Daniel Yeadon

Daniel Yeadon has a love of a wide range of musical genres and is an exceptionally versatile cellist and viola da gamba player, performing repertoire from the Renaissance through to Contemporary. Daniel is a passionate chamber musician, playing regularly with Bach Akademie Australia, Ironwood, Australian Haydn Ensemble, Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra, and Australian Chamber Orchestra.
 

Originally from the UK, Daniel read physics at Oxford University and then completed his postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music in London. For many years Daniel was a member of the exuberant period instrument ensemble Florilegium, Fitzwilliam String Quartet and Concordia Viol Consort. Daniel continues to be guest principal cellist with many of the period instrument ensembles based in London, including the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
 

Daniel has made many award-winning recordings, including: Haydn’s cello concerto in C major with the Australian Haydn Ensemble; an ARIA winning disc of sonatas by J.S. Bach with Richard Tognetti and Neal Peres Da Costa; J.S. Bach sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord with Neal Peres Da Costa; J.S. Bach cantatas and Brandenburg concertos with John Eliot Gardiner and English Baroque Soloists, in addition to many critically acclaimed recordings with Ironwood, Florilegium and the Fitzwilliam Quartet.
 

Daniel is in much demand as a teacher. Associated with the Sydney Conservatorium of Music since 2005, and currently a lecturer there, his research interests are musical group learning experiences and historical performance practices.

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Madeleine Easton

Australian violinist Madeleine Easton is internationally recognised for her versatility and combining period and modern playing, which has led her to work with multiple ensembles worldwide. She performs internationally, as soloist, concertmaster and director of some of the world’s most respected ensembles and orchestras.
 

Madeleine studied with Alice Waten and Chris Kimber at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where she graduated with first class honours. She studied baroque violin with Lucinda Moon. She was awarded scholarships and won the Sydney Conservatorium Concerto Prize, and was a finalist in both the 1999 Richard Goldner Concerto Competition and the 1998 Gisbourne International Music Competition in New Zealand. In 2000 she received a full scholarship to attend the Meadowmount Summer School in New York State winning the chamber music prize, and a year later won a place for postgraduate study at the Royal College of Music with Dr Felix Andrievsky, graduating with distinction, winning the String Prize for most outstanding performer.
 

Madeleine is forging a career as a director and concertmaster. She has performed as both guest and permanent concertmaster with leading orchestras worldwide. Engagements include the Orquesta Sinfonica de Madrid, the Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra of Lisbon, The English Baroque Soloists, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, The Kings Consort, The Gabrieli Consort, Musicians of the Globe, The Independent Opera Company, London Orchestra da Camera, Orchestra Nova, the Guildford Philharmonic, Bath Philharmonia, Southern Sinfonia, Florilegium, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Northern Ballet Orchestra of England. Madeleine also performs with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Academy of Ancient Music, and the Orchestra Révolutionaire et Romantique.
 

Madeleine’s ability to combine period and modern styles of violin playing has led her to form a special relationship with the Royal Academy of Music in London. She has directed the Bach Cantata Series since its inception in 2009, the Baroque Orchestra, the first year String Orchestra and the Modern Instrument Period Orchestra. She has taught period style on modern instruments for the World Orchestra at the Schleswig Holstein Festival in Germany, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music and Monash University.
 

Madeleine has performed on many award-winning recordings including the Bach Cantata series with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, the recently released Bach B minor Mass recording with the same ensemble, Haydn's 'Creation', Mendelssohn's Elijah and Mozart's C Minor Mass with the Gabrieli Consort. She has released the complete piano trios of Alexis de Castillon with her piano trio 'Trio Castillon', on Peyrole Records. She has also recorded the Antoine Reicha Bassoon Quintet and variations with the all Australian ensemble, 'Island' on the ARS label.
 

Madeleine plays on a 1682 Giovanni Grancino violin and a 1704 Jo. Bapt. Rogeri baroque violin.

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Neal Peres Da Costa

Neal Peres Da Costa is Professor of Historical Performance and Associate Dean of Research at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (SCM), University of Sydney. A performing scholar and world-recognised authority on 19th-century piano performing practice he is a graduate of the University of Sydney, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the City University (London) and the University of Leeds (UK). Neal’s monograph Off the Record: Performing Practices in Romantic Piano Playing (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) has received high praise around the globe. He has co-edited (with Clive Brown and Kate Bennett-Wadsworth the 9-volume set of Urtext/performing editions of Brahms’ Sonatas for solo instrument and piano (Bärenreiter-Verlag 2015/16) and has co-authored (with Clive Brown) the online Performance Practice Commentary for the new edition of Beethoven’s Sonatas for Piano and Violin (Bärenreiter-Verlag, 2020). In 2017, Neal received prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC) funding for a three-year Discovery Project for performance research in 19th-century piano playing. And he has just received another ARC DP (2021) leading a team of researchers at SCM and Sydney Living Museums entitled “Hearing the Music of Early NSW 1788-1860” which will examine Australian Indigenous and settler music making in the period and produce recordings that will be embedded in Austral Harmony.

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Neal regularly appears with Ironwood, Australian Haydn Ensemble, Bach Akademie Australia, and the Song Company. Winner of the 2008 Fine Arts ARIA for Bach’s Sonatas for Violin and Obbligato Keyboard (ABC Classics, 2007) with Richard Tognetti and Daniel Yeadon, Neal’s discography also includes: Bach’s Complete Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord with Daniel Yeadon (ABC Classics, 2009), The Baroque Trombone with Christian Lindberg and the ACO (BIS, 2009); The Galant Bassoon with Matthew Wilke and Kees Boersma (Melba, 2009); Baroque Duets (Vexations 840, 2011) with Fiona Campbell, David Walker and Ironwood; Music for a While with Ironwood and Miriam Allan (2012); 3 with Genevieve Lacey and Daniel Yeadon (ABC Classics, 2012); Stolen Beauties with Anneke Scott and Ironwood (ABC Classics, 2015); Brahms: Tones of Romantic Extravagance (ABC Classics, 2016) which has been awarded “Recommended CD” by The Strad (UK); Beethoven Piano Concertos 1 and 3 (AHE, 2017; licensed by ABC Classics) and most recently Pastoral Fables with Alexandre Oguey – cor anglais (ABC Classics, 2018) and Romantic Dreams including Piano Quintets by Louise Farrenc and Camille Saint-Säens (ABC Classics, 2020). Other experimental recordings can be accessed at the SCM’s Reinvigorating Nineteenth-Century Performance platform. He has also recorded extensively on the Channel Classics label with Florilegium, the British ensemble which he co-founded in 1991 and of which he was a member for 10 years.