Music & Tea at Wollongong Art Gallery | Emerging Concert Artists

ECA - EMERGING CONCERT ARTISTS

Exceptional young musicians curate programs that showcase their musical journey and offer audiences a glimpse of the artistic excellence cultivated through NSW music programs.  Held at the Wollongong Art Gallery, these concerts allow the community to experience and share the joy of music-making in one of the town's most beautiful and friendly performance spaces.  

We respect and acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of Dharawal Country, Elders past and present, and extend that respect to other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Thursday November 7 at 11 am

Quintessentially French: Chamber Music by Camille Saint-Saëns Cécile Chaminade Georges Bizet

MEET OUR NOVEMBER EMERGING CONCERT ARTISTS🎻🌟

Young Artist: The concert opens with a short performance by Albert Au, a piano and violin student at the Wollongong Conservatorium of Music.  He will perform three short works by Beethoven, Chopin and Tchaikovsky. 

Featured ECA: Pianist Luke Bowen has curated a program of French chamber music. He will be joined by the exceptionally talented Gray sisters from Shoalhaven. Ilona is a flautist and was honoured to open the Snow Concert Hall in Canberra by playing alongside her teacher, Anna de Vega. Francis is a clarinetist completing her first year at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. All three have achieved exceptional results in AMEB Exams, are multiple award winners and have performed in various ensembles. 

Based in Shoalhaven, Luke Bowen is an active performer in the local and broader music scenes. He achieved his Licentiate in Music with distinction at the age of 15 and is a frequent recitalist at St.Jude's, where he performs a wide range of repertoire to the delight of local audiences. Luke has appeared as a soloist with the Highlands Sinfonia (2022) and more recently performed Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Southern Highlands Symphony Orchestra.

 Luke has performed extensively in the Shoalhaven and Illawarra regions. He has appeared twice in the recital series for Music Shoalhaven, and 2022 and 2024, he presented concerts for the Gerringong Music Club. More recently, Luke joined the Highlands Music Collective in their series Vienna Gold, performing chamber works by Mozart, Schubert and Australian composer Robert Constable alongside violinist Myee Clohessy, cellist William Howard and violist Patrick Brearly.  In March 2023, he appeared in the Emerging Concert Artists Series, performing as soloist and with violinist Cedar Newman. 

Luke was a finalist in the Australia-wide Theme & Variations Foundation competition for pianists (2021) and won the Eva Pascoe Award for emerging artists in 2023. In 2021, Luke earned a diploma in music from the University of New England and is now studying science at UNE and piano privately under Professor Robert Constable AM. Luke is thrilled to return to perform in the 2024 Emerging Artist Concert Series and curate a chamber music program. 

Ilona Gray moved from England to Australia in 2017, where she has since been an active member of the Shoalhaven music community. She began playing the piano at age six and flute at age 11, and she achieved her Associate Diploma in Music in 2021.

She has played with the Shoalhaven Youth Orchestra, Albatross Musical Theatre Company, Milton Town Band, Bateman's Bay Pipe Band and Millennium Marching Band and was accepted to play in the Australian Youth Orchestra Program. With these ensembles she has played at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, NSW Southern Stars and the NSW School Spectacular within these ensembles.

In 2022, she performed as a featured artist in Southern Stars, presented a recital alongside Frances in St. Martins Ulladulla, and was nominated for HSC Encore. Ilona has since begun studying for a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) at the University of New South Wales but maintains her interest in music. In her first year at university, she performed alongside international flautist Ana De la Vega, opening Canberra'ss Snow Centre. She continues to play in ensembles such as the UNSW Wind Symphony. 

Frances Gray is a first-year student studying for a Bachelor of Music Performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Frances achieved her Associate Diploma in Music for clarinet in 2022. Frances studied under David Shepherd and is now in the studio of Frank Celata at the Sydney Conservatorium. Since attending the Conservatorium, she has performed in the Conservatorium's Wind Symphony with conductor Joanne Heaton and the Conservatorium regional choir tour with conductor Elizabeth Scott.

Previously, Frances performed in many musical ensembles in Sydney and Shoalhaven, such as the Milton Town Band, Shoalhaven Youth Orchestra, and Bateman's Bay Pipe Band. She played in the Sydney Youth Orchestra's Wind Ensemble in 2022, the NSW Pulse Alive Orchestra in 2022, the NSW Southern Stars Orchestra in 2022, the NSW Millennium Marching Band in 2019, the NSW Public Schools Junior Wind Ensemble in 2019, and the Albatross Musical Theatre Company's 'Wicked' in 2019.

Frances has participated in the Shoalhaven Eisteddfods for the last five years and most recently won the Open Brass and Woodwind section. She also won the Rotary Scholarship in 2022 and was invited to perform for the Berry Music Society in 2023. Frances has also twice won the Mollymook Lions Club Scholarship alongside her sister, IIona.

Thursday, December at 11 am 

'Being Alive'| Molly Stewart voice (Wollongong) Joanna Li piano 

Music by Lloyd Webber/ Rice Minchin Richmond/Nell Benjamin Kerrigan/Lowdermilk & Sondheim and more. 

MEET OUR DECEMBER EMERGING CONCERT ARTISTS🎻🌟

Young Artists: Sydney Parker and Jagger Leith return with a short program of duets accompanied by their singing teacher, Karen Weir. In 2023, Sydney and Jagger delighted audiences with their combination of songs, with Jagger accompanying on piano and guitar. These young artists are rapidly building a place for themselves in musical theatre and contemporary music.

Feature Artists: Molly Stewart has been captivating audiences from a very young age with her voice, which makes you want to keep listening, and her capacity to bring a diversity of characters to life. 

Originally from Wollongong, Molly is a Sydney-based performer undertaking a Bachelor of Music Performance (Music Theatre) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Molly received a Diploma in Musical Theatre from The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 2020. She recently made her Hayes Theatre debut playing Mrs Segstrom in A Little Night Music and later joined the ensemble for An Evening With. In 2018, Molly was honoured to be selected as one of the Top 30 Semi-Finalists for the ‘Rob Guest Endowment Award’. Molly graduated high school, having ranked first in Music and Drama, and was a selected performer in Encore for her elective Music program. Her theatre credits include Cathy in The Last Five Years, Heather McNamara in Heathers, Hannah/Others in Puffs (Rising Arts), Rona in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Crystal Clear), Vivienne in Legally Blonde, Jan in Grease (So Popera), Sophie in Mamma Mia!, Rose in Dogfight, Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady (Arcadians) and received CAT Awards for her performances as Elphaba in Wicked (AMTC) and Little Red Riding Hood in Into The Woods (So Popera).

After winning many accolades as a soloist in her youth, Joanna Li has chosen to focus on collaborative piano studies for her master's. She studies with Jeanelle Carrigan. She has received multiple scholarship awards and prizes, most recently receiving a scholarship to attend an intensive summer school at the 2023 Collaborative Piano Institute at Louisiana State University. Joanna has made working with singers a focus of her collaborative piano training.