CAMERON HILL guest violin
WILMA SMITH violin
HELEN IRELAND viola
ZOE KNIGHTON cello

AGATHA YIM, POLYPHONIC PICTURES filming and editing

THOMAS GRUBB, MANO MUSICA sound engineering, editing and mastering

Filmed October 2023 at Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank

This project was made possible through support from the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, City of Melbourne, and the Australian Government through Creative Australia.

CAMERON HILL
Guest Violinist

Cameron Hill is an Australian violinist who appears as soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player. He studied in Melbourne with Cathryn Bills, William Hennessy and Alice Waten, and in Vienna with Dora Schwarzberg and Boris Kuschnir. He has performed as a concerto soloist with many Australian orchestras, including the MSO, ASO, QSO, TSO, CSO and the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Cameron has also had success in major competitions, winning both the 2006 ABC Young Performer of the Year, and the 2005 Dorcas McClean National Violin Competition.

His love of chamber music has seen him perform various works with Pinchas Zukerman and Emmanuel Pahud. He was the founding leader of the Hamer Quartet, appeared as leader of the Flinders Quartet, and has toured Europe with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. During 2014, Cameron appeared as guest Concertmaster of the MSO for several months, and in 2015, toured and performed as guest leader of the Australian String Quartet. He is currently the Associate Concertmaster of the ASO.

MARIA GRENFELL 1969-

"Silhouettes" for string quartet (composed 2023)

Commissioned by Flinders Quartet with support of FQ Syndicate #5: Nicholas Garnham, Linda Herd and Canny Quine Foundation, Sieglind D'Arcy, Peter Kingsbury, Sharon Nathani and Michael Cowen, Dr Garry Joslin and Prof. Dimity Reed AM

In the creation of this concert program, we became fascinated with the idea of a musical portrait, and we wondered what Flinders Quartet would sound like if it was painted in sound. Composer Maria Grenfell commented on Flinders Quartet as having its own identity, apart from the individual players (and indeed, the players have certainly changed over the years). In writing this piece, we feel she has highlighted our optimism, and love of counterpoint and musical conversation. On the first page of the “Silhouettes” score, Maria writes:

“A string quartet is one of the most challenging genres for a twenty-first century composer to write with a weight of history behind it and a repertoire that demands both virtuosity and musicality at the highest level. Achieving a blend of instrumental timbres within a group of four presents an opportunity to write a musical portrait of the individuals and the whole ensemble.

Silhouettes is a one-movement piece in four sections. The main theme is a harmonic progression that reappears in different guises, playing through a range of moods, timbres, textures, and expressive contrasts. The sections are both conversational and contrapuntal, gradually building to a rapid finale.”

Maria Grenfell was born in Malaysia, and completed composition studies in Christchurch, New Zealand. In 2013, Maria won ‘Instrumental Work of the Year’ for Tasmania at the Australian Art Music Awards for her septet Ten Suns Ablaze, commissioned by the Australia Ensemble, and in 2017 her double concerto Spirals won the Tasmanian award for ‘Orchestral Work of the Year.’

Maria is an Associate Professor at the University of Tasmania Conservatorium of Music and co-ordinates the composition stream. She has given guest lectures at the University of Houston, Auckland University, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory (Singapore), and the University of Melbourne. In Spring 2013 Maria was Visiting Professor of Composition at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. In Fall 2019 Maria was Kerr Composer in Residence at the Oberlin Conservatory in Oberlin, Ohio. She lives in Hobart with her husband, guitarist David Malone, and they have two children.