About James Morley

Renowned as “Australia’s most exciting young cellist” (Limelight), Switzerland-based Australian cellist James Morley is celebrated for his innovative solo and chamber performances, exploring experimental improvisation, electronics, and post-instrumental approaches. In 2024, James was appointed a Young Classical Artist Trust (YCAT) Artist following a recital at Wigmore Hall, and the same year won the John Cage Award as a duo with pianist Dmitry Batalov.

His recent highlights include his solo recital debut at the Sydney Opera House’s Utzon Room, an Australian tour with Jean-Guihen Queyras & Satsuki Odamura for Musica Viva, and performances with Manchester Collective at Wigmore Hall, as well as appearances at Phoenix Central Park, Harrogate Festival, Tempo Rubato, and Sydney Festival.

His debut at UKARIA during the 2022 Adelaide Festival was critically acclaimed, and he was a Freedman Fellowship finalist in 2020. Currently completing postgraduate studies with Thomas Demenga and Imke Frank at the Musik-Akademie Basel, James holds a Master’s in Contemporary Music Performance, where he was mentored by Marcus Weiss, Yaron Deutsch, Sarah Maria Sun, and Mike Svoboda. Originally from Adelaide/Tandanya, he completed his Bachelor of Music on scholarship at the Sydney Conservatorium with Julian Smiles and continued his studies at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) with Howard Penny. At ANAM, James won the 2019 Audience Choice Award for his performance of Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, as well as the 2020 Most Outstanding Recital Prize and the 2021 Best Performance of an Australian Work. His other concerto appearances include performances with the Adelaide Youth Orchestra, Sydney Youth Orchestra Wind Orchestra, and Ensemble Apex.

Dedicated to contemporary music, James collaborates with composers, premiering solo works by Liza Lim, Josephine Macken, and Ivan Liuzzo, and has performed at the Lucerne Festival, Frau Musica Nova Köln, and Spreehalle Berlin. He has also worked with Simon Steen-Andersen, Sylvain Cambreling, and Stefan Prins. Fascinated by experimental improvisation, he released postauto, an album with bassist Helen Svoboda in 2024. He continues to be mentored by leaders in contemporary music, including Lucas Fels, Helmut Lachenmann, and Séverine Ballon.

Chamber music is central to James's career, and he regularly performs with ensembles such as S C O P E, Ensemble of Nomads, Ensemble Garage, and Manchester Collective. He co-founded the Rathdowne Quartet in 2019, performing at Melbourne Recital Centre, Sydney Opera House, and Bendigo Chamber Music Festival. In Melbourne, he collaborates frequently with resident chamber ensembles.

James has toured with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Kammerorchester Basel, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, and served as principal cello under Thomas Adès with the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra. He was also the Emerging Artist for cello with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in 2019, and Akademist for cello with Kammerorchester Basel from 2022-23, mentored by Christoph Dangel.

About Erin Helyard

Erin Helyard has been acclaimed as an inspiring conductor, a virtuosic and expressive performer of the harpsichord and fortepiano, and a lucid scholar who is passionate about promoting discourse between musicology and performance.

Erin graduated in harpsichord performance from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with first-class honours and the University Medal. He completed his Masters in fortepiano performance and a PhD in musicology with Tom Beghin at the Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Montreal. His monograph Clementi and the woman at the piano: virtuosity and the market for music in eighteenth-century London was published by Oxford University Studies in Enlightenment in 2022.

As Artistic Director and co-founder of the celebrated Pinchgut Opera and the Orchestra of the Antipodes (Sydney) he has forged new standards of excellence in historically-informed performance in Australia. The company won Best Rediscovered Opera (2019) for Hasse’s Artaserse at the International Opera Awards in London.

Pinchgut’s opera film, A Delicate Fire, won Best Australian Feature Film at the Sydney Women’s International Film Festival in 2021. Operas under his direction have been awarded Best Opera at the Helpmann Awards for three consecutive years (2015-2017) and he has received two Helpmann Awards for Best Musical Direction: one for a fêted revival of Saul (Adelaide Festival) in 2017 and the other for Hasse’s Artaserse (Pinchgut Opera) in 2019. Together with Richard Tognetti, Erin won an ARIA and an AIR award for Best Classical Album in 2020.

He regularly appears as a collaborator with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and has distinguished himself as a conductor in dynamic performances with the Sydney, Adelaide, Tasmanian, and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, ACO Collective, the Australian National Academy of Music, the Australian Haydn Ensemble, and as a duo partner on historical pianos with David Greco (baritone) and Stephanie McCallum (piano). In 2018 he was recognised with a Music and Opera Singers Trust Achievement Award (MAA) for contribution to the arts in Australia. In 2022 Erin was an Artist in Residence at the Melbourne Recital Centre and in 2024 will be Artist in Residence with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In 2023 he was named Limelight’s Critics’ Choice Australian Artist of the Year.

Erin is an Associate Professor at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and appears courtesy of Pinchgut Opera.

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