Michael Collins – Clarinet
Michael Collins' dazzling virtuosity and sensitive musicianship have made him one of today's most sought- after soloists. At 16 he won the woodwind prize in the first BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition and at 22 made his American début at Carnegie Hall, New York. Since then he has performed as a soloist with many of the world’s major orchestras, including the Philadelphia, NHK Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, City of Birmingham Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, BBC Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestra. Indisputably one of the leading clarinettists of his generation, Collins has formed close alliances with conductors such as Rattle, Dutoit, Sinopoli, Salonen, Slatkin and Otaka. In 2007, he won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year Award, placing him amongst past recipients of the award who include Itzhak Perlman, Mitsuko Uchida, Murray Perahia and Andras Schiff.

Michael Collins has done much to expand the clarinet repertoire, commissioning and premiering repertoire by some of today’s most highly regarded composers. He has given world and local premieres of works such as John Adams’ Gnarly Buttons (world premiere with the London Sinfonietta), Elliott Carter’s Clarinet Concerto (Uk and Dutch premier), Brett Dean’s Ariels Music (German premiere with Deutsches Sinfonieorkester Berlin and the UK premiere with the BBC Symphony Orchestra) and Turnage’s Riffs and Refrains. Commissioned for him by the Hallé Orchestra and premiered in February 2005, Collins has given further performances of the Turnage with the Residentie Orkest, Royal Flanders Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Malmo Symphony and London Philharmonic. Last season he gave the world premiere of Elena Kats-Chernin’s clarinet concerto Ornamental Air with the North Carolina Symphony and, subsequently, with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia and Tasmanian Symphony.

Collins’ current diary includes engagements with Musikkolgegium Winterhur, Northern Sinfonia, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, New World Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony. In 2009 he will perform at the opening concert of the Melbourne Concert Hall, returning to Australasia at the end of the year for engagements with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony and Auckland Philharmonia. Collins has a close working relationship with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields with whom he tours Europe frequently.

Piers Lane - Piano
London-based Australian pianist Piers Lane has a flourishing international career, which has taken him to more than forty countries. Highlights of the past few years have included a sold-out performance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Alexander Verdernikov at London’s Royal Festival Hall, concerto performances at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, a three-recital series entitled Metamorphoses and other performances for the London Pianoforte series at Wigmore Hall and five concerts for the opening of the Recital Centre in Melbourne.

Five times soloist at the BBC Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall, Piers Lane’s wide-ranging concerto repertoire exceeds eighty works and has led to engagements with many of the world’s great orchestras including the BBC and ABC orchestras; the Aarhus, American, Bournemouth and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestras; the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Kanazawa Ensemble, Orchestre National de France, City of London Sinfonia, and the Royal Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Warsaw Philharmonic orchestras among others. Leading conductors with whom he has worked include Andrey Boreyko, Sir Andrew Davis, Richard Hickox, Andrew Litton, Sir Charles Mackerras, Jerzy Maxymiuk, Maxim Shostakovich, Vassily Sinaisky, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Antoni Wit. His 2007 performance of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Pietari Inkinen received the Limelight Magazine Award for Best Orchestral Performance in Australia.

Festival appearances have included, among others, Aldeburgh, Bard, Bergen, Cheltenham, Como Autumn Music, Consonances, La Roque d’Anthéron, Newport, Prague Spring, Ruhr Klavierfestival, Schloss vor Husum and the Chopin festivals in Warsaw, Duszniki-Zdroj, Mallorca and Paris.

In 2007, Piers Lane was appointed Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. In 2009 and 2010, the Festival received the Limelight Magazine Award for Best Event/Festival in Australia. He is also Artistic Director of the annual Myra Hess Day at the National Gallery in London. In 2009, he collaborated with actress Patricia Routledge on a theatre piece devised by Nigel Hess, exploring Dame Myra’s work throughout World War 11. This performance is being repeated at many festivals and theatres during the next couple of years.