist for the Australia Ensemble and a founding member of the Goldner String Quartet. As a conductor he has made appearances with the Sydney Symphony and Auckland Philharmonia, and as conductor-soloist with chamber orchestras in Australia and America.

His recordings include Brahms, Beethoven and Mozart sonatas, concertos by Martin, Milhaud, Hindemith and Barber, the premiere recording of Edwards’ violin concerto, Maninyas, the complete Beethoven string quartets and a Rachmaninoff disc with Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Dene Olding plays a 1720 Joseph Guarnerius violin.

Kirsten Williams: Associate Concertmaster

Kirsten Williams began playing violin at age four and had completed her Performers Diploma by age 18, studying with Alice Waten, at the NSW Conservatorium. She continued as a postgraduate with Igor Ozim in Switzerland.

She has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras in Australia and overseas, including performances of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on a tour of Europe with the Chambre d’Orchestre Neuchatel, and as a prizewinner with the Bern Symphony Orchestra. She gave the Australian premiere of Nigel Butterley’s Violin Concerto, performed Arvo Pärt’s Fratres with John Harding and the Sydney Symphony. She has also been a soloist with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra as well as the Australian Chamber Orchestra for their tour of China.

Kirsten Williams has played in the opera house orchestra at Covent Garden, and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields. On her return to Australia she performed  at the Melbourne and Mittagong Festivals and Edith Cowan University in Perth and is a regular featured artist in the Sydney Chamber Music Festival. She is also a regular on ABC Live broadcasts.

She has been guest concertmaster for the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, and held the position of Associate Leader of the ACO. She was the director and conductor of Camerata, the Australian Youth Orchestra’s chamber orchestra, on a tour of the USA and Canada.

Kirsten Williams is in a duo with harpist Jane Rosenson. They have recorded two CDs  and have an overseas tour pending. She has recently formed a new chamber group, Sound Academy, with Celia Craig, oboe and cor anglais player, and the SSO's principal cellist Timothy Walden.

Kirsten has been Associate Concertmaster of the SSO since 1999.

Sun Yi: Associate Concertmaster

Sun Yi was born in Hunan, China. He attended the Shanghai Conservatory of Music from 1988 to 1993 where he was the Concertmaster for the Youth Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra. In 1990, he won the third prize for the senior section in the China National Violin Competition, and also participated in the International Chamber Music Competition in Melbourne, Australia.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree from the Shanghai Conservatory, Sun Yi was engaged as the Associate Concertmaster of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

He also became the leader of the Orient String Quartet, which toured Japan and France and won the special nomination prize in the 3rd Borciani International String Quartet Competition in Italy. The quartet studied with the Amadeus String Quartet at the International Summer Camp in London. As a soloist he performed The Butterfly Lovers concerto in Taiwan with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in 1994. He has also performed Vivaldi’s Four Seasons for the televised Shanghai New Year concert, and with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra on their 1996 tour to Thailand.

In the same year, he performed Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, conducted by Geoffrey Simon at the Shanghai Festival of Arts. Later in the year, Sun Yi was promoted to Concertmaster of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and in 1997 he toured Japan with the Asia Symphony Orchestra. At the end of 1997 he moved to Australia and studied for a Master of Music degree at the Australian Institute of Music with Alice Waten and Carl Pini.

From 2002 to 2007, Sun Yi held the position of Associate Concertmaster of the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra. He was appointed Associate Concertmaster with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2007 and has appeared as soloist with the orchestra in Saint-Saëns’s Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. He is also the founding member of the Whiteley Trio and Nexus-2MBS Virtuosi.

Fiona Ziegler: Assistant Concertmaster

Fiona Ziegler began violin and piano studies at the age of five with her mother, Sydney violinist Eva Kelly. She attended the Conservatorium High School where she studied violin with Christopher Kimber and Harry Curby, piano with Nancy Salas and cello with Lois Simpson. She also attended masterclasses with Valery Klimov, Igor Ozim and the Quartetto Beethoven di Roma.

Following this early study, Fiona Ziegler played in the Australian Youth Orchestra, touring with it to China. She then spent three years as a member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra with whom she toured Asia, Europe, and the UK, and in 1983 she joined the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Fiona Ziegler was twice a state finalist in the ABC Young Performers Awards and has travelled to the UK on a Sydney Symphony Friends Scholarship to study with Eugene Sarbu, and early music exponent Carl Dolmetsch.

