This concert features three works for flute, viola and harp by Claude Debussy, Nicholas Routley and Romano Crivici. Long established as the defining work for this unusual instrumental combination, in his late Sonata of 1915, Debussy opened a new world of tonal colours and textures. Set alongside are two World Premieres by living Australian composers, who have both explored the different depths and possibilities of the impressionistic, almost mystical colours of these three instruments.

Carla Thackrah
Carla is an award-winning musician, filmmaker and screen composer. She has 20 years professional orchestral experience, ten years of that as principal flute with the Opera Australia Orchestra, based at the Sydney Opera House. She has performed as guest principal with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO), West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO), the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO), and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (ASO). She has also performed with contemporary and world music ensembles including David Ahern’s A-Z Music, the Lindsey Kemp Contemporary Dance Co., Seymour Group, Tango Paradiso, Tucana Flute Ensemble, and Elektra Collective Unconscious (ECU). 

Carla has studied at the University of Sydney, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and, in London, Guildhall School of Music and Royal College of Music. She has a Masters degree in music and film from the Queensland University of Technology, a Doctorate from the University of Technology Sydney and several award-winning documentaries to her name.

Virginia Comerford
Virginia is Principal Viola in the Opera Australia Orchestra, having first joined the Orchestra as Associate Principal at the age of nineteen. Virginia left in 1994 to pursue a career in Europe, spending time first in Italy and then The Netherlands, where she performed with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Radio Symfonie Orkest, Nederlands Kamer Orkest, Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam, I Fiamminghi Chamber Orchestra in Belgium and with the Salzburg Soloists. She toured to Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Germany and Ireland. She also pursued her love of singing and was awarded a Queen Elizabeth scholarship to study singing in London.

Virginia was appointed to her current position of Principal Viola in 2010. She regularly performs chamber music, has performed for the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall and has been a member of Australian World Orchestra since 2015, when she toured to India with Maestro Zubin Mehta. Virginia is playing on Harry Vatiliotis's last viola.

Alice Giles AM
First Prize winner of the 8th Israel International Harp Contest, Alice Giles has had a wide-ranging career, with solo recitals from London’s Wigmore Hall, New York Merkin and 92nd St Y, Frankfurt Alte Oper, to Mawson Station, Antarctica. She has appeared as guest artist at international chamber music festivals from Marlboro Music to Schleswig Holstein, and as soloist with orchestra, including all the major Australian orchestras.

Alice is creator of an online harp teaching resource, has given Master Classes worldwide, and is Lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She was the Artistic Director of the World Harp Congress Sydney 2014. Alice has commissioned and performed many new works on both acoustic and electro-acoustic harp.

Luciano Berio called her "the most intelligent, sensitive and technically accomplished harpist I have ever met".

Her solo debut was hailed by the New York Times as "an exciting solo concert. Miss Giles has a fluent technique, a prismatic sense of tonal colour and shows a keen awareness of musical structure".