Catherine Hewgill

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Catherine Hewgill (born 1963) is an Australian cellist. Since 1990 she has been the Principal Cello of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician she was a founding member of the Novalis Quartet and has recorded with The Australian Trio for ABC Classics.

Contents

Life and career

Hewgill grew up in Perth. Her father was an academic and both her parents were amateur musicians. As a child she began playing a 3/4 size cello given to her by a family friend and shortly thereafter began formal studies in Perth with Jill Cole, a cellist with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. In 1978 her father's work took the family to London for a year where she studied at the Royal College of Music with Eileen Croxford. [1] After graduating from high school in Perth, she attended the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music where she was a student of Gabor Rejto and received her Bachelor of Music in cello performance in 1985. [2] [3]

Hewgill continued her studies at the Aspen Music Festival and the Music Academy of the West [4] and had private tuition from Mstislav Rostropovich and William Pleeth. In 1988 after touring Europe with I Solisti Veneti, she returned to her native Australia, initially as a cellist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. She joined the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1989 and in 1990 became the orchestra's Principal Cellist. [1] [5] That same year she became a founding member of the Novalis Quartet, a string quartet which specialised in the music of the Romantic era. [6] [7]

She had a 14-month forced career hiatus when she fell outside the Sydney Opera House in 2001 while carrying her cello, a 1729 Carlo Tononi. The cello was unscathed, but all the bones in one wrist were crushed. After months of surgery and rehabilitation, Hewgill returned to the concert stage as a soloist in November 2002 with a performance of Brahms' Double Concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. [8] [9] In addition to her orchestral and chamber work, she has served as an adjudicator for the inaugural Australian Cello Awards and has given masterclasses at the Australian National Academy of Music. [10] [11]

Hewgill is married to a cinematographer. The couple have two children, a son and daughter. [1] [9]

Recordings

Hewgill's recordings with The Australian Trio include:

With the Sydney Symphony Orchestra:

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Mendelson, Henry (August 2013). "Catherine Hewgill, the Mellow Cello of the Sydney Symphony", pp. 9–10. Fine Music Magazine . Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  2. ↑ Shugold, Marc (13 February 1985). "Music Reviews : 'Mi-parti' Introduced at Usc". Los Angeles Times. ISSN   0458-3035 . Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  3. ↑ USC Thornton School of Music. 1980s – Undergraduate Alumni. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  4. ↑ "Alumni Roster". musicacademy.org. Archived from the original on 5 June 2012. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  5. ↑ Phillip Sametz (1992). Play On!: 60 Years of Music-Making with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. ABC Books. ISBN   978-0-7333-0102-5.
  6. ↑ Bebbington, Warren Arthur (1997). "Novalis Quartet", The Oxford Companion to Australian Music, p. 496. Oxford University Press
  7. ↑ Pleskun, Stephen (2012). A Chronological History of Australian Composers and Their Compositions – Vol. 3 1985–1998. Xlibris Corporation. p. 371. ISBN   978-1-4797-8884-2.
  8. ↑ Morgan, Joyce (22 November 2002). "Injured, but still going for broke". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  9. 1 2 Meacham, Steve (29 November 2006). "Cellist faces her toughest workout yet". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  10. ↑ Galvin, Nick (2 July 2013). "Bows poised for battle of cellos". The Age . Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  11. ↑ Australian World Orchestra (2013). Masterclass. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  12. ↑ OCLC   271860993
  13. ↑ OCLC   225563042
  14. ↑ "A Piano Trio Anathology". Review by Michael Cookson. MusicWeb International.
  15. ↑ Scott, Phillip (26 September 2013). "Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No 2, Romance, Song Without Words, Humoresque (SSO)" Archived 26 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine . Limelight . Retrieved 27 September 2014.
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