Simon Tedeschi and Friends

Join us for what promises to be an unmissable evening of music and community with Simon Tedeschi and Friends.

Tedeschi (piano) will be accompanied by some of Australia's most exciting musicians, including violinist Ziva Altmann, multi-instrumentalist and composer, Paul Cutlan, and flautist Chloe Chung.

Artist bios:

Simon Tedeschi AM is one of Australia’s leading pianists and a prize-winning writer. He has performed throughout Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, appearing as soloist with all the major Australian orchestras as well as orchestras in the United States and New Zealand.

Tedeschi made his Sydney Opera House debut performing a Mozart concerto at the age of nine. He later spent several years based in the United States, supported by the American Australian Association and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust. In 2009 he performed at Carnegie Hall, received the New York Young Jewish Pianist Award, and appeared as soloist with the Colorado, Fort Worth and Illinois Symphony Orchestras.

His awards include Symphony Australia’s Young Performer of the Year, the Creativity Foundation’s Legacy Award (USA), first prize in the keyboard division of the Royal Over-Seas League Competition (UK), and a Centenary of Federation Medal. In 2026, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

Tedeschi has appeared at major festivals and venues including the Abu Dhabi International Arts Festival, Shanghai Arts Festival, Sydney Festival, Musica Viva, UKARIA Cultural Centre and the Sydney Opera House.

Anneke Ziva Altman (Ziva) is a Sydney-born violinist and graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. In 2001 she moved to Europe to continue her studies firstly with Berent Korfker, Vesko Eshkanazi (Concertmaster of Concertgebouw Orchestra), Shmuel Ashkenasi, founding first violinist of the Vermeer String Quartet. Then later with Prof. Ariadne Daskalakis and the legendary pedagogue Prof. Zakhar Bron, at the Hochschüle für Musik Köln, Germany.

In the United Kingdom she was appointed to the faculty of the world renown Yehudi Menuhin School, where she taught as an assistant teacher alongside Simon Fischer, Maciej Rakowski and Berent Korfker.

She has held full-time orchestral positions in Germany, Lübeck Philharmonic Orchestra and later as a 1st violinist in the Dresdner Philharmonie 20010-2014. She has appeared as a guest 1st violinist with the Royal Danish Opera Orchestra and the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Since returning to Australia, Ziva has worked with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Australian Opera Orchestra, and has performed chamber music with artists including Charmian Gadd and Randolph Kelly (former Principal Viola of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra).  

Paul Cutlan is a multi-instrumentalist and composer specialising in improvisation, cross-cultural music, jazz and hybrid genres. Recent projects have included the debut of his curated improvisation for thirteen players Pan Demon’s Band, the premier of Towards Affinity by The Metropolitan Orchestra, Sandy Evans’s ‘A Take on John Coltrane’ and Simon Tedeschi’s ‘In our own sweet way - a tribute to Dave Brubeck’, both at UKARIA, and the debut of Cutlan’s work Colour Therapy, commissioned by the Sydney Improvised Music Association.The title track of Cutlan’s String Project's second album Living was a finalist for the 2021 APRA Art Music awards.

Cutlan’s creative versatility has seen him in demand for theatrical productions by Belvoir, Sydney Theatre Company, as well as numerous stage musicals. Cutlan has performed with Tasmanian and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Gurrumul, Lou Reed, Bobby Previte, Jim McNeely, and Ólafur Arnalds.

He was composer and musical director for the acclaimed theatre production Birth of the Cool for the 2003 Sydney Festival, with subsequent seasons in Edinburgh and Germany. Other commissioners include Ars Musica Australis, The NOISE string quartet, Divergence Jazz Orchestra and Jenny Eriksson. Cutlan completed his doctorate in 2026, researching cross-cultural hybridity in the music of MARA!.

Chloe Chung is a multi-style flautist (Western flutes/dizi), with 20 years of creative practice spanning performance, teaching and collaboration. Currently featuring as Deputy Flute Chair of The Lion King Australia (2026), she regularly performs with longstanding collaborators including multi-instrumentalist composer Liz Cheung (The Deebeetees – Do Brave Things), oud player Maxeem Georges (Rahil Duo), pianist-composer Pavle Cajic (Dreamscapes – Sidere Duo debut album), and the Sydney Contact Improv community.

Chloe teaches flute as Academic Lecturer of Woodwind at AIM (Australian Institute of Music), and dizi (Chinese bamboo flute) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music since 2016.

All proceeds go to MSF (Doctors Without Borders).