Kate Holden
Every happy and successful musician is made by their talent, their teachers and encouragement. For 20 years the ACO’s Emerging Artists (EA) Program has made a cherished space for young musicians in which they can practise, learn, tour and prepare themselves vocationally for a big, enriching professional life – sometimes with the ACO itself.
“Playing with experienced, professional musicians takes a young musician’s playing to a different level,” says ACO Principal Violin Helena Rathbone, who has been deeply involved with the EA Program from the start. “Their listening skills improve; they develop better communication skills – both with the audience and within the playing group – and they get that feeling that every musician in the group is striving for the same goal. This is the invaluable opportunity we wanted to give these talented youngsters.”
One hundred and thirteen youthful string players have participated in the ACO’s Emerging Artist Program since its 2005 inception. In the ACO’s opening tour for 2025, EA alumni Tim Yu and Thibaud Pavlovic-Hobba are taking their full-time place next to former mentors and friends, now colleagues. This brings the current number of Emerging Artist graduates in the ACO to five, with another former EA, violinist Anna da Silva Chen, currently on probation following a successful audition for a third full-time violin position within the Orchestra.
In their year as Emerging Artists, the young musicians are paired with a mentor from within the ACO who offers individual lessons and access to the Orchestra for rehearsals, concerts and backstage. They can also ring for advice whenever they need. Emerging Artists are provided with the opportunity to perform on stage with ACO core musicians as part of the ACO Collective ensemble, and together participate in three projects a year: a full-scale regional touring program – which has taken the ACO Collective group to 85 regional centres in 20 years; a chamber music intensive experience of small-ensemble playing; and a third project which might include working with interesting guest artists or learning to play on gut strings.
It’s more than a decade since Pavlovic-Hobba had his time as an EA, and he’s played with the Orchestra as an alumnus and casual, but he’s warmly grinning at the prospect of full-time ACO life. “I didn’t know what direction to go in so I was just trying a bit of everything.” He joined the Flinders Quartet for five years, and spent a year in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellowship. “I’ve always kept coming back to the ACO – I would try something else, and miss it, and always come back. So it felt like the right moment to apply for the job. Now I’m very happy to be here full-time.”
Rathbone, who was his EA mentor, has been “secretly crossing my fingers that he would apply for a job with us!”
Yu had his EA moment in the ill-fated year 2020, in which normal opportunities were dramatically constricted to a few duets and online mentoring. The organisation allowed him a further year. “He’s worked extremely hard,” says Rathbone, “and proved to be a worthy colleague.” He too has had a stint with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellowship program and played as a casual for Opera Australia and in chamber ensembles. Yu’s EA mentors included ACO violinist Liisa Pallandi and former ACO violinist Glenn Christensen, both themselves EA alumni (“That was a bumper crop,” remembers Rathbone) and then full-time members of the Orchestra, as well as ACO violinist Ike See.
“Playing with experienced, professional musicians takes a young musician’s playing to a different level.”ACO Principal Violin Helena Rathbone
The ACO audition process of half-an-hour’s performance with members of the Orchestra is daunting, even for their own protégées. “They already like you and trust you,” says Pavlovic-Hobba, “but you have to prove it again – and again. It’s weird playing for friends in that environment, as opposed to a completely anonymous room. It’s comforting,” he laughs, “but also terrifying.” But they made it through to what seems like a warm welcome. “We’re proud of them,” says Rathbone, “and it’s really like a creative family. It’s great to know we’ve been part of this journey with them.”
The ACO’s opening national tour for 2025 sees current EA members, EA alumni and these two EA graduates now within the ACO all onstage together to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the program. “It’ll be joyful,” Rathbone declares. “It’s wonderful to see them grow from being students into colleagues. They’ve done the hard work themselves, but to know that we have somehow guided and inspired them along the way is a real privilege.”
“The good thing about the EA program” remarks Pavlovic-Hobba, “is that you get trained in the ACO’s style.” And everyone in the ACO, he adds, “is in it together. No \ one is complacent. We explore and don’t limit ourselves to a singular idea of what we’re good at.”
“For the more experienced players it’s just a real joy to have the young blood come in, and bounce off their new, fresh ideas, energy and enthusiasm.”Helena Rathbone
Teachers and mentors leave a deep legacy, and classical musicians seem exceptionally alert to succession planning and the cultivation of fresh talent. As Yu observes, “Mentors provide all these different perspectives that you wouldn’t think of on your own, because their perspective is built up from all the things they’ve encountered on their journey, and the mentors in their memory. We’re on the receiving end of all those years, and hopefully will add to our own collection.” And “we don’t,”
Pavlovic-Hobba chimes in, “want to keep these secrets to ourselves!” Both of these young talents have already commenced their own mentorship of young players, including with the ACO Academy Program for talented high school-aged musicians.
“For the more experienced players it’s just a real joy to have the young blood come in, and bounce off their new, fresh ideas, energy and enthusiasm.”
Rathbone couldn’t be more proud. “It’s just a joy to get to know these musicians and see how they develop and flourish.”
By Kate Holden
Kate Holden regularly contributes to The Saturday Paper and other publications. She is the author of In My Skin: A memoir (2005), and The Romantic: Italian nights and days (2010). The Winter Road: A Killing in Croppa Creek (Black Inc, 2021) won the Walkley Book Award and the NSW Premier’s nonfiction award. A book of linked essays will be published in 2026.
See Tim and Thibaud in Brahms & Beethoven, touring to Newcastle, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Tickets from $59, or $35 for under 35s and $25 for students. Click here for tickets.
