About the Performers
About the Performers
Guest artist: Lee Dionne
Described as “impressive” (NYTimes), “impeccable” (Fanfare Magazine), and “entrancing” (BBC Music Magazine), pianist Lee Dionne enjoys an international reputation as a soloist and chamber musician, having performed numerous debuts in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Jordan Hall, Merkin Hall, Spivey Hall, and the Philharmonic in Bratislava. Within Australia, Lee has partnered with and been presented by organisations including Musica Viva, Piano Plus, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Sydney Writers’ Festival, Opus Now, ABC Classic, Fine Music Sydney, Omega Ensemble, Sydney Eisteddfod, MOST, and the Sydney Conservatorium.
Currently Lee co-directs Hayes Street Studio, a space for intimate, cutting-edge chamber programming in Sydney that he founded alongside flautist and co-director Rosie Gallagher in 2023. Lee and Rosie also direct a regional chamber series in the Southern Highlands, “Tune in Bundanoon.” Previously, Lee was the founding pianist of the US-based Merz Trio, recipients of the prestigious Naumburg Award in Chamber Music and first prize winner of the Fischoff, Chesapeake, and Concert Artist Guild Competitions.
Lee frequently collaborates with other leading Australian soloists including Rosie Gallagher, Anna da Silva Chen, Chris Pidcock, and Ray Chen. Lee is a lecturer in solo piano and chamber music at the Sydney Conservatorium.
Callisto Piano Duo
Callisto Piano Duo (Nicholas Khong and Kavindra Widodo) are final-year undergraduate pianists at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, Monash University. Formed in 2024, the duo explores repertoire for four hands and two pianos and enjoys expanding their programming beyond strictly classical repertoire.
Under the guidance of Dr Tomoe Kawabata, they have performed works ranging from Rachmaninoff and Grieg to Debussy as well as contemporary composers including Elena Kats-Chernin and Saeko Tabuchi. Highlights include winning the Monash Piano Duo Prize (2024), performing at Tempo Rubato as part of the 60 Years of Music at Monash series, performing live to air on 3MBS, and appearing at the Monash Family Fiesta (2025).
They have also performed alongside KIAZMA Piano Duo at Phoenix Central Park in Sydney. Callisto Piano Duo aims to promote piano duo repertoire and looks forward to continuing their collaboration beyond graduation.
Robert Chamberlain
Robert Chamberlain is a versatile Australian concert pianist, teacher and lecturer. He completed Bachelor and Master degrees in Australia with the distinguished pedagogue Max Cooke, pursued further study in Vienna as a winner of the Apex/Robert Stolz Scholarship, and undertook advanced training at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada.
Robert has recorded CDs for labels including Tall Poppies, Naxos, Move Records and VoxAustralis. As a pedagogy presenter, adjudicator and jury member, he has appeared nationally and internationally at events including the Ars Nova International Piano Competition (Singapore), the ANZCA Modern Piano and Violin Competition (Bangkok), and the Malaysian Youth Music Festivals. Robert is a longstanding member of the piano teaching staff at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance, Monash University where he mentors students in piano performance and chamber music.
As a performer, Robert has appeared throughout Australia and internationally. His extensive collaborative career includes performances with Danish violinist Benedikte Dæmgaard, French-Canadian soprano Chantal Dionne, members of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Hamer String Quartet, and artists from the Flinders Quartet and Quartz. He is a longstanding member of the Team of Pianists and has performed widely in twopiano repertoire with Darryl Coote.
Darryl Coote
Australian-Irish pianist Darryl Coote is a founding partner of the Team of Pianists. His professional life has encompassed activity as solo pianist, chamber musician, concerto soloist, teacher, adjudicator and administrator. He studied piano at the University of Melbourne with Max Cooke, then with Kurt Bauer at the Musikhochschule in Hanover (Germany). In 1985 he was Victorian State winner of the keyboard section of the ABC’s Instrumental and Vocal Competition, and inaugural winner of the Hephzibah Menuhin Memorial Scholarship.
