Trish O’Brien
Tasmanian born cellist Trish O’Brien is co-Artistic Director of Ensemble Q and cellist of the Endeavour Trio. She is also Co-Artistic Director of the Queensland International Chamber Music Competition. She also teaches cello and chamber music at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University.
Trish served as Artistic Director of the Coffs Harbour Regional Conservatorium and Coramba Chamber Music Festival from 2013 to 2017, and prior to that was Artistic Director of the Camden Haven Music Festival, whilst actively touring Australia as soloist and chamber musician. She has performed worldwide 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.
Trish has appeared as principal cellist for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and held the position of Associate Principal for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra during the 1990’s. She has performed as soloist and chamber musician at numerous music festivals including the Alpine Classic Festival (Switzerland), Dunkeld Festival of Music, Four Winds Festival, Bangalow Music Festival, Music by the Springs Festival, Tyalgum Music Festival, Camden Haven Music Festival, Coramba Chamber Music Festival and Oxford May Music Festival in the UK. 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 recorded for ABC Classics, ABC Classic FM, Solitary Island Records and 2MBS Records.
She began her cello studies in Hobart, where she was principal cello for the Tasmanian Youth Orchestra and a member of the Australian Youth Orchestra. She studied with Gwyn Roberts, Sela Trau, Christian Wojtowicz, and then with Ronald Leonard in Los Angeles.
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 many regional conservatoriums. She is passionate about creating opportunities for young musicians and is a driving force behind the Ensemble Q mentorship program.
Several Australian composers including Matthew Hindson, Elena Kats Chernin, Andrew Schultz, Paul Dean, Mark Isaacs and Christopher Harley have composed works for Trish, and she performed the Australian Premieres of both the Myaskovsky Sonata for Cello and Piano, and Prokofiev Sonata for Solo Cello.
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 silver awards at the International Aperture Awards as well as a Bronze medal in the Prix de la Photographie PX3 competition (Paris), in the arts documentary category.