Ensemble Studies - Staff

Chair/Senior Lecturer
David Miller AM (Piano/Accompaniment), BA(Hons) LMus

Lecturer
Jeanell Carrigan (Piano/Accompaniment), BA(Mus) Künstlerische
Straatsdiplom Munich MMus QLD DCA W’gong

Associate Lecturers
David Howie (Piano/Accompaniment), BMus GradDipMus(Acc)
Clemens Leske (Piano/Accompaniment), BMus Juilliard
Natalia Ricci (Piano/Accompaniment), BMus Cinc MMus RNCM

Chair/Senior Lecturer

David Miller AM (Piano/Accompaniment), BA(Hons) LMus
David Miller studied in Australia (Max Olding and Alexander Sverjensky) and the United Kingdom (Paul Hamburger) and has been described as the "role model of Australian accompanists". David was appointed as a member of the Order of Australia in the Queen's Birthday 1995 Honours List for his service to music. He has been on staff at Sydney Conservatorium of Music since 1980 and in 1995 was appointed the first chair of the Ensemble Studies Unit with responsibility for Chamber Music and Keyboard Accompaniment tuition and administration throughout the institution. David regularly conducts master classes and lectures for universities, conservatoriums, music organisations and music conferences in Australia and Asia.

Lecturer

Jeanell Carrigan (Piano/Accompaniment), BA(Mus) Künstlerische
Straatsdiplom Munich MMus QLD DCA W’gong

Dr. Jeanell Carrigan is a pianist who has performed as a soloist, chamber musician and accompanist in Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and throughout Australia. A Lecturer in Ensemble Studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Dr. Carrigan has released eight solo recordings to date–the most recent is Spin (VOX Australis, 2004) and her publications include Australian Solo Piano Works of the Last Twenty-Five Years (The Australian Music Centre) an annotated guide to Australian solo piano music (available in its fifth edition) and several teaching kits related to the performance of Australian piano music. She holds a Doctor of Creative Arts, from the University of Wollongong, in the area of Australian post-1970 solo piano repertoire.

Carrigan studied at the Sydney and Queensland Conservatories and then in Europe with Nancy Salas, Leah Horwitz, Pamela Page, Alfons Kontarsky and Karl Engel. Today she performs regularly and has recorded for the Bavarian Radio Corporation, the ABC and for regional stations in Australia on many occasions. As a member of the Novalis Quartet, Trio Novalis and Richter/Carrigan Duo she performs regularly for Musica Viva and other concert organisations.

A dedicated teacher, Carrigan has taught music at all levels and has held teaching positions at the Hochschulen für Musik in Stuttgart and Munich, the Universities of Queensland and Melbourne and the Queensland and Sydney Conservatories of Music. As a professional musician she is also involved in many educational and performance based activities and is in demand as an examiner and adjudicator.

Associate Lecturer

Natalia Ricci (Piano/Accompaniment), BMus Cinc MMus RNCM

Natalia Ricci is and Associate Lecturer in Accompaniment at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Natalia received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Cincinnati USA, and her masters of Music from the Royal Northern College of Music, majoring in piano performance. Her principal teachers include Béla Siki, Jiri Hlinka and Sulamita Aronovsky. She also studied with Gyorgy Sebok, Anton Kuerti and John Perry at the Banff Centre of Fine Arts in Canada and Tatiana Nikolayeva in Salzburg.

In all Natalia spent the years 1980-1985 studying and working abroad in the USA, Canada, Norway, Paris, London and Spain. As a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed extensively in all of these countries including many of the major European capitals. She has performed at international music festivals, including, the International Bartok seminar (Hungary), the Banff Summer Chamber Music Festival (Canada), the London Objective Music Festival, the Gradus International Music Festival (Catalonia, Spain) and the International Festspillen (Bergen, Norway).

As an instrumental accompanist, Natalia is especially recognized for her work with string players and has performed with renowned artists such as Ruggiero Ricci, Leonid Gorokhov, Adelina Oprean and Kolja Blacher. She has also accompanied many cello/violin masterclasses given by artists such as Steven Isserlis, William Pleeth, Lyn Harrell,Lorand Fenyves, Ruggiero Ricci and Gabriel Magyar.

The recipient of numerous international awards and prizes, Natalia Ricci has made many recordings for the BBC, ABC, Canadian, Norwegian and Italian national radios and has also appeared in live national concert telecasts in Italy, Norway, Spain and Australia.