(Cancelled) Veils: Delicacy, Mystery, Intimacy

Important update: We regret to announce that this performance is cancelled due to an artist’s injury. We are exploring a potential new date in June 2026 and will share more details as soon as they are confirmed.

A veil does not obliterate a thing completely; it allows that thing to suggest itself to us, gently. We can gradually perceive what we believe it to be through the texture of our emotional world and imagination. Yet veils also protect—both the concealed and the one who perceives. The three works in this program each emerge from a composer’s particular need to veil his deepest truths, whether from himself, from society, or from the devastating clarity of direct exposure.

PROGRAM

Beethoven: Piano Sonata Op 27 No. 2 in C# minor Quasi una Fantasia (15')

Brahms: Viola Sonata Op 120 No. 1 in F minor (23')

Interval

Shostakovich: Cello Sonata Op 40 in D minor (28')

THE ARTISTS

Bernadette Harvey, piano

“Gifted with a rare physical control of the instrument and intellectual and interpretative qualities to match… dispatched with a Horowitz-like virtuosity… it drew me to the edge of my seat.” (Neville Cohn, West Australian).

Bernadette Harvey is an acclaimed international pianist, Senior Lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and Co-Artistic Director of the Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival alongside her husband, Peter Rejto. In 2000, she was awarded the Centenary Medal by Prime Minister John Howard for her contribution to Australian music. Her accolades span from her first Sydney Eisteddfod medal at age two to being named the 1987 ABC ‘Young Performer of the Year.’

A renowned champion of contemporary repertoire, Bernadette established “The Sonata Project” to commission substantial new works for the piano. The project aims to challenge composers to reflect on their attitudes toward this traditional art form and to create new masterpieces within its generous boundaries. Through this initiative, she has premiered works by Jane Stanley, Aristea Melos, and Melody Eötvos. This commitment to innovation was further highlighted in a 2020 Sydney Festival collaboration with British artist Cornelia Parker (CBE RA), where Bernadette premiered Peggy Polias’s Ode—a reflection on the nature of war—at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Bernadette is also the primary interpreter for Ross Edwards, one of Australia's most beloved composers, who dedicated his first piano sonata and Sea Star Fantasy to her. Her extensive discography includes numerous recordings for the Tall Poppies label and a recent solo release on Rylstone Records featuring Edwards’ music alongside works by Polias, Dargaville, and Hollier.

In chamber music, Bernadette joined the Streeton Trio in 2021, earning high praise for an "infectious sense of fun" and the ability to navigate "phenomenal difficulties" with electric energy. She also maintains a celebrated duo partnership with oboist Diana Doherty. Together, they have performed frequently at Ukaria, most recently giving the 2025 world premiere of Nigel Westlake’s Three Pieces for Oboe. Bernadette holds a DMA from the Eastman School of Music. More about Bernadette Harvey

Simon Cobcroft, cello

Simon Cobcroft enjoys a diverse life as a performer of solo, orchestral and chamber music in Australia and further afield. From 2014–2023 he was Principal Cello with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and has also held the positions of Associate Principal Cello with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (2012–2014), and Sub-Principal Cello with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (2003–2011). He is a founding member of the Lyrebird Trio, winner of the Piano Trio and Audience prizes at the 2013 Asia Pacific Chamber Music Competition, and previously resident at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music and at the Center for the Arts in Banff, Canada.

Simon is a graduate of the Queensland Conservatorium (2000) and the Australian National Academy of Music (2003). Since that time, he has been a frequent guest performer with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony, Denmark’s Esbjerg Ensemble, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and as guest principal with the Tasmanian and Singapore Symphony Orchestras. He has performed as principal cello and chamber musician at, among others, the Aldeburgh, Pacific and Salzburg Music Festivals.

In 2016, Simon was awarded the Adelaide Critics Circle Prize for his performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Michael Stern. He made his first appearance as soloist with the ASO in 2015, and appeared again in 2018 performing Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto in A Minor. In previous years he performed as soloist with the Malaysian Philharmonic, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Queensland, Sydney’s Metropolitan Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria.

Simon is passionate about education, and has taught at the Elder Conservatorium and the Queensland Conservatorium. He studied with Matthew Farrell, Janis Laurs, Alexander Baillie, David Strange and Michael Goldschlager. He plays on a beautiful English cello made in 1840 by Thomas Kennedy. In his spare time, he loves to cook. (from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra)

Tobias Breider, viola
Tobias Breider was born in Münster and began his music studies with violin and piano. He studied viola with Rainer Moog in Cologne, completing his Master’s degree, and a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) scholarship enabled him to study in New York with Michael Tree of the Guarneri Quartet. On returning to Germany, he completed the Soloist Program in Lübeck with Barbara Westphal. His intensive study of chamber music has also included lessons with the Alban Berg Quartet, Juilliard String Quartet, Sarah Nelsova and Miriam Fried.

Before moving to Australia to join the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2011, he held principal positions at the Rhine Opera Düsseldorf, the Konzerthaus Berlin and with the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra under Simone Young. He has also appeared as guest principal with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Berlin, Vienna and Cologne radio symphony orchestras, the Qatar Philharmonic and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

As a soloist he has performed at the Sydney Opera House, the Domain and City Recital Hall, as well as the Melbourne Recital Centre. He regularly tours Queensland giving recitals and is a member of Ensemble Q in Brisbane. He is in demand as a chamber musician, and has performed at numerous festivals in the USA, Germany, the UK and South Africa. Since his arrival in Australia he has collaborated with ensembles such as Wilma Smith & Friends, Kathryn Selby & Friends, Charmian & Friends, the Australia Octet and the OMEGA Ensemble, as well as artists such as Kathy Selby, Ian Munro, Paul Wright, Howard Penny, Brett Dean, Timo-Veikko Valve, Elizabeth Layton, Timothy Young, James Crabb and Sara Macliver.

Tobias teaches at the Sydney Conservatorium and as a guest teacher at the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne. (from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra)