Trish DEAN | Co-Director and cellist
Tasmanian born cellist Trish Dean (formerly O'Brien) is the co-Artistic Director and cellist of Ensemble Q.
She has performed worldwide at many major venues including Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, the Kennedy Centre, Guildhall, Cambridge University, in Portugal, Germany, Amsterdam, Japan, Taiwan, Switzerland and more. She has collaborated as chamber musician with international artists Alexander Sitkovetsky, Jack Liebeck, Johannes Moller, Paul Meyer, the Navarra Quartet, and in Australia with the Australian String Quartet, the Grainger Quartet, the Hazelwood Quartet and many individual artists. She has performed as soloist and chamber musician at numerous music festivals including the Oxford May Festival (UK), Georgetown Festival (Malaysia), Alpine Classic Festival (Switzerland), Sydney Festival, Dunkeld Festival of Music, Four Winds Festival, Bangalow Music Festival, Music by the Springs Festival, Camden Haven Music Festival, Tyalgum Festival and Coramba Chamber Music Festival.
She has been engaged as Acting Principal cellist for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and guest Principal for the Adelaide and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, and held the position of Associate Principal for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra during the 1990’s. As an emerging cellist she held section positions in the Australian Youth Orchestra, the Sydney, Tasmanian and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, and Australian Chamber Orchestra. In 2021 she performs with the Australian World Orchestra.
At 22 she was the winner of the string category of the Young Performers Awards and winner of the 2MBS Young Performer of the Year Award. She has performed as concerto soloist with several Australian Symphony Orchestras.
Her Artistic Director positions include a 4 year contract with the Coffs Harbour Regional Conservatorium where she founded and developed a chamber music Academy, the Coramba Chamber Music Festival and a highly successful concert series. Prior to that she was Artistic Director of the Camden Haven Music Festival, which under her direction won an APRA award for Outstanding Contribution to Australian Music in a Regional Area.
Several Australian composers including Paul Dean, Matthew Hindson, Elena Kats Chernin, Andrew Schultz, Mark Isaacs and Christopher Harley have composed works for Trish, and she performed and broadcast the Australian Premieres of both the Myaskovsky Sonata No 2 for Cello and Piano, and Prokofiev Sonata for Solo Cello, both for ABC Classic FM.
She has recorded as soloist and chamber musician for ABC Classics, Ensemble Q Artists, ABC Classic FM, Solitary Island Records and 2MBS Records.
Trish has presented masterclasses across Australia and has taught for the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, the Australian Youth Orchestra, Sydney Conservatorium of Music and for several regional conservatoriums. She is passionate about creating opportunities for young musicians and is a driving force behind the Ensemble Q mentorship program.
Trish is also an award winning photographer, utilising skills that she developed during a period of several years after a severe wrist injury and subsequent inability to play the cello. She won several International Aperture Silver awards as well as a Bronze medal in the Prix de la Photographie PX3 competition (Paris), in the arts documentary category.
www.trishdeancello.com