Elizabeth Sellars
Sutherland Trio; Former Co-ordinator of strings – Monash University
Australian Hometown: Melbourne
Education: Victorian College of the Arts, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London
PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY
Australian-born violinist Dr Elizabeth Sellars has enjoyed a distinguished career as both performer and teacher in Australia and abroad. Elizabeth is a prize-winning graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where she studied with David Takeno (violin) and the Takacs String Quartets (chamber music). Further significant influences included Sandor Vegh and Yehudi Menuhin with whom Elizabeth worked at Prussia Cove in Cornwall and at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad. During her time in London, Elizabeth was a winner of the inaugural John Tunnell Trust and the Royal Overseas League Ensemble Prize and Miller Trophy. As soloist and chamber musician, she toured extensively in the UK, broadcast for the BBC, and performed throughout Europe and Asia with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields.
Now resident in Australia, Elizabeth has appeared as guest Concertmaster and Principal Violin with the Tasmanian and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, Orchestra Victoria, and Australian Chamber Orchestra. As a sought-after chamber musician, she has appeared for Musica Viva and has collaborated with Ensemble Liaison, Wilma and Friends, Flinders Quartet and Elision Ensembles. Her performances have been published by Move, Naxos, ABC Classics, Toccata Classics and Tzadik and her CD The Messiaen Nexus (with Kenji Fujimura)won the 2014 Limelight Chamber Music Recording of the Year. Her most recent CD contributes the first complete recording of Pinto’s sonatas. Elizabeth continues to perform on radio and in festivals worldwide and is a founding member of Sutherland Trio with cellist Molly Kadarauch and pianist Caroline Almonte.
After sixteen years as Lecturer in Violin at Monash University, Elizabeth now teaches privately and at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. She is currently recording Australian horn trios with Quercus and plays on a Eugenio Degani violin made in Veneto in 1876.
Last updated 2021