Fiona Ziegler is one of Sydney’s leading baroque violinists and performs with Ensemble de la Reine. She was a founding member of the Australian Fortepiano Trio, Trio Pollastri and her baroque trio, Concertato.

She has performed regularly with the Renaissance Players, Sydney Chamber Choir, Coro Innominata, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and the Sydney Soloists. She was a member of the Sydney String Quartet for four years and has led the Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra since 1992.

Fiona Ziegler is also a founding member of the Gagliano String Quartet, which was chosen as the Australian representative at the Fourth International String Quartet Competition in Portsmouth, under the direction of Yehudi Menuhin. She was appointed Assistant Concertmaster with the SSO in 1995.

Fiona Ziegler’s chair is sponsored by Ian and Jennifer Burton.

Julie Batty: First Violin

Marianne Broadfoot: First Violin

Marianne Broadfoot is currently completing her PhD in Music Performance with Wanda Wilkomirska at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She graduated from the Canberra School of Music in 2004 with First Class Honours, having studied with Barbara Jane Gilby and Alice Waten.

She has been the recipient of an Australian Postgraduate Award and the E.V. Llewellyn scholarship, which enabled her to study with Igor Ozim at the International Summer Academy in Salzburg in 2004 and 2005. She was an Emerging Artist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in 2006 and has since performed and toured extensively with the ACO.

Marianne Broadfoot was the winner of the Kendall National Violin Competition in 2002 and the Australian Concerto Competition in 2004. In the same year she won second prize at the Gisborne International Music Competition in New Zealand.

In 2003 she performed with The Queensland Orchestra in the ABC Young Performers Awards Strings final. As recipient of a Young Artists Award in 1999, she performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. She has performed as soloist with the Sydney Conservatorium Orchestra, Melbourne University Orchestra, Melbourne Youth Orchestra, and the Barrier Reef Orchestra.

Marianne Broadfoot toured Europe with the Australian Youth Orchestra in 2001 and was the Concertmaster of the Melbourne Youth Orchestra for two years. She has also performed with the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra in Melbourne, and the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, as well playing in the Canberra International Chamber Music Festival.

She is currently first violinist with the Enigma Quartet which has performed on Sunday Live for ABC Classic FM and toured New Zealand in 2008. She is a tutor at the Sydney Conservatorium High School and has played in masterclasses for Pinchas Zukerman, David Takeno, Anthony Marwood, Viviane Hagner, Rudolf Koelman, and Valery Oistrakh.

Marianne joined the Sydney Symphony in 2008.

Brielle Clapson: First Violin

At the conclusion of her Bachelor of Music Honours degree at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Brielle Clapson moved to Germany to continue postgraduate studies at the Hamburg Conservatorium of Music with Professor Winfried Ruessmann. During her studies in Hamburg, she was awarded a year-long student internship as a tutti First Violinist with the Hamburg Symphoniker. This gave her the opportunity to continue her musical studies while performing regularly with the orchestra.

After completing her internship, she successfully auditioned for the prestigious Academy of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich, under chief conductor Mariss Jansons. Brielle Clapson performed as an Academy member with this orchestra for 2 years, until she was contracted to the First Violins of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra (now known as the Konzerthausorchester). In 2008, a successful audition with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra brought her back to Australia, where she is now a member of the First Violins.

Sophie Cole: First Violin

Originally from Wollongong, Sophie Cole began playing the violin at the age of three. She studied at the Wollongong Conservatorium of Music and made her solo debut with Tommy Tycho’s International Orchestra, before completing her Bachelor of Music degree at the Canberra School of Music, where she studied with Miwako Abe. In the final year of her studies she was appointed to a position in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, which she held for three years. While in Melbourne Sophie Cole appeared as soloist with several orchestras, and performed the Australian premiere of Roger Smalley’s Konzertstück for violin and orchestra. She subsequently established a successful freelance career in London, performing with most of the city’s major orchestras, and has toured extensively though Europe and the United States.

Sophie Cole moved to Sydney in 2001, dividing her time between performances with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra in addition to freelance performances.  With the ACO she has toured Australia several times, as well as Europe and Japan.

While in London she became involved with contemporary music groups such as Sinfonia 21 and the Bennelong Ensemble, and is also active in the Sydney contemporary music scene, performing regularly with Ensemble Offspring, Halcyon, and Sonic Art Ensemble.

Sophie Cole joined the Sydney Symphony in 2006.

