Mozart and Brahms: Tenderness and Torment
Description
Two works, two moods, one unforgettable evening of chamber music. Mozart’s D Minor String Quartet is among his most turbulent and emotionally charged creations — a work of shadow and intensity rarely matched in his output. Paired against it, Brahms’s Horn Trio unfolds in richer, warmer territory, its famous finale breaking into a joyous hunting-call rondo. Together, they trace a journey from darkness into light.
Performing are some of Sydney’s most experienced chamber musicians — Adele Ohki (violin), Robert Johnson (French horn), Alexander Yau (Piano), James Eccles (viola), Chris Bennett (cello), and David Saffir (violin) — artists who have built careers on stages across Australia and internationally, now sharing an intimate performance space where the music can be felt up close.
This concert is the first in a series of pop-up performances building momentum toward the launch of the Sydney Chamber Music Institute (SCMI) this October. Featured alongside our professional musicians will be a few of Sydney’s most talented students — a preview of the kind of mentorship and opportunity for student performance the Institute is built around. As performers who are also educators, we believe this exchange — professionals learning from professionals, students learning from the musicians who came before them — is where chamber music truly comes alive.
Be part of the journey from the very beginning. Come for the music. Stay for a glimpse of what’s coming this October.
Lineup
Adele Ohki
Adele Ohki is a Sydney-based violinist, educator, and Founder/Artistic Director of the Sydney Chamber Music Institute. Trained at the Music Academy of the West, the Eastman School of Music, and Boston University, she brings a career spanning elite performance, secondary and tertiary music education, and work as an AMEB examiner. A dual U.S.–Australian citizen, Adele is driven by a belief in chamber music as a space for genuine mentorship — where professionals and rising talent learn from one another, side by side.
Alexander Yau
A graduate from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and New York’s prestigious Juilliard School of Music, Alexander Yau is an emerging Australian pianist who is the recipient of numerous awards including the Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition (2015), the Theme and Variations Foundation Award (2016) and the Australian International Chopin Piano Competition (2017). He was a semi-finalist in the Keri-Keri International Piano Competition (2016) as well as a finalist twice in the Sydney Eisteddfod John Allison/Henderson Piano Scholarship Competition. Subsequent to his competition successes, Alexander performs as a soloist and a chamber musician across Australia as well as in the US, Europe, New Zealand and China.
Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson studied the French horn at the NSW Conservatorium of Music. After holding the principal horn positions with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Opera Australia Orchestra, he was appointed Principal Horn with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1986, a position he retired from in 2017. During his time with the SSO, he has performed as soloist in works by Mozart, Richard Strauss, Benjamin Britten and Ross Edwards, and in 2005 he was the horn soloist in the SSO’s first performance of Messiaen’s From the Canyons to the Stars. In 2009 he commissioned and premiered with the SSO a new horn concerto, Lightfall, by Sydney composer Christopher Gordon. He has also appeared as guest principal with all the major Australian orchestras, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He has played chamber music with the Australia Ensemble, Sydney Soloists and New Sydney Wind Quintet, and has appeared at the Huntington and Townsville chamber music festivals. As a teacher he has worked as Senior Horn Lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Canberra School of Music, and he has appeared as Artist in Residence at universities and music schools in Brisbane, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Hong Kong. In addition to playing the horn, he sings Mediæval and Renaissance songs in his ‘other life’ as a countertenor and has conducted Ensembles of musicians from the SSO on a number of occasions as The Chamber Soloists of Sydney in “off the beaten track” Repertoire.
David Saffir
David Saffir was born into a musical family in Melbourne, Australia. He studied at the Tasmanian Conservatorium under Professor Jan Sedivka, before undertaking post-graduate studies at the Koelner Musikhochschule in Germany with Professor Igor Ozim and members of the Amadeus Quartet. He returned to Australia to lead the New England String Quartet, the resident ensemble at the University of New England in Armidale, before freelancing in Sydney with the city’s major orchestras. He went on to serve as Director of Strings at Newington College, and from 2000 to 2026, Director of Strings at Barker College, where he led a team of eleven string teachers and built a program of over two hundred students across its string orchestras and chamber music program. David continues to perform professionally as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral leader. From 2005 to 2015, he was Concertmaster of the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra, and served as Concertmaster Emeritus until 2019.
James Eccles
James is a Sydney-based violist who, after several years studying and working in Germany, returned to Australia to perform with many of Australia’s leading ensembles including Opera Australia, Australian Haydn Ensemble, Pinchgut Opera, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Sydney Dance Company, and as principal viola with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Known for his versatility, James has specialised in many musical genres - early music, jazz/rock/pop/world, experimental, and of course, classical. He has performed at many of Australia’s leading arts festivals - including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Wangaratta Jazz Festivals. As a champion of new Australian music, James has premiered, commissioned and created many new works in his roles as violist with groups such as Ensemble Offspring, Director/violist of The Noise String Quartet, and Artistic Director of Aurora Festival. James holds a Master of Arts in Classical String Performance, a Graduate Diploma in Arts Management, and is a graduate of ANAM. In addition to his performing work, James is currently running the Music Program at Forest Lodge Public School and conducting ensembles at Forest Lodge and St Mary’s Cathedral College.
Chris Bennett
Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity