Our Mission

The Sydney Chamber Music Festival aims to become a leading institution in Sydney's cultural community by: offering a new performance platform for dedicated chamber musicians, principally by Australian artists, providing a different instrumental focus each year to cover the repertoire from renowned works to the lesser known, and to inspire and promote new compositions by Australian composers.

...I extend a warm welcome to you all to join and support us in this wonderful musical experience each year.

Bridget Bolliger
Artistic Director

Who Are We?

The Sydney Chamber Music Festival, founded by Bridget Bolliger, was devised and orchestrated by an independent group
of chamber music lovers. The organizers are:

Akky Van Ogtrop - President
Bridget Bolliger - Artistic Director

Michael Hedger - Secretary
John Ladbroke - Treasurer
Elizabeth Ramsay MBE - Board Member
Anthony Heinrichs - Board Member

Jüerg Däehler - International Artistic Advisor

Lyle Chan - Artistic Advisor

President - Akky van Ogtrop BA.MA Fine Arts

As a director and manager of major arts events, Akky van Ogtop has proven experience as an arts administrator and creative manager with extensive contacts and national and international project experience. A part from her expertise as a public program , event manager,art historian and curator, she also has a passionate interest in music and multicultural issues.

Biography

Director, Akky van Ogtrop Fine Arts

Executive Director, Sydney Art on Paper Fair

Akky van Ogtrop (born in The Netherlands), graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, and has a Masters Degree Fine Arts, Sydney University.

She held positions as:

• Assistant Director of Galerie d'Eendt in Amsterdam, organising exhibitions of paintings, prints and sculptures by Dutch and international artists.
• After moving to Australia she became Manager of Stadia Graphics Gallery in Sydney, one of the first and foremost galleries in Australia to specialise in works of art on paper.
• In 1988 she established Akky van Ogtrop Fine Arts, specialising in works on paper by 19th and 20th Century Masters, as well as contemporary Australian and international artists.
• Founder and Executive Director of the Sydney Art on Paper Fair. In 1989 she established the Biennial Sydney Art on Paper Fair an ongoing cultural event
• 1999 - 2004 Marketing and Public Programs Manager Biennale of Sydney 2000 and Manager International Cultural Relations Biennale of Sydney 2002
• 2006 Campaign Manager Articulate, the World out West
• Independent Curator

Akky is presently serving on various boards, including:

• Board Member of the Dutch Australian Cultural Centre
• Board member Dutch Link
• President of the Print Council of Australia
• Committee member Manly Art Gallery and Museum
• President Sydney Chamber Music Festival
• Vice President of the Walter Burley Griffin Society Inc

She is a foundation member of the Art Gallery of NSW

Artistic Director - Bridget Bolliger

Swiss-Australian flautist Bridget Bolliger began serious study of her instrument with Jenny Andrews and Jane Rutter at the Sydney Conservatorium High School. From 1987, she continued to refine her craft under Prof. Peter-Lukas Graf at the Basel Music Academy, Switzerland, and other teachers included Vernon Hill, Alain Marion, William Bennet and Jean-Pierre Rampal. Bridget has been awarded several prestigious Swiss scholarships, among them the Migros Ernst-Goehner Stiftung Scholarship (Zurich) and the Kiefler Hablitzel Music Award (Bern).

In 1991, Bridget was the youngest flute player to graduate with a Soloist Diploma, Switzerland's highest music award for performers at a tertiary level. Other prizes include first place in the Mattara Spring Festival Concerto Competition (Australia) and the UBS National Flute Competition (Zurich) in a tie prize with Felix Renggli. She was also a prize-winner at the1984 Swiss Woodwind Competition held in St Gallen.

Having lived and worked abroad between 1987 and 2003, Bridget has been Principal Flute with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and the Schleswig Holstein Festival Orchestra, and Guest Principal with the European Community Youth Chamber Orchestra during a tour of Switzerland. Later, she was appointed Principal Flute with the St Gallen Symphony Orchestra, the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and was Guest Principal Flute with the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Zurich Opera Orchestra, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra and the Queensland Orchestra.

Performances as a soloist include concertos with the St Gallen SO, Chamber Orchestra of Lugano, Basel SO, São Paulo SO, and the Orchestra del Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Italy and Northern Orchestra of Portugal.

In 2003 Bridget performed at the Curitiba Music Festival in Brazil and gave masterclasses as assistant teacher to Michel Dubost. In 2004, Bridget performed alongside Alex Klein, at the Music Festival in Ainey Le Vieil. In addition, recording as a soloist and chamber musician for radio and television remains an important part of her career.

A passionate fascination of the human voice led Bridget to pursue vocal studies between the years 1994-1999. Her teachers included Otto and Monika Pick-Hieronomi at the Music Hochschule in Cologne and later with Sergio Bertocchi at the Music Academy of Bologna. Professional performances include the role of "Clorinda" in Rossini's "La Cenerentola" at the Teatro Sao Pedro in São Paulo during the year 1996 and one of the "Drei adelige Waisen" in a production of "Der Rosenkavalier" by Richard Strauss at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo during the 1997/98 Opera Season.

Bridget currently teaches flute and chamber music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and plays as a casual flautist with several Australian orchestras, including SSO, MSO , AOBO, TQO, and Sydney Philharmonia. She is the founing director of the New Sydney Wind Quintet, which works in collaboration with Musica Viva , performs regularly for the ABC, and has undertaken concert tours of Australia and China.

International Artistic Advisor - Jüerg Däehler

Jüerg Däehler, born in Zurich, is active internationally as a violinist, violist, teacher, and organizer. He studied with Sándor Vágh, Christoph Schiller, Pinchas Zukerman, Kim Kashkashian, and Fyodor Drushinin. That was followed by influential encounters with artists such as Brenton Langbein, Heinz Holliger, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and György Lígeti. He gave his debut in the Tonhalle Zurich with Paul Sachers Collegium Musicum Zurich in the creation of the Violaconcerto by Daniel Schnyder which is written for and dedicated to him. Since then he has been a guest at many renowned festivals and performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician in Vienna, Salzburg, Paris, Rom, Madrid, London, Sydney, Adelaide, Zurich, Lucerne, and Montreux, among other places. From 1985 to 2000 he was a member and first violinist of the legendary Kammermusiker Zurich. In 1993 he was a founding member of the Collegium Novum Zurich. Since 1993 he has been first solo violist of the Musikkollegium Winterthur and a member of the Winterthurer Streichquartett. Since 1997, he is manager and artistic director of the Biennale Kultur Herbst Buendner Herrschaft/Bad Ragaz. In 1999 he cofounded the Swiss Chamber Concerts of which he is still the artistic director today. He received international acclaim for his CD-productions with labels such as ECM, Neos, Accord, Jecklin, Claves, and Cantando.

Jüerg Däehler has performed over two hundred world and national premieres, including solo and chamber music works dedicated to him, working closely with composers such as Henze, Lígeti, Holliger, Pärt, Cerha, Drushinin, Bodman-Rae, Haller, Kelterborn, Lehmann, Gaudibert, Kaeser and Schnyder. In 2007 he was the first Swiss to receive the academic title "Executive Master in Arts Administration" (EMAA) in the philosophy and business administration department of the University Zurich. Since then he directs an international arts consulting group based in Vienna, Zurich and New York. In 2008 he received the Zolliker Kunstpreis for his artistic activity and his great services to cultural life in Switzerland. He plays on a violin by Antonio Stradivarius, Cremona 1714 and on a viola by Raffale Fiorini, Bologna 1893.