Masterclasses with Trish Dean and Phoebe Russell, Ensemble Q | Adelaide

PHOEBE RUSSELL, DOUBLE BASS

Double bassist Phoebe Russell enjoys a career as an active soloist, performer and educator. Born in Melbourne, Australia, Phoebe studied at the Australian National Academy of Music under the tutelage of Damien Eckersley. At the age of 17 she moved to Berlin and within months made her debut in the esteemed double bass section of the Berlin Philharmonic. A graduate of Berlin Philharmonic’s Karajan Academy, Phoebe has performed in more than twenty countries across the globe with some of the world’s leading orchestras.

The last few years have seen her perform with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, the Netherlands Philharmonic and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra among others.

In 2017 Phoebe was appointed principal double bass of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and is regularly invited to orchestras as a guest principal. She has been invited to perform as principal double bass with many Australian symphony orchestra and has most recently returned from a Europe tour leading the double bass section of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. She has had the privilege of working under several world class conductors, some personal favourites including Sir Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel, Andris Nelsons, Daniel Barenboim and Zubin Mehta.

An avid soloist, Phoebe is regularly invited to perform as recitalist in Australia and abroad including to a full house in the Berlin Philharmonic lunch concert series. She has performed as soloist with orchestras including the Tasmanian and Canberra Symphony Orchestras, the Baden Baden Philharmonic and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Phoebe is an active member of Ensemble Q, one of Australia’s most dynamic new ensembles and enjoys an engaging schedule of chamber music collaborations in Brisbane and around the country with world class musicians.

Parallel to her busy performance schedule, Phoebe is a passionate educator and is the lecturer in double bass at the University of Queensland and a faculty member of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music. She has coached the Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camp, given classes at the Guildhall School of Music in London, the Melbourne and Sydney Conservatoriums of Music, the Australian National Academy of Music and at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá.

TRISH DEAN, CELLO

Tasmanian born cellist Trish Dean (formerly O'Brien) is the co-Artistic Director and cellist of Ensemble Q. 

She has performed worldwide at many major venues including Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, the Kennedy Centre, Guildhall, Cambridge University, in Portugal, Germany, Amsterdam, Japan, Taiwan, Switzerland and more. She has collaborated as chamber musician with international artists Alexander Sitkovetsky, Jack Liebeck, Johannes Moller, Paul Meyer, the Navarra Quartet, and in Australia with the Australian String Quartet, the Grainger Quartet, the Hazelwood Quartet and many individual artists. She has performed as soloist and chamber musician at numerous music festivals including the Oxford May Festival (UK), Georgetown Festival (Malaysia), Alpine Classic Festival (Switzerland), Sydney Festival, Dunkeld Festival of Music, Four Winds Festival, Bangalow Music Festival, Music by the Springs Festival, Camden Haven Music Festival, Tyalgum Festival and Coramba Chamber Music Festival. 

She has been engaged as Acting Principal cellist for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and guest Principal for the Adelaide and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, and held the position of Associate Principal for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra during the 1990’s. As an emerging cellist she held section positions in the Australian Youth Orchestra, the Sydney, Tasmanian and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, and Australian Chamber Orchestra. In 2021 she performs with the Australian World Orchestra.

At 22 she was the winner of the string category of the Young Performers Awards and winner of the 2MBS Young Performer of the Year Award. She has performed as concerto soloist with several Australian Symphony Orchestras.

Her Artistic Director positions include a 4 year contract with the Coffs Harbour Regional Conservatorium where she founded and developed a chamber music Academy, the Coramba Chamber Music Festival and a highly successful concert series. Prior to that she was Artistic Director of the Camden Haven Music Festival, which  under her direction won an APRA award for Outstanding Contribution to Australian Music in a Regional Area. 

Several Australian composers including Paul Dean, Matthew Hindson, Elena Kats Chernin, Andrew Schultz, Mark Isaacs and Christopher Harley have composed works for Trish, and she performed and broadcast the Australian Premieres of both the Myaskovsky Sonata No 2 for Cello and Piano, and Prokofiev Sonata for Solo Cello, both for ABC Classic FM.
She has recorded as soloist and chamber musician for ABC Classics, Ensemble Q Artists, ABC Classic FM, Solitary Island Records and 2MBS Records. 

Trish has presented masterclasses across Australia and has taught for the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, the Australian Youth Orchestra, Sydney Conservatorium of Music and for several regional conservatoriums. She is passionate about creating opportunities for young musicians and is a driving force behind the Ensemble Q mentorship program.

​Trish is also an award-winning photographer, utilising skills that she developed during a period of several years after a severe wrist injury and subsequent inability to play the cello. She won several International Aperture Silver awards as well as a Bronze medal in the Prix de la Photographie PX3 competition (Paris), in the arts documentary category.