Brass Unit Faculty
Andrew Evans (Trumpet), BMus Tas
Lecturers
Andrew Bain (French Horn), BMus Elder GradDip Karlsruhe
Ben Jacks (French Horn)
Scott Kinmont (Trombone), BMus ANU MMus Northwestern
Steve Rossé (Tuba)
Part-time Staff
Nigel Crocker (Trombone)
Bruce Hellmers (Trumpet)
Roslyn Jorgensen (Trombone), BAMus QUT GradDipPerf CSM MPerf
Saul Lewis (French Horn), ASCM MMus
Ronald Prussing (Trombone), DipMusEd
Leanne Sullivan (Trumpet), BMus
Chair/Lecturer
Chair/Lecturer
Andrew Evans (Trumpet), BMus Tas
Andrew Evans is the Chair of the Brass Studies Unit and Lecturer in Trumpet at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He has performed with top orchestras worldwide including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and is also a sought-after studio musician for film and television soundtracks and commercial recordings.
In 2007 Evans, together with Sydney Brass, recorded brass compositions by Australian composer David Stanhope for the Australian classical label Tall Poppies. In 2007, Evans was awarded a RHISS writing fellowship and a New Frontiers Grant from The University of Sydney to write Music, Mutiny, Shipwreck and Murder: The fate of the three trumpeters aboard the 17th-century Dutch East Indiaman “Batavia”(1629).
Evans leads and conducts the Conservatorium Brass Ensemble in concerts and overseas and is a leader of the Sydney Brass Consort. He has also performed on period instruments with a number of ensembles including the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera, and Australian Baroque Brass. Throughout his career Evans has performed a wide variety of musical styles with many different groups including the Elision Ensemble, Ensemble Modern (Germany), Australis Ensemble (Austria), Graham Ashton Brass Ensemble, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, West Australian, Tasmanian, Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras. He played trumpet for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra for a decade.
In 1988 he was awarded a DAAD Scholarship to at the Hochschule der Kunste in Berlin with Professer Konradin Groth. During this time he was engaged to play with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under conductors Herbert von Karajan and Ricardo Muti at the Salzburg Festival. He also holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Tasmania.
Lecturers
Andrew Bain (French Horn), BMus Elder GradDip Karlsruhe
Lecturer in Horn at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Andrew Bain is Principal Horn and a regular soloist with the Queensland Orchestra; a recording with the orchestra is forthcoming in 2008. He also directs the Sydney Conservatorium Horn ensemble.
A champion of new music, Bain performed the world premiere of Allan Holley’s Brass Quintet in 2006 and Philip Hall’s Horn Quintet in 2007 and is working with several Australian composers to develop repertoire for the horn. He has also collaborated with such artists as Martha Argerich and the World Brass ensemble and is Artistic Director of the Queensland Orchestra’s Chamber Music series. He is a founding member of the New Sydney Wind Quintet, which in 2005, undertook a tour to China. More recently the quintet completed their first studio recording.
A winner of the Marten Bequest, Bain has performed with many orchestras including the Saarbrueken Radio Symphony, Bavarian State Opera, Malaysian Philharmonic and the West Australian and Sydney Symphony orchestras. In 1997 Bain was appointed Associate Principal Horn of the Adelaide Symphony, and he later went on to take Principal Horn positions with Queensland Symphony, Munich Symphony and Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra (Sydney Opera House). Since 2003, Bain has appeared each July as the Principal Horn of the Colorado Music Festival.
He has given Masterclasses and lectured at the Elder Conservatorium, Queensland Conservatorium, Shanghai Conservatory. He also holds workshops and gives masterclasses at the Colorado Music Festival.
Bain holds a Bachelor of Music from the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide and a Graduate Diploma in performance from the Hochschule fuer Musik in Karlsruhe where he achieved the highest ever marks for a Horn player.
