Luke Spicer

An acclaimed Violist and chamber musician, Luke Spicer is now establishing himself as one of Australia’s foremost young conductors. Graduating with a Masters of Conducting from the Sydney Conservatorium, he has furthered his studies in Freiburg, and Manchester; and attended the Fondazione Musicale Chigiana, Siena, working under Maestro Gianluigi Gelmetti. Luke became a participant in the Symphony Services International Conductor Development Program during 2016 working with Johannes Fritzsch, Giordano Bellincampi, and Marco Letonja.

Luke has been a regular conductor and music director with Opera Australia and has appeared as guest conductor of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Canberra Symphony Orchestra. He has also been guest Assistant Conductor at The Bruckner Orchestra Linz, Göttingen Symphonie Orchester, the Saarländisches Staatstheater of Saarbrücken, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, working under Simone Young and Vladimir Ashkenazy. Luke has worked extensively with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra and Sydney University Symphony Orchestra, as well as conducting the inaugural gala concert of Coast Opera Australia, featuring Jose Carbo and Sally-Anne Russell.

In 2022 Luke conducted Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia for Opera Australia’s National Tour, and Händel’s Alcina for National Opera – Canberra. During 2023 he was a recipient of the George and Nerissa Johnson Memorial Scholarship which allowed him to pursue professional development opportunities in Germany, Italy and Bulgaria.

In 2014 Luke was appointed Principal Conductor of the Sydney University Symphony Orchestra, in 2016 he became Music Director of Blush Opera in Sydney and was the Associate Conductor of the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra for several years. Luke made his operatic debut in 2015 with an innovative production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, directed by Shannon Murphy and featuring Silvia Colloca, Stacey Alleaume, and Catherine Bouchier in the principal roles, as part of the Spectrum Now Festival within the art gallery of NSW, and in 2016 conducted a powerful sell-out production of Puccini’s Il Tabarro, directed by Constantine Costi.

Hayley Lau

Hayley is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Music in Manhattan School of Music in New York under the tutelage of Pinchas Zukerman and Patinka Kopec on a full scholarship. Before studying in New York, she studied with Fox Chan in the Rising Stars Program at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music since the age of eight and was recipient of the Arthur Cunningham Scholarship and the Victor Cromack & Melba Harris Cromack Memorial Scholarship.

Hayley has won many major awards from competitions locally and abroad. In 2021, Hayley and violinist Isabella Sun won the multiple section of the NSW Secondary School Concerto Competition, and in 2023 Hayley was awarded the overall winner and KPO players award in the solo category of this competition. She was also a prizewinner of the Alf & Pearl Pollard Memorial Instrumental Awards for Performance Excellence, the Galston Young Violists Performance Competition, the American Virtuoso International Music Competition and the Hong Kong International Music Festival.

In 2023, Hayley was the only successful applicant from Australia accepted into the highly selective Morningside Music Bridge program receiving full scholarship to study at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston with some of the most renowned musicians from around the world.

Alongside from being an avid soloist, Hayley is also a devoted chamber musician. Her chamber group received the second prize and the Flinders Quartet Mentorship Prize in the Musica Viva Strike A Chord National Chamber Music Championship 2022. Moreover, the group had a week long intensive residency at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) in 2022 and performed for the Galston Concert, Bendigo Chamber Music Festival and ANAM.

In 2024, Hayley has been selected as a string scholar by the Heifetz International Music Institute. She was also appointed as a Heifetz Chamber Music Fellow and received full scholarship to participate in a 6 week chamber music seminar studying with Shmuel Ashkenasi, Nicholas Kitchen and Ralph Kirshbaum.

Hayley plays on a John Young viola which was owned by the late Robert Mann (the founding member of the Julliard String Quartet) and generously loaned by Nicholas Mann and the Manhattan School of Music.

View the full concert program here.