Clarinet Sonata, FP 184 - Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
1. Allegro tristemente
2. Romanza
3. Allegro con fuoco
Fantasie - Jorg Widmann (1973-)
Concerto for Clarinet - Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
Austin O'Toole is an emerging clarinetist currently in his 4th (honours) year of a Bachelor of Music Performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He has been trained by renowned clarinettists Peter Jenkin and Deborah De Graaff, and is currently studying under Frank Celata, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's Principal Clarinetist. Austin's clarinet journey first saw him perform as the principal clarinettist of the Arts Unit Orchestra from 2018 to 2021, including multiple performances at the Opera House and Town Hall. He also had the honour of performing as a soloist at the Australia Day Welcome Ceremony for Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Since 2022, he has been the principal clarinettist of the Sydney Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra and concertmaster of the Wind Symphony and performed as associate principal clarinet in the 2024 program of The Orchestra Project. Austin was the winner of the 2025 Sydney Conservatorium Clarinet Concerto Competition.
Austin is also a skilled singer, having participated in various productions as a boy soprano such as Mahler 3, Tosca, and the Pied Piper with Gondwana Choirs, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Sydney Opera and Ballet Orchestra. As a transformed tenor, Austin was appointed as a Song Company apprentice in 2022 for "Spem In Alium" and co-founded the vocal ensemble False Relations, which won the Australian Music Prize in Musica Viva's Strike a Chord competition. The group performed at the 2023 Canberra International Music Festival and for Phoenix Central Park and has gone on to amass over 4 million views and 70 thousand followers online. Austin's passion for music extends beyond performance, as he dedicates a significant amount of his time tutoring at public schools. He was the 2021 school captain of the Sydney Conservatorium High School and also currently serves as a choral scholar at St. Stephen's Uniting Church and Inner West Voices.
Alexander Yau, an eminent young Australian concert pianist, has developed himself into a versatile musician incorporating his many musical talents as a chamber musician, conductor, composer and music arranger. Pianist Balazs Szokolay describes "his artistic taste is good enough not to make any kind of "show" even in the most brilliant parts of great masterworks". He completed his Bachelor of Music piano performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, with first class Honours, studying under Elizabeth Powell and Daniel Herscovitch. He then graduated his masters degree at the Juilliard School under prof. Matti Raekallio.
He has been awarded numerous prizes such as 6th Prize at the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition, 3rd Prize at the Teresa Carreno International Masters Piano Competition and special prizes at the Australian International Chopin Piano Competition as well as winner of the Sydney Kawai Piano Scholarship, major prize winner of the Australian National Piano Award and the Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition. He has worked with renowned pianists as Leif Ove Andsnes, Stephen Hough, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Balazs Szokolay, Jerome Lowenthal, Bernd Goetzke and Arie Vardi in masterclasses, instrumentalists Joel Smirnoff and Eberhard Feltz, and collaborated with conductors such as Jeffery Milarsky, Carlo Monatanero, Michelangelo Mazza, Daniel Carter, Rory McDonald, Brian Castles-Onion AM and Sir Richard Gill.
His major concerto appearances as soloist include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Rachmaninoff's Concerto no.3, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Rachmaninoff's Concerto no. 1 and a major Australian tour with the SBS Youth Orchestra in Rachmaninov's Concerto no. 2 and the Sydney Conservatorium Orchestra in Brahms' Piano Concerto no. 2 with Eduardo Diazmunoz at the Conservatory Gala Concert to huge reception. In 2020, he founded the Ole Bohn Chamber Orchestra and conducted Mozart's Concerto no. 23 from the piano. He has been invited to perform in the Canberra International Music Festival, Tanglewood Festival, FOCUS Festival in Lincoln Centre, and appeared in venues such as Phoenix Central Park and City Recital Hall in Sydney, Troldhaugen (Grieg's home) in Bergen, Villa Reale in Italy, Alice Tully Hall in NYC, Yamaha Ginza in Tokyo, Rexxam Hall in Takamatsu, Australian Pavilion at Shanghai Expo. In 2022 he released his first album in collaboration with clarinettist Deborah de Graff recorded by the ABC Classics, which also features his own composition. He is currently a casual lecturer in collaborative piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
His recent solo recital engagements include Rachmaninov Recital at the Rachmaninov 150th Anniversary Concert at the Sydney Conservatorium, Schubert Recital at the Sydney Schubert Society; chamber music engagements include the complete cello and piano works of Chopin at the Friends of Chopin Australia, Piano Quintets by Franck and Schumann at the Sydney Conservatorium Staff concerts and Sydney Symphony Fellows Concerts respectively. He has served as a jury member for the Sydney Eisteddfod Piano Competitions and he is invited to be on jury for the International Grand Music Festival held in Indonesia in 2024.