For further information please see www.myspace.com/andrewbainhorn
Ben Jacks (French Horn)
Ben Jacks is a lecturer in the brass unit at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Jacks plays principal horn with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and has also performed as a soloist with the Symphony. He has performed with many major symphonies including the Queensland, Melbourne, Tasmanian, Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Malaysian Philharmonic.
Steven Rossé (Tuba)
Steven Rossé is an award-winning tuba player and Lecturer of Tuba and Brass Studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He plays principle tuba with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and is a member of the Sydney Alpha (New Music) Ensemble, the Graham Ashton Brass Ensemble, and the TubaMania Quartet. He also performs regularly with the Philadelphia Orchestra and other symphony orchestras and ensembles around the world.
Rossé joined the Sydney Symphony Orchestra as Principal Tubist in 1990. Prior to that the American-born musician played with the San Diego Symphony and was principal tubist with the New Mexico Symphony (USA), the RAI Torino Radio Symphony (Italy) and the World Orchestra of Jeunesses Musicales in Europe. Since 2005, Rossé has frequently performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and at the Grand Teton Music Festival. He has also worked with the symphony orchestras of Boston, San Francisco, Adelaide and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
Steve Rossé has attracted students from all over the globe to his tuba studio at the Sydney Conservatorium, now considered the best place to learn and study tuba in the Asia Pacific region, ranking alongside the best tuba schools on the planet. Several of Rossé’s former students occupy major orchestral positions throughout Australia, Asia, and Europe and have performed with orchestras ranging from the Tasmanian Symphony to the Berlin and London Philharmonic Orchestras.
In addition to his teaching work at the Conservatorium, Rossé is a Visiting Professor at Silipakorn University in Thailand and teaches annually at the Dolce International Academy in Japan. He travels the world on average ten weeks a year giving masterclasses and recitals/concerto performances, including recent Visiting Professor positions at the National University of Singapore, the Milano Conservatorio in Italy. Other recent formal and informal teaching includes the Shanghai Conservatory and Curtis Institute of Philadelphia.
Scott Kinmont (Trombone), BMus ANU MMus Northwestern
Scott Kinmont is one of Australia’s leading brass players and a lecturer in the Brass Unit of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music since 2005.
An accomplished player of both the trombone and euphonium, Kinmont has the unusual distinction of winning international solo competitions on both instruments. In 1993 he won the United Musical Instruments International trombone solo competition held in the US, and in 1999 was the winner of the International Tubamania solo euphonium competition held in Australia. The recipient of the Fulbright Award for the Visual and Performing Arts in 2002, Kinmont used this awards to complete a Masters of Music and appear as guest lecturer in euphonium at Northwestern University in Chicago.
Kinmont’s performance career began with his appointment to the Sydney Symphony at the age of 20 and he has since appeared as a guest artist with orchestras in Europe, Australia and Hong Kong, and is a regular featured guest artist at many of Australia's leading musical institutions and at many of this country's most important brass symposiums. He has also appeared as a soloist with a variety of ensembles including brass bands, jazz ensembles and orchestras. He has also been a member of many of Australia's leading ensembles, including the Canberra Trombone Quartet (prize winners at the Yamaha International Brass Ensemble Competition held in the US in 1993), Sydney Brass Ensemble, Sydney Symphony Brass, Sydney Baroque Brass, and the Australian Trombone Quartet.
Collaborations with young Australian composers have resulted in several pieces written expressly for him. In 2003, in Chicago, he premiered one such piece, a euphonium concerto by Peter Keller, and in 2008, Kinmont will premiere Lee Bracegirdle's Euphonium Concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
A devoted music educator, Kinmont’s students maintain a busy schedule including a weekly trombone class, trombone ensemble and solo recital performances, mock auditions, orchestral sectionals and audition preparation. Former and current students hold positions in orchestras in Australia, Europe and the US. In addition to conducting the Conservatorium's Trombone Ensemble, Kinmont has also conducted many community and semi-professional ensembles including performances for national broadcast. He has recently held masterclasses in the US and China.