Sydney Chamber Music Festival

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 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.

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 Sao 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, 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.