In my career thus far I’ve had the fortune to play in some rather fascinating places with some superb musicians. When I was a student I always imagined taking the well trodden road from New Zealand to London, then on to orchestras in England or Germany, but my experiences thus far couldn’t have been more different. Instead of London, I found myself first in Australia, then almost a decade in China, before moving on to Chile, hardly places that one would expect a classical cello career to take them. These experiences have allowed me to work with an extraordinarily diverse range of musicians from asia-pop singers in Guiyang, buddhist monks in Indonesia, Mongolian traditional singers in Shenzhen, concert pianists in Italy and baroque violinists in Patagonia.
These are the main ensembles that i’ve spent time with since I finished my studies:
Orquesta de Cámara de Valdivia
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My current orchestra is the Orquesta de Cámara de Valdivia located in Los Rios Provence in Southern Chile. It is a small chamber orchestra established in 2010 and is rapidly becoming one of the most exciting ensembles in Chile. The orchestra has attracted an international cast with my colleagues joining from as far afield as New Zealand (of course), Russia, Italy, America and Columbia. In its short existence the orchestra has already performed with a number of Chile’s finest soloists such as Armand Arbols, one of the finest pianists I’ve ever worked with.
Guiyang Symphony Orchestra
The Guiyang Symphony is the first private symphonic orchestra in China. It’s situated in Guizhou provence just a little south of Sichuan, a part of China famous for its spectacular karst mountains and terrifically spicy food. The orchestra is managed and partially owned by Mr Huang of the Xingli group, one of China’s new breed of super rich business men. It’s an ambitious project in a difficult location far from the international classical scene, yet it still manages to attract influential directors such as maestros Li Xincao and Chen Zhohuang. I spent almost two years as principal cellist of this orchestra. I had the great fortune of having one of the most friendly and gifted cello sections imaginable supporting me. It is thanks to them that I won the awards for Best Principal and Best Section twice during my time there.
Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra
The Shenzhen Symphony was my first permanent orchestral position. I was invited there as principal cellist in 2006 and remained there for one year. Shenzhen itself is an extraordinary, massive metropolis. In 1980 it was a fishing village of just over 100’000 people. Now it boasts almost 16 million and represents the largest urban migration in the history of man. The orchestra is often described as the finest in China and constantly attracts first rate soloists such as Lang lang, Yundi Li, Maurice Gendron and many others. The orchestra was founded at the same time as the city but has only really found its form in the last few years.
I was lucky to go on a number of tours with the Shenzhen Symphony. Possibly the most interesting was of far western China where we were invited to play in Karamay, a city in the far north-west of the country close to the borders of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. We also found ourselves giving concerts in Torino, Italy and in the spectacular L'Hôtel national des Invalides in Paris.
