about | 2008 recital series | listen | critic's reviews | news | home  


Wendy Dixon - soprano
David Miller - piano
guest artists 2008 season





 

 

Guest Artist: Diana Doherty • oboe

SUNDAY DECEMBER 7, 2.30pm
Recital Hall East, Sydney Conservatorium of Music,
Macquarie Street, Sydney NSW

Diana Doherty was born in Brisbane and began studying violin, piano and oboe at the ages of 6, 7 and 8 respectively. After one year as a double major on oboe and piano at the Queensland Conservatorium, she focused her energies on oboe and in 1986 completed her Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance at the Victorian College of Arts in Melbourne, where she was awarded the M.E.N.S.A. prize for top graduating student. During this time she won the Other instruments section of the ABC Instrumental and Vocal Competition and was named Most Outstanding Competitor Overall in 1985.
With the assistance of an Australia Council Overseas Study Grant, she studied in Zurich with Thomas Indermuhle and completed the post-graduate diploma in 1989. During this time she also took a course with Maurice Bourge and won first prizes in the international Lyceum Club Competition and the International Chamber Music Competition in Martigny. she continued to accumulated prizes in international competitions, including the prestigious Prague Spring Festival Competition of 1991, where she was awarded first prize and an additional prize for best interpretation of a Czech concerto (Martinu concerto).
Since then Diana has performed regularly as a soloist, including performances in various international festivals, such as Prague Spring Festival, MusicaRival Festival in Italy, Bratislava Music Festival, Young Artist in Concert Festival in Davoa, Switzerland. In May 1994 Diana was soloist with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra on its tour to China.
Diana was a joint winner of the 1995 Young Concert Artists international Auditions, held in New York. Previous winners included Emanuel Ax, Murray Perahia and Pinchas Zuckerman. She was subsequently presented in New York and Washington D.C. recital debuts to critical acclaim, and toured extensively within the US doing recitals and masterclasses, as well as performing in the Camber Music series at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, and a concerto performance at the Lincoln Centre.
Between 1990 and 1997, Diana was Principal Oboe in the Symphony Orchestra of Lucerne. Her first CD of concertos by Hyden, Mozart, Martinu and Zimmerman with the Symphony Orchestra of Lucerne was released in Europe on Pan Classics in 1995.
Diana joined the Sydney Symphony Orchestra as Principal Oboe in July 1997. Her second CD, Promantic Oboe Concertos, with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra under Werner Andreas Albert was released on ABC Classics in 1998, and in 2000 Diana's recording Blues for DD (a recital programme of folk and jazz influenced works with pianist David Korevaar) was released, also by ABC Classics.
In 2001 Diana won the Australian Entertainment MO Award for Classical/Opera performer of the year, specifically for her premiere performance of Graeme Koehne's oboe concerto, Inflight Entertainment (March 2000).
In 2002 Diana performed in another new Australian oboe concerto, this time by Ross Edwards, with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Lorin Maazel. As a result of this performance she received the 2003 APRA-Australian Music Centre award for best performance of an Australian work, and has been invited with Lorin Maazel to perform the work with the New York Philharmonic in 2005. Another highlight of 2002 was a tour for Musica Viva with the Belcea Quartet.


Grevillea Ensemble is proudly sponsored by
Stephen Yarrow Design & Print