About
Brieley Cutting is an Australian pianist described as having “at her disposal a myriad of different colours” (The Auckland Scoop) and as being “technically assured with excellent control of the keyboard” (The Courier Mail). Brieley’s varied career includes concert performance alongside piano teaching, lecturing, adjudication, and concert and project curation. Brieley is dedicated to honouring the traditions of classical music whilst also supporting new music and innovative forms of presentation and collaboration.
Brieley has been a National Keyboard Winner of the Symphony Australia ABC Young Performers Awards and received a second placing in the Kerikeri National Piano Competition in New Zealand. Brieley is a fellow of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and has been awarded a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Griffith University.
Recent 2023 performances have included a piano and flute recital with David Silva - which presented repertoire from J.S. Bach, R. Schumann, and Franck - and another recital with flutists Jessica Lee and Mikaela Oberg to raise funds for the Sydney Children's Hospital's Foundation. Further projects have been with Fragments Ensemble, which was initiated in 2017 with Judit Molnár (soprano). Recently, Fragments produced 'Elector Lieder', a 50min innovative multimedia, electro-acoustic show featuring piano and soprano voice together as they showcase historical art songs alongside newly composed material. Another current endeavour is a soon to be completed recording project, a collaboration with Graeme Jennings (violin) to explore and present music by the Hungarian composers Béla Bartók and György Kurtág.
Now based in Sydney, Brieley has performed as soloist and chamber music collaborator in many major and regional venues throughout Australia. She has performed for organisations such as ABC Classic FM, 4MBS, and Musica Viva; and at festivals including the Piano Mill at Stanthorpe, Festival of Voices, Newcastle Fringe Festival, and at the Tyalgum, Bangalow and Australian Piano Duo Festivals. Brieley’s performance career has also seen her as soloist and chamber music collaborator in European venues, selected for gala concerts in festivals in Salzburg and Brussels, and those facilitated by the Royal College of Music and Australian Music Foundation.
Brieley has also appeared as concerto soloist with orchestras including the Melbourne Symphony, Adelaide Symphony, Queensland Symphony, Melbourne Youth Orchestra, and the Nizchny-Novgorod Philharmonic; and she has performed with many leading Australian ensembles such as Ensemble Trivium, Fragments Ensemble, Australia Piano Quartet, Collusion and Topology.
Previous recording projects include 'Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 for 2 pianos, 8 hands' with fellow pianists for Melba Recordings to critical acclaim from The Guardian (Australia) and The Australian Weekend Review, and joining Collusion Music to record the albums 'Flashpoint' (quartets by Hindemith and Messiaen) and 'I read the old dream slowly' (all Australian chamber music) as Ensemble in Residence at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music.
Brieley’s diverse career has seen her curate music and arts events. A major project was her Declassified Music chamber music concert series in Brisbane. Enabled by the local Steinway & Sons piano distributors, DeClassified Music won a Creative Sparks Award from the Brisbane City Council, was supported by Arts Queensland and the Australia Council of the Arts, had events featured in several Queensland Music Festivals, and attracted supportive reviews from diverse sources such as The Jazz Mann, RealTime Arts Magazine and the Brisbane Weekender. As part of her role, Brieley commissioned and hosted premieres of new works from local composers, worked closely with FireWorks Gallery (contemporary indigenous and non-indigenous Australian art), and performed regularly in the series herself with leading musicians from around Australia such as Simon Cobcroft (cello), Patrick Murphy (cello), Dan Curro (cello), Rachel Johnston (cello), Kristian Winther (violin), Brendan Joyce (violin), Angela Turner (piano), and Collusion Music.
Brieley is also dedicated to her work in the community, and as a teacher and educator. Having over 20 years experience guiding young pianists and musicians, Brieley has been invited to hold Masterclasses at the Gold Coast, in Sydney, and for regional Conservatories in New South Wales, and has been an adjudicator of performance competitions, such as for the Queensland Conservatorium and Sydney Eisteddfod. Brieley has also toured for Musica Viva in Schools to Queensland, Canberra and regional Tasmania; and toured with Topology with their show 'Queensland at Home' to regional and rural centres across Queensland. For seven years Brieley toured with Artico Ensemble, a chamber music quartet (piano, soprano, clarinet, bass-clarinet) with the aim of bringing concert music to non-mainstream venues around Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and Sunshine Coast. Holding positions previously at the University of Queensland and University of New England (Armidale), Brieley currently teaches selected private students alongside tertiary students from the Australian Institute of Music and University of New South Wales, and she is the accompanist for the Sydney Male Choir.
Raised on a farm in the Northern Rivers area of New South Wales, Brieley studied at the Queensland Conservatorium, Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne and at the Royal College of Music in London. Brieley will always be extremely grateful for the valuable time learning with musicians such as Pamela Page, Max Olding, Oleg Stepanov, Natasha Vlassenko, Timothy Young, Rita Reichman, Ruth Nye and Stephen Emmerson.
REVIEWS
The performers clearly enjoyed playing together as an ensemble and showcased virtuosic skill for the challenging repertoire.
- ClassikOn (with Ensemble Trivium)
Cutting was technically assured with excellent control of the keyboard…expressive in the darker passages…she threw herself feverishly into the Allegro movement almost to exhaustion. It was an impressive rendition…
- The Courier Mail
Both introduced excellent orchestral colour and texture into their playing, with exciting juxtaposition of two separate “orchestral” stands working against each other and then magically arriving in harmony at the end of the movements. They were a joy to watch and hear.
- The Courier Mail (with Angela Turner)
Here is a pianist who has at her disposal a myriad of different colours and who knows how to take the time to let the music speak...it was a performance of authority.
- The Auckland Scoop, New Zealand
- The Australian Weekend Review (Mahler Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” for 4 pianists, Melba Records)
Hidden gems 2014: shines brilliant new light on this masterpiece.
- The Guardian (Aus) (Mahler Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” for 4 pianists, Melba Records)
...a great addition to the Brisbane Scene.
- RealTime Arts (DeClassified Music)
And boy, has she made changes. Things went so well over the next few years that in 2013 it became DeClassified Music … Who knew classical music could be so fun, am I right?
- The Factory Diaries (DeClassified Music)
The intimate space of the Byron Theatre puts the dancers and the musicians up close and personal with the audience. In your face, it is. In your mind, it gets. … It is exciting to see the creation of new dance and music.
- Stagediary (with Collusion Music)
Collusion performed throughout with intense engagement and finesse. Their precise ensemble playing detailed the repetitions of the minimalist works on the programme…dramatic opportunities (and there were many) never went to waste. When it came to the musically expansive world of the Hindemith quartet, the players demonstrated the breadth of their stylistic accomplishment.
- Australian Modern Design (with Collusion Music)