Musica Da Camera
Specialists in the interpretation of the music of Bach and his contemporaries.
Featuring accomplished musicians Tessa Miller (soprano), Lesley Lewis
(harpsichord) and Lynton Rivers (recorder) and Zoë Barry (cello).
Musica da Camera performs and tours regularly in Australia at public concerts
and festivals including the Adelaide Festival, The Barossa Music Festival
and the Melbourne Early Music Festival.
Recent highlights include its critically acclaimed collaboration with
Syntony choir for the 2006 Adelaide Festival Fringe. On October 30th Musica
da Camera presented “Catches and Rounds” at Thorn Park Country
House. This is a repeat performance of their highly successful presentation
of the program in Adelaide in June 2004, comprising music from the pubs
and taverns of old England, and brilliantly supported by the narration
of poems and social political tracts by Paul Blackwell. “Catches
and Rounds” also features a specially commissioned works for old
instruments by distinguished composer Tristram Cary. In June 2005 the
ensemble presented “Psyche” with actor Paul Blackwell reading
from his own script on the legend of Psyche. Interspersed with baroque
musical items “Psyche” also featured a newly commissioned
work by Quentin Grant on a text by Humphrey Bower. In April 2005 year
Musica da Camera performed alongside violinists Lucinda Moon and Ben Dollman,
Anna Webb (viola) and Zoë Barry (cello) to present “Zephyrus”
featuring music from the French court of Louis XIV.
Musica da Camera also tours regularly both nationally and internationally.
In February 2005 year they collaborated with UK based oboist Jane Downer
to tour their Adelaide presentation of “Travelling Baroque”
to Canberra. Musica da Camera toured to Hong Kong and China in April 2005
where they performed to enthusiastic audiences at the Xinghai Concert
Hall, Guangzhou, Shenzhen Middle School and the Hong Kong Academy of Performing
Arts. In January 2004 they performed for the Hong Kong Chamber Music Society
at the Hong Kong Club and ensemble member Tessa Miller performed with
the City of Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra in their ‘Venetian Delights
Program’. Musica da Camera has also toured the UK (1999) for critically
acclaimed performances at Warwick and Leamington Festivals and Australia
House in London. Musica da Camera broadcasts regularly in Australia and
when on tour.
The ensemble has also produced one self-titled CD and appears on the April 2005 Adelaide Baroque release Passion.
“Musica da Camera continue to present evermore considered performances
of baroque chamber music”
The Advertiser, South Australia
“As an ensemble and as soloists Adelaide Baroque are a real find”
The Birmingham Post, U.K.
Musica da Camera – The Performers
Lynton Rivers - recorder
Lynton Rivers studied recorder in Amsterdam with Marion Verbruggen and in Vienna with Hans Maria Kneihs as a recipient of an Australia Council grant. Lynton tutors regularly Australian Recorder Festivals and workshops. He performs regularly in Australia, UK, Sweden and Hong Kong.
"Lynton Rivers' exemplary recorder playing was featured in Handel's
early d minor sonata"
The Advertiser, South Australia
Lesley Lewis - harpsichord
Lesley Lewis performs and broadcasts regularly in Australia and has successfully toured Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. Her recordings include a CD of Telemann Duos for Recorders with Jo Dudley and Music da Camera's first CD of the same name. Lesley gained her Masters degree in harpsichord performance at the University of Adelaide and was awarded a Churchill Fellowship for extensive research in early music institutions and courses in the United Kingdom and Europe.
"Lesley Lewis, a sympathetic accompanist and an authoritative soloist"
The Birmingham Post, U.K.
Tessa Miller - soprano
Tessa Miller is an experienced soloist in a wide range of styles from opera, oratorio and operetta, to musicals, popular and contemporary song, and is a specialist in Baroque music. In 1991 Tessa was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to undertake studies in Early Music in the United Kingdom, and in 1995 received a scholarship for concentrated studies of Baroque technique in Amsterdam. Tessa's many performance highlights include appearances in the Melbourne International Festival of Organ and Harpsichord, the International Barossa Music Festival and the Adelaide Festival, as well as performing and presenting Early Music workshops in Hong Kong in recent years.
"That her voice is exquisite, one has no doubt. The range from
coloratura sweeps to dramatic whispers is equally astounding."
South China Morning Post, Hong Kong
Zoë Barry - cello
Zoë Barry is a freelance performer, composer and teacher. On completing year 12 in 1993, she was awarded the Technical Schools Music Travel Scholarship and studied and performed in the UK and Ireland. Since then she has furthered her studies in Indonesia and Russia. Zoë is also an accomplished composer with numerous work performed by such companies as South Australian State Theatre Company, Restless Dance Company and Knee-high Puppeteers.
