McCahon, Kirsty

double bass

Kirsty McCahon has enjoyed a multifaceted career as a bass player, fulfilling roles as orchestral musician, specialist in both contemporary music and early music. Initial studies were in Melbourne at the Victorian College of the Arts, a period in which she performed regularly with the Melbourne Symphony and was the bassist with Australia’s premiere contemporary music ensemble, ELISION.

Kirsty’s interest in contemporary music led to studies in Paris with Ensemble Intercontemporaine’s Marc Marder, and performances as soloist in Ensemble Itineraire’s 1990 tour of Europe.

Kirsty has played Principal Double Bass with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra since 1997. Specialising in baroque and classical music, her research has led to studies and performances in the UK and the Netherlands. She has performed, toured and recorded with such highly regarded groups as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique and Les Talens Lyrique.

In 2000 she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship for further study into early music on the double bass and violone.

In Australia she performs with ensembles as diverse as the Australian Ensemble, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and is bassist with the exciting new opera company Pinchgut..

Kirsty enjoys being regularly involved as teacher, mentor and bass tutor for the Australian Youth Orchestra, and has for the last two seasons been a double bass tutor at the annual National Music Camps.