This year, for my birthday, I would like your help to make our next Cygnus Arioso Summer Camp happen.

For six years, the Summer Camp has brought young musicians together with professional musicians to rehearse, learn, perform and share music across generations. It is a project I care deeply about, and one I am determined to continue.

What is perhaps less visible is what it takes simply to create the space for something like this to exist.

Cygnus Arioso does not belong to an institution, a school or a venue. We do not have rehearsal rooms, a concert hall or the infrastructure sitting behind us. Every time we bring musicians together, those spaces have to be found, negotiated and paid for. This year in particular, securing suitable rehearsal and performance venues for the Summer Camp has been challenging — and increasingly costly.

It is only one small part of a much bigger logistical picture, but it is also something very tangible that your support can help us overcome.

So, I am turning my birthday occasion into a concert to raise funds towards the next Summer Camp.

And I’m delighted that three wonderful friends are joining me for it.

Liam Wooding, Theodore Triantopoulos, Jeremy Garside and I will come together for an evening with two beautiful piano quartets by Suk and Mozart.

There is a particularly fitting story behind Suk’s Piano Quartet in A minor, Op. 1. Written when Suk was just seventeen and studying with Dvořák, the quartet was dedicated to his teacher — a small reminder of how profoundly one generation of musicians can shape the next.

Alongside it, we will perform Mozart’s extraordinary Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K. 478.

Proceeds from the concert will go towards making the 2027 Summer Camp possible — helping us secure the spaces and resources needed to bring the next group of young musicians together.

Making the Summer Camp happen is something I take seriously. I want these opportunities to remain available for the musicians coming after us, and I am enormously grateful to Liam, Theo and Jeremy for getting behind the idea and making this fundraising concert possible with me.

If you would like to celebrate my birthday with me, come and share an evening of chamber music — and help us make room for the next generation.

If you can’t join us on the day but would still like to support the Summer Camp, you can contribute directly through our Australian Cultural Fund fundraising campaign. Donations of $2 or more made through the Australian Cultural Fund are tax deductible, and every contribution will help us bring the 2027 Summer Camp to life.

https://artists.australianculturalfund.org.au/s/project/a2EMn00000hFsH3/cygnus-arioso-summer-camp

Sunday 8 November 2026 · 5.00pm

Snadens Pianos, Claremont

PROGRAM

Josef Suk

Piano Quartet in A minor, Op. 1

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K. 478

MUSICIANS

Akiko Miyazawa — Violin

Theodore Triantopoulos — Viola

Jeremy Garside — Cello

Liam Wooding — Piano

A birthday fundraising concert in support of the 2027 Cygnus Arioso Summer Camp.