Amber Davis: First Violin

Amber Davis has been a permanent member of the violin section of the Sydney Symphony since 1996, prior to which she studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Alice Waten. She has performed with many other ensembles throughout the country and overseas and is passionate about the development and exposure of classical music in the community.

Jennifer Booth: First Violin

Georges Lentz: First Violin

Born in Luxembourg in 1965, Georges Lentz studied violin and music theory at the Luxembourg Conservatoire, with Pierre Amoyal at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, and with Jens Ellermann at the Hannover Musikhochschule, where he completed his postgraduate studies in 1990, having played the Khatchaturian Violin Concerto as a soloist with the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has been a member of the Sydney Symphony since 1991. In Sydney, he has been a member of the Hazelwood Quartet and the contemporary music group Sydney Alpha Ensemble.

Through a number of high-profile international performances and CD releases, Georges Lentz has also established himself in recent years as one of Australia’s leading composers, with performances in several European countries, as well as in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and China. Since 1989, he has been working on a cycle of works called “Caeli enarrant…” (‘The Heavens are telling…’ – Psalm XIX). His music is concerned with astronomy, and a love of the Australian landscape and Aboriginal art, and reflects the composer’s spiritual beliefs, questions, and doubts.

Georges Lentz was awarded a special commendation as one of the top entries at the 1991 International Composers’ Competition in Vienna, and in 1997 he won the Paul Lowin Prize for orchestral composition, the most prestigious composition prize in Australia. His orchestral work Guyuhmgan was the top recommended work at the 2002 UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. In 2005 he completed Monh, a work for viola and orchestra for German soloist Tabea Zimmermann. The piece was co-commissioned by the BBC, the Echternach Music Festival, and the Sydney Symphony, which gave the Australian premiere in 2008.

Nicola Lewis: First Violin

Alexandra Mitchell: First Violin

Originally from South Australia, Alex Mitchell began violin lessons at the age of six. She gave her first recital at 11 while studying with Marie Roberts. When she was 14 she moved to Sydney to study with Alexandru Todicescu. She was subsequently appointed Concertmaster of the SBS Youth Orchestra, with whom she also appeared as a soloist and toured Europe and the UK. She made her first CD at 15 years of age for Youth Music Endeavours Ltd, playing Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. At 17 she won the National Youth Concerto Competition and became the youngest player to win a permanent position with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra. In 2000 a Big Brother Scholarship enabled her to study in London with Emanuel Hurwitz, who then invited her to attend the Yellow Barn Music Festival in Vermont, USA.

In 2001 she won a Fellowship with the Sydney Symphony and soon after was appointed to the First Violins. In 2005 and 2006 she was a string finalist in the Symphony Australia Young Performers Awards, performing Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No.1 and Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No.1.

In 2005 she performed Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Eastern Sydney Chamber Orchestra and in 2006 she played Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No.1 with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in preparation for the orchestra’s European tour in 2007. In 2008 she was invited to work as Concertmaster with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra for their seasons of Carmen and Arabella.

Recently she has played in chamber music concerts with the Australia Ensemble, the Sydney Soloists, and the Sydney Omega Ensemble. Alex Mitchell currently plays a 1932 Giuseppe Pedrazzini violin, kindly lent to her by the Sydney Symphony.

Léone Ziegler: First Violin

Léone Ziegler commenced violin and piano studies with her mother, violinist Eva Kelly, at the age of five. In 1977 she graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium High School having studied with Nancy Salas, Robert Pikler, and Harry Curby.

During her Bachelor of Music studies she was several times leader of the Australian Youth Orchestra, including a season at the Adelaide Festival, and was the winner of the String Section in the ABC Concerto Competition in 1980 and 1983.

In 1984, after working with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Léone Ziegler was appointed to the First Violins in the Sydney Symphony. After winning numerous study scholarships, she undertook a year’s study in London, Vienna, and Switzerland, studying with Emanuel Hurwitz, Frederick Grinke, and Pierre Amoyal. She was invited to play at the Haslemere Festival in England and performed at summer schools in Europe.

In 1991 she furthered her studies in London with a Sydney Symphony Friends Scholarship. She plays in the Gagliano String Quartet with her sister Fiona Ziegler and husband Pierre Emery, and represented Australia in 1988 at the International String Quartet Competition in Portsmouth, England. After a highly successful Musica Viva debut, the Quartet subsequently toured Queensland and the Northern Territory as well as premiering a number of commissions.

Léone Ziegler has also worked with such ensembles as the Seymour Group, Australia Ensemble, and the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, as well as being in demand as a teacher and adjudicator.