PEG Interviews Australian Concert Violinist Courtenay Cleary

PEG Interviews Australian Concert Violinist Courtenay Cleary

Courtenay completed her scholarship at The Juilliard School in New York where she earned her Master of Music degree with violin professor Naoko Tanaka. She received her Bachelor of Music degree with first-class honours from the Royal Academy of Music in London where she studied with professor Maureen Smith. In 2017 Courtenay performed as a soloist for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and other distinguished guests at Westminster Abbey for the Royal Commonwealth Service. This was broadcast live on BBC television. In 2018 Courtenay again performed for the HM the Queen at Buckingham Palace for the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. She has also performed as a soloist at prestigious venues including the Wigmore Hall, St James’ Piccadilly, the Regent Hall, Colston Hall and the Lincoln Centre. She recently performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra in Sydney and gave the Australian premiere of David Lang’s Mystery Sonatas. She is a Tait Memorial Trust and ABRSM scholar, and was recently awarded second prize at the Australian Concerto and Vocal Competition as well as the Dame Joan Sutherland Award from the American Australian Association and the Guy Parsons Award from the Portland House and Australian Music Foundations. She was also a finalist in the 2018 Freedman Fellowship awards.

She is a member of the Patronus Quartet who in 2015 progressed to the semi-final of the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. She has performed at many international festivals including Tallinn Music Week and the Melbourne Festival. She has performed in many masterclasses for esteemed artists including Julian Rachlin, Daniel Hope, the St Lawrence String Quartet, and the Borodin Quartet, from whom her own quartet received a letter of recommendation for the MICMC.

Courtenay is a core member of the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and also plays casually with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria. She studied at the Australian National Academy of Music from 2012-2014 with William Hennessy. During her time at the academy she played alongside many visiting artists including the Brodsky Quartet, Brett Dean, Michael Collins, The Australian Chamber Orchestra, The Aurora Orchestra, Anthony Marwood, Dale Barltrop and was concertmaster of the ANAM orchestra under the direction of Simone Young, James Judd and Nicholas Carter.

In 2011 Courtenay studied under the direction of Associate Professor Patricia Pollett at the University of Queensland. During this time, she was concertmaster of the University of Queensland Chamber and Symphony Orchestras and was finalist in the university’s Bach Prize and The Howard and Gladys Sleath Prize for Strings. She was the recipient of the Sleath String Scholarship for outstanding students and was a winner of the Sid Paige & Musica Viva/4MBS Chamber Music Prize.

Artist Website: https://www.courtenaycleary.com/

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