FutureMakers Alumni

Helen Svoboda is a double bassist, vocalist and composer, based in Melbourne. Her work explores the melodic potential of the contemporary double bass, intricately weaving extended techniques and overtones amidst abstract song-writing and vegetable-themed compositions. “A musician who absolutely defies categorisation” (Andrew Ford – The Music Show, ABC), her performance practice emits a childlike, quirky energy, with a flair for "allowing difficult ideas to sound whimsical and free" (Kristin Berardi, AUS).

Helen lived and studied in the Netherlands and Germany between the years of 2018-20, and has performed with artists and organisations including Cory Smythe, Sebastian Gramss, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Art Orchestra. She was awarded the 2020 Freedman Jazz Fellowship, was the recipient of the 2020/21 Australian Art Orchestra Pathfinders Music Leadership Program and is currently studying a PhD in composition under the tutelage of Cat Hope at Monash University.

In line with her active performance career, Helen has released albums across a substantial number of her own original projects to date, including ‘Vegetable Bass’ (June 2020) and ‘Since Subito’ (Meatshell, 2021). As a composer, her commissions include works for classical guitar and viola, alongside a collection of her own solo bass scores which are published online in the Contrabass Conversations Online Music Library.

Modern and baroque violist Katie Yap plays regularly with Australia’s finest ensembles including the Australian World Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Van Diemen’s Band, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, and has joined groups like the Academy of Ancient Music overseas. Her greatest love is chamber music, and she is a founding member of prog-baroque quartet Croissants & Whiskey, the Chrysalis Harp Trio, and crossover folk/baroque group Wattleseed Ensemble.

Katie is fascinated by music’s ability to tell stories and bring people together. As the 2022 Freedman Fellow, her project Multitudes explores the nexus of folk, baroque, and new music styles, and a life-long fascination with improvisation. She will create four new works through collaborative composition with partners in crime Emily Sheppard (fiddle/voice), Donald Nicolson (harpsichord/electronics), Bowerbird Collective (violin and cello), and Mindy Meng Wang (guzheng), exploring themes of cultural identity, environmental storytelling and activism, and the physical joy of music-making.

Katie has become known for her curation and project management, and she explores this side of her career through her role as Artistic Director of the 3MBS women-in-music festival, Music, She Wrote and Wattleseed Ensemble. She is also a passionate educator, having taught viola at the University of Queensland and Monash University, and she has an intractable habit of stress-baking, which can make for delicious rehearsal breaks!

Matt is a freelance composer and viola player currently based in Melbourne, Australia.​ His music, “described as thought provoking and unusually beautiful”, is fundamentally driven by an interest in storytelling through sound, typically around themes of social connection and environment.

Matt’s been a professional freelance viola player since 2012, playing regularly with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria, and as a core member of the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. He has also performed in the Australian Octet, and Melbourne-based ensembles Quartz, Rubiks and Arcko.

Festival engagements as a performer have included the Perth and Melbourne International Arts Festivals, the Bermagui Four Winds Festival, the Australian String Quartet's Dunkeld festival.​ Matt was soloist in the first complete performance in Australia of Morton Feldman's The Viola in My Life with an orchestra of ANAM musicians.

His freelance career has also included pop gigs and musicals, and he has a varied recording career across a wide range of styles for TV, film and albums.

As Musica Viva Australia's 2020 - 2022 Futuremaker artists, the award-winning Partridge String Quartet are fast becoming a force in the Australian classical music scene. Brilliant and dynamic chamber musicians, the quartet strives to connect and surprise audiences through their bold performances and creative collaborations which have been featured on ABC Classic, Violin Channel, CutCommon and Limelight Magazines.

Formed at the Australian National Academy of Music, the quartet received national recognition as first prize winners of the inaugural Queensland International Chamber Music Competition (2019) and ANAM Chamber Music Competition (2018). In 2018, the quartet were recipients of the Husky Energy Artist Award after they were selected for an international string quartet program residency at the Banff Centre of Arts and Creativity in Canada where they were mentored by the JACK Quartet, Eybler Quartet, Parker Quartet and prolific American composer Paul Wiancko. Throughout their studies, the quartet received tutelage and mentoring from the music faculty of ANAM, Australian String Quartet, Borodin String Quartet, Trio Dali and Alban Berg Quartet. The quartet performed at the Melbourne Recital Centre as part of Musica Viva’s 2022 National Concert Season and are recipients of the AYO Ernest Llewellyn Memorial Trust Fund Travel Award.

Passionate advocates of Australian composers, Partridge performed a complete five string quartet cycle by Richard Mills AM, were recipients of the Musica Viva Chamber Music Prize for their performance of Paul Stanhope’s Second Quartet and recently gave the premiere performance of Briony Marks’ work, “Australia Fair?”. They have presented collections of Australian works at the MPavilion, National Gallery of Victoria, Ian Potter Centre, National Film and Sound Archive Theatre in Canberra and are engaged in exciting projects and music festivals around Australia.

2022 proved to be an exciting year for the quartet in their final Futuremakers year, being featured artists at Musica Viva’s season’ opening concert at the Melbourne Recital Centre, and broadcast on ABC Classic FM. In June they were selected to participate at the Curtis Institute of Music for a string quartet course with the Dover Quartet, generously supported by the Curtis Institute of Music, the Ernest Llewllyn Memorial Trust and Musica Viva Australia. They are excited to share what is in the works for 2023 soon.

Violinist Harry Ward has performed as soloist, concertmaster and chamber musician throughout Australia, America, Mexico, Asia and Europe. Solo appearances include with the Xiamen Philharmonic, Hangzhou Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica de Michoacán and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, Harry has performed alongside members of the Emerson, Michelangelo, Belcea, Ehnes and Australian string quartets and in concert with the late Joseph Silverstein.

In 2017, Harry was invited to perform at the Rome Chamber Music Festival which included performances with Edgar Meyer, playing Meyer’s String Quintet and performances with members of the Venice Baroque Orchestra.

Aura Go enjoys an active and multifaceted musical life, performing as a soloist, chamber musician, lied pianist and conductor. She has performed concertos from Bach to Rautavaara with many of Australia’s professional orchestras and been a guest artist at numerous international music festivals including the Melbourne International Arts Festival and Edinburgh Festival.

Matthias Schack-Arnott is a Melbourne based percussive artist working in performance, composition and collaborative contexts.

Described by The Guardian as 'sonically and visually exquisite’, Matthias’ solo work explores unique approaches to percussive performance, often involving the development of new instrumental set-ups built in collaboration with architects, engineers and technicians.

Arcadia Windswere the inaugural Musica Viva FutureMakers 2015-17 artists. Their involvement in the initiative saw the group have a significant national and international performing impact, as well as giving them a strong understanding of their artistic identity and opening them up to wider range of performance and collaboration possibilities, and create and implement a long-term strategic plan and brand.

Through their involvement in FutureMakers, the group worked with 120 mentors, presenters and collaborators, including acclaimed international musicians Lambert Orkis and Ilan Volkov, composers Eyvind Kang and Catherine Milliken and award-winning Australian ensembles Speak Percussion and the Australian String Quartet.