About
Australian violinist and creator Simone Slattery, a 2018 Churchill Fellow, is one of the most versatile young musicians and performers of her generation, with a passion for music from a wide range of eras. Her performances nationally and internationally, on both modern and baroque violin, have received critical acclaim, and her compositions described as “stunning”.
Simone has appeared as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician internationally, and performs with ensembles including the Australian Haydn Ensemble, New Vintage Baroque, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra, L’Arpeggiata, and the Netherlands Bach Society. Her Festival appearances include: the BBC and Snape Proms (UK), the Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Perth International Arts/Music Festivals, and Woodford Folk Festival.
After early studies on violin, recorder and voice, Simone began her formal violin studies at the University of Adelaide Elder Conservatorium of Music, graduating in 2009 with first class Honours (during this time she also sang with the award-winning Adelaide Chamber Singers). She then took up residence in Melbourne for two years to study at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), where she performed alongside artists including Anthony Marwood, Pekka Kuusisto, and the Eighth Blackbird Ensemble. Simone has attended summer schools and mentorships in Australia, Canada, America and Europe, including: Australian Youth Orchestra programs, Yellow Barn Festival (USA), Domaine Forget Festival (Canada), and The Britten–Pears Festival (UK)). Her mentors have included: Paul Wright, William Hennessy, Elizabeth Wallfisch, and Enrico Onofri.
In 2012 Simone undertook a residency at the Banff Centre in Canada, and from 2011 to 2014 was a Britten-Pears Young Artist, performing as concertmaster of both the modern and baroque orchestras. She is the recipient of awards and scholarships from the Winston Churchill Foundation, the Kevin Taylor Legacy, Arts South Australia, the Ian Potter Cultural Trust, the Elder Conservatorium of Music, and the Australia Council for the Arts; and in 2014 was a finalist for the prestigious Jumpstart Jr Organisation in Amsterdam. Simone was recently awarded a PhD in music performance with a Dean’s Commendation from the University of Adelaide, where she created editions and recordings of the little-known violin works of Ernest Bloch.
In 2017 Simone co-founded the award-winning Bowerbird Collective, an arts organisation that seeks to explore links between arts and science and to tell conservation stories using a multimedia performance platform. Her work with the Collective is deeply rooted in connection to place, inspired by the beauty of the Australian landscape and an urgent need to protect our wild places. The Collective’s works to date include Where Song Began, winner of a Ruby Award and performed over 100 times around Australia and overseas, Life on Land’s Edge, winner of an Adelaide Critics Circle Award for Innovation, and Songs of Disappearance Birds/Frogs which reached the top of the ARIA charts and raised international attention and funds for Australia’s threatened species.
Simone’s compositions have featured in live performance, radio, film and exhibitions/installations, including the Art Gallery of South Australia’s exhibition ‘Clarice Beckett: the present moment’, and the immersive nature experience ‘Australian Geographic: Our Country’. Her creations have been described as “a delicate and beautiful fusion” and “like being sung to by the country”.