Darryl has performed extensively across Australia, regularly working with artists such as Anne Gilby (oboe), David Thomas (clarinet), Timothy Reynolds (tenor), Sally-Anne Russell (mezzo soprano), Rohan de Korte (cello), Charles Castleman (violin) and Miwako Abe (violin). Darryl features prominently on all nine CDs produced by the Team of Pianists. He is an experienced teacher, examiner and adjudicator and has been a member of the piano faculty at Monash University since the 1990s. He has presented masterclasses in Malaysia, Germany, China, the USA and Japan.
He was President of the Victorian Music Teachers’ Association from 2008-2011. Together with Max Cooke, he was a co-founder of the Australian National Piano Award, a major national competition held every two years. Since late 2012, he has been President of the Award board.
Filip Fulco
Filip Fulco is a fourth-year student at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, Monash University, undertaking a Bachelor of Music (Classical Piano Performance) and a Bachelor of Science (Psychology).
A versatile musician, Filip is particularly drawn to collaborative and vocal repertoire. He has performed with the Monash Vocal Ensemble of New and Old Music (VENOM) and the Monash University Choral Society (MonUCS), and has collaborated on the development and performance of a four-piano collaborative project Piano Visions (2025).
His involvement in the Monash music community includes work as an accompanist for Day of Voice (2025), performances in the School’s 60th anniversary concert series at Tempo Rubato, performing with the Classical Collective at Family Fiesta, and volunteering at the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference (2024).
Filip studies with Robert Chamberlain and receives chamber mentoring from Aura Go and Tomoe Kawabata. He has performed in masterclasses with Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy (Germany) and Timothy Young (Australia).
Aura Go
Aura Go is an Australian pianist, curator and educator. She performs internationally as concerto soloist in repertoire from J.S. Bach to Sofia Gubaidulina, as recitalist and chamber musician in imaginative programs that interweave old and new music, and as narrator and actor in cross-artform and educational projects.
Aura has performed as soloist with the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria. Festival highlights include the Edinburgh Festival, PianoEspoo, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival and the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. In 2023 Aura toured nationally for Musica Viva in a critically acclaimed performance as pianist-actor in the stage adaptation of Paul Kildea's Chopin's Piano.
Aura enjoys musical partnerships with Tomoe Kawabata as the KIAZMA Piano Duo, and with Timo-Veikko 'Tipi' Valve (Principal Cellist, Australian Chamber Orchestra). Her discography includes the complete Beethoven cello and piano sonatas with Valve (ABC Classics) and first recordings of works by Lisa Illean (NMC Records), Miriama Young (ABC Classics), Japanese piano duo repertoire (KIAZMA), and four-hand music by Ekaterina Komalkova (Tall Poppies).
Aura is Head of Piano at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, Monash University, where she leads a vibrant program that nurtures creativity, collaboration and artistic curiosity. www.aurago.net
Anthony Halliday
Pianist, organist, composer and scholar Anthony Halliday performs extensively and is invited annually to concertise throughout Europe and Australasia. His Ph.D. thesis on interpreting Beethoven’s late piano sonatas in a Christological context provides a substantiated narrative explaining the significance of the Hammerklavier sonata. The thesis has been placed for reference by international scholars in the library of the Beethoven Birth-House, Bonn.
Anthony Halliday has performed in international music festivals in Cologne, Bonn, Rome, Bochum and Bocholt. In London he has performed in the Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, St. Paul’s Cathedral and performed concertos with soloists from the BBC Symphony Orchestra and St. Cecilia Chamber Orchestra. He won the ABC Commonwealth Concerto competition playing Bartok’s second piano concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and has recorded all thirty-two piano sonatas by Beethoven and performed the complete 48 Preludes and Fugues from the Well-Tempered Clavier by J. S. Bach from memory.
His compositions include substantial orchestral and choral works, including a Missa Celebrationis (2017) for double choir and orchestra premiered in Bonn. He serves as Associate Director of Music and Principal Organist to Melbourne’s City St. Francis Church and the Blessed Sacrament Community. In addition to teaching piano in the Sir Zelman Cowan School of Music, Anthony collaborates with the Monash Religious Centre and Monash University Choral Society.
