Pianist & Piano Teacher
About
Described as “such a force!” (Tempo Rubato), “technically assured with excellent control of the keyboard” (Courier Mail), and as a musician who has “at her disposal a myriad of different colours and who knows how to take the time to let the music speak” (Auckland Scoop).
Brieley Cutting is known for bringing her trademark energy and refinement to a career encompassing solo and collaborative performance, event curation, arts promotion and practice-focused research. Also a dedicated piano teacher, she greatly enjoys sharing her love of music with young musicians.
Brieley Cutting grew up on a farm in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales. She began playing the piano at a young age, her first piano being an old, discarded upright piano delivered to her family’s corrugated iron house on an open, rusty trailer. As her enthusiasm for the piano developed, both she and her sister would travel for many hours to Brisbane and back again for their weekly piano and music lessons.
Brieley was awarded her AMusA Diploma from the Australian Music Examinations Board aged eleven years, and soon after moved to Brisbane to study with Pamela Page. Brieley was accepted to study at the Queensland Conservatorium aged thirteen years, graduating aged eighteen with First Class Honours whilst studying with Oleg Stepanov. To complete her undergraduate studies, Brieley performed as soloist with the Queensland Conservatorium Orchestra and was a semi-finalist in the Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition.
Subsequent study was at the Australian National Academy of Music, which included twice being a winner in their in-house Concerto Competition and she was able to extend her studies at the International Festival Musici Artis in Brussels and Summer Festival in Salzburg. Her primary teachers during this time included Rita Reichman and Timothy Young. Brieley then returned to the Queensland Conservatorium to complete a Master of Music with Natasha Vlassenko.
During these postgraduate studies Brieley was recognised in various piano competitions - including becoming the National Keyboard Winner of the 2006 ABC Young Performers Awards - and she performed as concerto soloist with the Melbourne Youth Orchestra, Nizhny Novgorod Philharmonic, and Melbourne, Adelaide and Queensland Symphony Orchestras. Support from the Tait Memorial Trust, Australian Music Foundation, and a David Paul Landa Scholarship allowed her to continue studies in London at the Royal College of Music where she performed in concerts facilitated by the Royal College of Music and the Australian Music Foundation, and she graduated with Distinction.
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2006. ABC Young Performers Awards, Grand Final. With conductor Christopher Seaman. Hamer Hall, Melbourne.
Upon returning to Brisbane, Brieley was awarded Second Placing in the 2010 Kerikeri International Piano Competition in New Zealand, and followed this by creating an award-winning Brisbane concert series. Assisted by the local Steinway & Sons piano distributors, this grew into DeClassified Music which was described as “a great addition to the Brisbane Scene” (RealTime Arts) and as exploiting "a critical mass of grass-roots interest in genuinely innovative music and art that is not confined to predictable and formal presentational settings” (Liam Viney, University of Queensland School of Music). Reviews of live performances included “lived up to high expectations” (Brisbane Weekender), “one of the best and most exciting ‘jazz with strings’ recordings that I’ve heard” (The Jazz Mann), and "who knew classical music could be so fun, am I right?" (The Factory Diaries). Events were featured in two Queensland Music Festivals, supported by the Australia Council of the Arts and Arts Queensland, and her series was awarded a Creative Sparks Award from the Brisbane City Council.
Brieley was able to deepen her studies further with a 2013 Winston Churchill Fellowship. Being awarded the Peter Mitchell Churchill Fellowship allowed her to travel to the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and New York to expand music, career and industry knowledge as a pianist and Artistic Director.
In 2016, Brieley completed doctoral studies on scholarship at the Queensland Conservatorium. Guided by Stephen Emmerson, her research topic focused on exploring the skills required of pianists working as chamber musicians. Projects included recording for Melba Records and with Collusion Music, as an ensemble in residence at the Queensland Conservatorium.
Since 2017, Brieley has continued to focus mostly on her roles as a collaborating musician and piano teacher. Brieley was invited to be the first Head of Piano at the regional Conservatorium in Armidale, also lecturing at the University of New England (Armidale). She then moved to Sydney in 2020 to be Lecturer in Piano at the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney until 2024. Brieley has assisted many beginner pianists with creation of a strong foundation, and her more advanced students have graduated with bachelor and masters degrees, attained AMEB Diplomas, been prizewinners in piano competitions and eisteddfods, and auditioned successfully for acceptance into performance focused tertiary degrees. Brieley has adjudicated for organisations such as the Queensland Conservatorium, University of Queensland and Sydney Eisteddfod, and is a Steinway Educational Partner.
Brieley's ongoing performance activities include many festival appearances - for The Piano Mill, Festival of Voices, Queensland Music Festival, Australian Piano Duo Festival, Sydney Fringe Festival, Tyalgum and Bangalow Festivals - and collaborations with many ensembles such as with Ensemble Trivium, Australia Piano Quartet, Radu Cello Ensemble, Collusion, Topology and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players. Most recent performances have been at Tempo Rubato in Melbourne, Phoenix Central Park's 'The Church' in Sydney, and for the Musica Viva regional touring program in New South Wales.
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Brieley currently teaches a private studio of select piano students, teaches and collaborates with Sydney Conservatorium instrumental students, continues to direct and perform in her DeClassified Music events, and works with like-minded colleagues on varied musical projects.