When we were thinking of stand-out Sydney musicians of 2010, we really couldn’t look past exceptional classical group, Sydney Camerata. Formed in 2008 by Sydney musician Mathisha Panagoda and led by the extraordinary violinist Liz Gormley, Sydney Camerata was founded with the aim to ‘nurture and promote Sydney’s finest emerging string players and composers’. The result: a collective of incredible young musicians with a refreshingly energetic take on classical performance.

And what a year this group have had! Sydney Camerata have organised and performed four highly-acclaimed public concerts over the past eight months, each featuring the full string orchestra (see these performances here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sydney-Camerata-Chamber-Orchestra/175571421435). Their chosen repertoire ranged from Mendelssohn and Dvorak to Britten and Piazzolla, as well as premiering a number of works by young Australian composers, one of which (Cliff Kerr’s ‘Degustation’) was commissioned for recording. The group were also invited to perform live-in-the-studio for 2MBS FM earlier in the year . Currently embarking on a tour to North Queensland, the Sydney Camerata are performing an exciting series of concerts as a quintet, performing works including Piazzolla’s ‘Libertango’, Britten’s String Quartet No.3 and more.

However, possibly their greatest achievement to date is their winning performance of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Souvenir de Florence’ at this years Musica Viva, where they were awarded first place for the highly competitive Chamber Music category.

With even more concerts planned for 2011, and an exciting tour in the works, this group is definitely one to watch.

The recently formed Sydney Camerata Chamber Orchestra chose Paddington’s Uniting Church for its concert last Saturday December 19, and it is indeed the perfect setting for an ensemble of this size; with beautiful sandstone walls and extremely high ceilings, it offers the perfect acoustic.

Under the direction of artistic director Mathisha Panagoda, the concert included music ranging from Torelli’s seventeenth-century violin concerto Opus 8, no.8 through to Copland’s twentieth-century masterpiece ‘Appalachian Spring’, and whilst the concert was a little on the short side, it made up for this in the quality of musicianship and commitment to the music. The performers clearly enjoyed themselves and the audience caught their enthusiasm early on in the evening. Also pleasing to see was the relatively young age of many in the audience – even some children – who seemed as enthralled with what they were hearing as their parents and grandparents.

The evening started out with the aforementioned Torelli violin concerto and soloist Liz Gormley achieved a light and buoyant tonal quality throughout, quite at home with the improvisatory style of this music. All members of the ensemble communicated well with one another, playing with commitment and enthusiasm and just as you thought the first movement had ended, did you realize that the entire piece was in fact over; a swift little concerto of less than ten minutes.

The following piece was the first movement of the Mendelssohn Octet in E flat major, written in 1825 when the composer was only sixteen. The Camerata played the ‘allegro moderato con fuoco’ brilliantly and I could hardly believe that the number of players for this piece was the same as the previous one. With eight musicians only, the ensemble produced a full-bodied, rich, warm tone belying the size of the group and played with such musicality...