Kimiko Horas
Kimiko Horas is a Melbourne-based Indonesian pianist currently undertaking a Bachelor of Music (Classical Piano Performance) and Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) at Monash University, where she studies under the guidance of Tomoe Kawabata and Aura Go.
Kimiko has performed in a range of concert settings across Monash University’s major performance initiatives, including the Bowerbird x Zoo Project (2023), the Ligeti/Stockhausen Lunchtime Concert Series (2024), and Piano Visions (2025). She is a member of CCKeys Piano Duo with Victor Huang, with whom she was awarded first prize in the inaugural Page-Olding National Piano Duo Competition, including the Australian Music Prize category. CCKeys was also the recipient of the Monash Piano Duo Prize and the Monash Australian Music Prize (2025). Recent performances include Monash University’s lunchtime concert series, live broadcasts on 3MBS’s Morning Recital and performances at Monash University’s 60th anniversary celebrations at Tempo Rubato.
Kimiko has performed in masterclasses for Claudian Chan, Nigel Clayton, Imma Setiadi, and Lee Dionne. Alongside her performance work, she has contributed as an accompanist for Short Black Opera’s How to Make a Cheeky Opera and is involved with the Victorian committee of Musica Viva. Her repertoire spans the Baroque to contemporary periods, with a particular interest in the Romantic repertoire and the works of Robert Schumann.
Victor Huang
Born and raised in Brisbane, Victor Huang began learning the piano at the age of seven. Previously studying with Sally Chang and Mark Hooper, he has enjoyed exploring a deep passion for classical music, receiving multiple awards in the Brisbane Eisteddfod, Gold Coast eisteddfod and Queensland Piano Competition. In 2023, Victor had the opportunity to perform with Brisbane Symphony Orchestra at the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane City Hall, performing Bartok’s Piano Concerto No.3.
Currently mentored by Dr Aura Go at Monash University, Victor is a third-year music student performing in solo and collaborative settings. He is part of CCkeys Piano Duo with pianist Kimiko Horas. Formed in 2024, CCKeys was awarded First Prize and the Australian Music Prize in the inaugural Page-Olding National Piano Duo Competition in 2025. They were also awarded the Monash Piano Duo Prize in 2025, and the Monash Australian Music Prize in 2024.
Victor has participated in masterclasses with Piers Lane AO, Andrea Lam, Alex Raineri, and Lee Dionne. Victor also plays the double bass, which he recently invited to play with the Monash Academy Orchestra in August. When not practising the piano, Victor loves to play tennis, try new food places and watch TV shows.
Tomoe Kawabata
Tomoe Kawabata is a Japanese-born pianist, collaborator, pedagogue and creative practice researcher who has made Australia her home since 2002. As well as being highly regarded for her interpretations of the traditional classical repertoire, she has become a leading figure in the performance of contemporary Japanese music.
Her CD Five Rocks in a Japanese Garden with Aura Go features first recordings of works by notable Japanese composers. Tomoe has maintained an international performing career, with appearances in festivals, recitals and concertos in Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan. She has performed concertos of Chopin, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Khatchaturian, Stravinsky and others with orchestras such as the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Targu Mures State Philharmonic Orchestra, Sibiu Symphony Orchestra, Dinu Lipatti Philharmonic Orchestra and Oradea Philharmonic Orchestra.
Tomoe is a member of the piano teaching staff at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance, where she mentors students in piano performance and piano duo.
Jiwon Lee
Jiwon Lee is a Melbourne-based Korean pianist currently undertaking a Bachelor of Music (Honours) at Monash University under the guidance of Aura Go. She previously completed her Bachelor of Music at Monash University studying under the guidance of Darryl Coote and Aura Go.
Jiwon has performed regularly within the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, including the Day of Play, lunchtime concerts, and various collaborative performance projects. Jiwon has also participated in a masterclass with Tomoe Kawabata, Robert Chamberlain and Lee Dionne.
Her musical interests centre on the works of Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann, with a particular focus on exploring their expressive and structural depth. As a performer, she is deeply engaged in the ongoing process of deepening her listening, and balancing thoughtful interpretation with a sense of spontaneity and musicality.
Amy Lin
Amy Lin is a third-year music student at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, undertaking a double degree in music and education.
