Bridget Bolliger & Andrew West
Biographie Bridget Bolliger & Andrew West
Bridget Bolliger
Australian-Swiss flautist Bridget Bolliger is a unique multifaceted artist and has received critical acclaim worldwide. After making her solo début with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra performing Ibert’s Flute Concerto at the age of 15, she relocated to Switzerland for her tertiary studies, graduating with a Master’s Degree in Performance from the Basel Music Academy under Professor Peter-Lukas Graf. Bridget then embarked upon a busy, unusual and varied career in Europe and South America, appearing as soloist and chamber musician with many leading international orchestras and ensembles.
Her countless performances of Mozart’s Flute and Harp Concerto have involved collaborations with some of the world’s most renowned harpists – including Marielle Norman, Sarah O’Brien and Elena Zaniboni. She has held Principal Flute positions with the St Gallen Symphony Orchestra and the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra and has appeared as guest Principal Flute and soloist with the Basel Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Zürich (Zurich Opera Orchestra), Australian Chamber Orchestra, Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra and many others.
During her professional career as a flautist, Bridget made time to study voice at the Cologne Musikhochschule and at the Bologna Music Academy, where she concentrated on art song and opera. Professionally, she performed the roles of Clorinda in Rossini’s La Cenerentola at the Teatro di São Pedro in São Paulo and was the first soprano in Drei arme adelige Waisen from Richard Strauss’ opera Der Rosenkavalier at the Teatro Massimo de Palermo in Sicily.
Upon her return to Sydney in 2004, Bridget became a passionate advocate of Australian music and made countless live broadcasts and recordings for the ABC, Huntington Estate Music Festival and the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. She is the founding Director of the New Sydney Wind Quintet and Founding Artistic Director of the Sydney Chamber Music Festival.
Following the formation of the key musical partnership with pianist Andrew West, they gave their début recital in the Utzon Room at the Sydney Opera House and performed in London, Sydney and Victoria. Bridget’s recordings of premiere Australian works have received unanimous ac- claim from celebrated music journals such as Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, Fanfare and Limelight Magazine; these include the New Sydney Wind Quintet CD Debut, Quintopia, The Laughing Moon (by Ross Edwards) and Dancing Shadows (the complete music for flute and piano by Miriam Hyde).
An esteemed teacher and chamber music coach, Bridget has tutored and given masterclasses worldwide – with students from Switzerland, the Australian National Academy of Music and the Universities of New South Wales, New England, Sydney and Canberra. She has also assisted Michel Debost at the Oficina de Música de Curitiba and features on playwithapro.com – an international online teaching platform.
Bridget Bolliger is a Powell Artist.
Andrew West
first worked with Bridget Bolliger in 2013 at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville. Timeless is the second CD they have recorded together. They have given recitals in London, Victoria and Sydney.
Andrew has developed partnerships with many of today's leading musicians. He is Artistic Director of the Nuremberg Chamber Music Festival. His longstanding partnership with flautist Emily Beynon has led to recordings for Hyperion and the BBC, and recitals at Wigmore Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and throughout Europe.
He is particularly known as a song-accompanist, appearing with Benjamin Appl, Emma Bell, Florian Boesch, Lesley Garrett, Christopher Purves, Hilary Summers and Roderick Williams. He has collaborated for many years with the renowned tenor Mark Padmore. Their repertoire ranges from Schubert's Winterreise, performed in a staged version alongside poems by Samuel Beckett at Lincoln Center, New York, to cycles by con- temporary composers such as Harrison Birtwistle.
The world premiere of Birtwistle’s cycle Songs from the Same Earth at the Aldeburgh Festival has been followed by further performances in Amsterdam, Cologne and London. They gave the opening concert of the 2016/17 series at the Library of Congress in Washington DC.
Other recordings include Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin with Robert Murray; Volume 2 of Parry’s English Lyrics with Sarah Fox, James Gilchrist and Roderick Williams; and Romantic masterpieces with Spanish clarinettist Cristo Barrios.
Andrew has worked with violinist Sarah Chang in Britain and Ireland, and performed with cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras throughout Europe. A CD released by his piano quartet, Touchwood, of music by Chausson and Saint- Saëns, was selected as Recording of the Month by the Daily Telegraph. As a duo pianist he has appeared at the City of London and Cheltenham Festivals with pianist Cedric Tiberghien. For the Michael Clark Dance Company he performed the two-piano version of The Rite of Spring with Philip Moore, firstly at the Barbican and then on tour in Paris, Seoul and Lincoln Center, New York.
Andrew West won second prize at the Geneva International Piano Com- petition in 1990. He has made solo tours of South Africa, South America and the United States. He read English at Clare College, Cambridge be- fore studying at the Royal Academy of Music under Christopher Elton and John Streets. He is Professor of Accompaniment and Chamber Music at the Royal Academy of Music, and Music Director and Chairman of the Kirckman Concert Society, which has awarded London debut recitals to outstanding young artists since 1963.
Jim Coyle
is a Sydney based composer, music educator and conductor. Born and raised in the United Kingdom, Jim studied composition with Edward Gregson at London University and holds degrees from the universities of London and Sydney. Since moving to Australia in 1992, Jim has maintained a small practice as a composer whilst pursuing a career as a music teacher, and since 1995, he has been on the music staff at Pittwater House School, Sydney. A writer of music education resources, a performer of traditional music and conductor, Jim has been the Musical Director of the Mosman Musical Society since 2007.
As a composer, Jim Coyle’s music has been played by the Sydney Sinfonia, the Education Orchestra of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. His music has been heard and per- formed at the Sydney Opera House, City Recital Hall Angel Place, Sydney, Eugene Goossens Hall, Sydney, the Sydney Town Hall and MONA, Hobart.
Jim has received commissions from and performances by some of Australia’s leading musicians including Anthony Heinrichs (Sydney Symphony Orchestra), Tim Jones (Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra) and Greg Stephens (Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra). His music is direct and appealing to performers and audiences alike.
