Classical

The Australian Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1975 in Sydney. Every year, this ensemble presents performances of the highest standard to audiences around the world, including 10,000 subscribers across Australia. The ACO’s unique artistic style encompasses not only the masterworks of the classical repertoire, but innovative cross-artform projects and a vigorous commissioning program. The outstanding Australian musician Richard Tognetti was appointed as Artistic Director and Lead Violin in 1990.

Slava Grigoryan is an Australian classical guitarist and recording artist. He was born in 1976 in Kazakhstan but his family emigrated to Australia in 1981 and he was raised in Melbourne. His father was a professional violinist and Grigoryan began to study guitar with him at the age of seven. By the age of twelve he was already performing professionally and he made his solo debut in Sydney at fourteen.

Sergey Khachatryan was born in 1985 in Yerevan, Armenia. In December 2000 he won First Prize in the VIII International Jean Sibelius competition in Helsinki, becoming the youngest ever winner in the history of the competition. In 2005 he claimed the First Prize at the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels. Sergey has performed with all the major UK orchestras, including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic and regularly with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Angela Hewitt (born July 26, 1958) is a Canadian classical pianist. She also holds British nationality through her father, Godfrey, who was the cathedral organist in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Angela Hewitt began her piano studies at age 3, performed in public at 4, and won her first music scholarship at 5. Aside from the piano, she also studied violin, recorder, and ballet (at Mme. Toumine's school in Ottawa). Her first recital was in the Royal Conservatory in Toronto at the age of 9. She studied at the Toronto Conservatory from 1964 to 1973.