In 2024, Amy worked in collaboration with fellow music colleagues for the On Country learning intensive unit, playing the piano and singing in the choir, which led to the release of the album Side by Side. Formed in 2025, Amy is also a part of the Solla Piano Duo, working alongside pianist Grace Tan. They performed at the From Norway to Nausicäa and Tour de France concerts, at Tempo Rubato for the celebration of 60 years of Music at Monash, and participated in the Monash Piano Duo Prize in the same year.
Over the course of her studies, Amy has played for various musicians within the Monash community, particularly pop vocalists’ recitals, as well as the 2025 CMT concert Interwoven, curated by Sumin Lee. Amy is mentored by Dr Tomoe Kawabata and the Head of Piano at Monash University, Dr Aura Go.
Ian Munro
Born in Melbourne and educated at the Victorian College of the Arts, Ian was taught the piano by Marta Rostas, a student of Béla Bartók, Dee Penicaut and Roy Shepherd, a pupil of Alfred Cortot. After studies in Vienna, London (Noretta Conci) and Italy (Guido Agosti, Michele Campanella), he won a number of prizes in international competitions — Maria Canals (Spain), Vianna da Motta (Portugal), Busoni (Italy), Leeds (UK) — leading to solo and concerto performances across Europe, the USA and Asia, and recordings for the BBC, Hyperion, Naxos, ABC Classics and Tall Poppies. For over twenty years he was a member of the acclaimed Australia Ensemble in Sydney.
As a composer, his first major work 'Dreams' (2002) was awarded the Premier Grand Prix at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. His works have been performed by a wide variety of soloists and ensembles, including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, clarinettist Sabine Meyer, l'Orchestre National de Belgique, Brentano, Goldner and Modigliani string quartets, Eggner Trio and the St Petersburg Symphony. Recent commissions include a flute concerto for the Melbourne and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, a song cycle for soprano Sara MacLiver and a two-piano sonata for the piano duo KIAZMA.
Ian taught at the Dartington International Festival for ten years, held the position of head of principal study at the University of Tasmania and was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Newcastle, in addition to giving masterclasses around the world for over thirty years. He is currently a member of the piano teaching staff at Monash University.
Jacinta Na
Jacinta Na is in the final year of her double degree at Monash University, where she is undertaking a Bachelor of Music (piano performance) and Bachelor of Education (Secondary).
A versatile performer who enjoys solo and collaborative music making, Jacinta was runner-up in the 2024 Monash Concerto Competition and has been a finalist in the 2024 Monash Piano Duo Competition and the 2025 Margaret Sutherland Bursary. Passionate about creating a vibrant musical community for people of all ages, Jacinta has interned at Musica Viva Australia and contributed to the organisation of events such as the 2024 Strike A Chord Competition. She has also undertaken volunteer work for the 2024 Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference at Monash University. With pianist Filip Fulco, Jacinta formed the Manna Piano Duo in 2025. She enjoys collaborating with composers and has premiered the solo and collaborative work of fellow Monash pianist-composer Joseph Maderski as part of the co-created project Piano Visions (2025).
Jacinta Na studies piano with Dr. Tomoe Kawabata. She has performed in masterclasses for pianists including Wolfram Schmitt-Leonary (Germany), Amandine Savary (France), Rae de Lisle (Aotearoa New Zealand) and Timothy Young (Australia). She has also been mentored by Mira Jakopanetz, Aura Go, Anna McMichael, Nicole Canham, Aaron Wyatt and members of the Australian String Quartet.
Josh Rao
Josh Rao is currently undertaking a Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Education at Monash University, where he studies piano under the guidance of Dr Tomoe Kawabata. He previously studied with Robert Chamberlain and Ray Liang, and began learning piano at the age of five.
Josh developed a deep appreciation for music during his high school years at Mount Waverley Secondary College, inspired by his teachers and peers. This growing passion led him to pursue music more seriously, finding joy in both performance and the process of learning. One of his notable performances includes George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with his school symphonic band.
Josh now aspires to become a music educator, with the goal of sharing his love of music and inspiring future generations of musicians through both teaching and performance.