The Hourglass Ensemble is a Sydney-based group of elite chamber musicians and soloists whose mission is to enjoy playing the best music with the best performers at the highest level, and to draw in an audience with a large range of experience with contemporary music to understand new artistic worlds. Their unique expertise is in blending new and unusual combinations of woodwind, with strings, voice, percussion, piano, actors and designers, exploring timbral possibilities of familiar groupings, focusing on commissioning, premiering and recording Australian composers, and exporting works from their homeland to the world. ​

The group returned from a highly successful debut tour of Poland, Switzerland, Germany and Austria in 2017, and are about to release their first two EPs. They'll return to Europe and add North America to their audience in 2018. Hourglass was born in 2015 from the manifesto of artistic director Andrew Kennedy– to play new and recent music that an audience will be able to enjoy and understand on first hearing, to deformalise the concert experience to make it less abstract and threatening, and to give the uninitiated listener an explicit guide to accessing the art music world. Following that philosophy, the group has explored a diverse repertoire from unaccompanied solo pieces to well-loved late Romantic pieces, to re-imagined twentieth-century classics, to brand new chamber opera and Australian-themed song cycles.

PLAYERS

Michelle Urquhart’s love of music flows through her performance and connects her with her audience in a way that makes music a shared experience. Michelle is especially passionate about performing chamber music. Violist with the Con Brimo Ensemble and Ensemble Astor, she is excited to be joining the Hourglass Ensemble this year for the second time. Michelle also performs regularly with the Sydney University Graduate Choir and Orchestra.

In 2015 she travelled to Italy performing in historically and culturally significant venues in around the Marché Region with pianist Keith Mitchell (“Duo Australiano”), with a return trip confirmed for 2017. She has been invited to perform in the U.K as part of the tour. She is also launching her own concert series in Mosman this year, and will be soloist with the NSW Doctors Orchestra in Bruch’s Double Concerto in May 2016.

Michelle's music career started when she was eight years old, with violin teacher Gill Christie. At age 11, she made her debut as concert soloist with orchestra in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House. From high school into the Sydney Conservatorium, Michelle studied with Alex Todicescu on violin and viola, and was awarded the Overall Winner of the NSW (Ku-ring-gai) Concerto Competition.

Having also been selected as Musician of the Year from Pan Pacific International Music Camps in 1990, she was granted a Qantas-sponsored scholarship to study in the United States. Michelle furthered studies on viola with Jeremy Williams and in 2010 was awarded Distinction for her A.Mus.A diploma on viola. Michelle completed her GradDipPMus through the University of Tasmania. During these studies she was principal violist with the Tasmanian Discovery Orchestra and toured Tasmania with the Jan Sedivka Camerata.

Ewa Kowalski studied her Master of Music in flute in Wroclaw, Poland under the distinguished Professor Jerzy Mrozik. She was awarded scholarships by the Polish government to participate in master classes in Germany and England, and proceeded to undergo additional training with remarkable flutists such as William Bennett (England), Caterine Cantin (Czech Republic), Philippe Bernold, Emmanuelle Reville (Poland), Janos Balint (Poland), and Michael Cox (Australia).

During her studies, Ewa received a number of awards in international competitions, including:

Finals of Sydney Flute Festival Open Flute Competition, September 2007
1st Prize, International Woodwind and Brass Competition, Wroclaw, Poland, 2004
1st Prize, National Flute Competition, Olsztyn, Poland, 2000
3rd Prize, International Woodwind Competition, Jastrzebie Zdroj, Poland, 1998

In December 2003, Ewa performed in a Gala Concert in Czech Republic Parliament with Catherine Cantin, flute lecturer at Paris Conservatorium of Music. In 2004 she performed in the Wroclaw Film Festival and recorded and toured with the Wroclaw Chamber Orchestra.

Shortly after receiving the Master of Music degree, Ewa migrated to Australia and soon gave her first solo recital in Sydney, at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland. In 2006 Ewa performed at Polart Festival in Hobart, Tasmania, giving both solo and chamber music recitals, which were broadcast nationally by ABC Classic FM.

Ewa joined the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra on a casual position. She gave a performance at the concert celebrating Chopin's 200th birthday at the Sydney City Recital Hall, Angel Place attended by the Ambassador of Poland Andrzej Jaroszynski, the Polish Consul General Daniel Gromann and the Governor of NSW, Professor Marie Bashir AC. (March, 2010). Ewa also performed a solo recital at Flute Tree in Sydney in October 2011 featuring works of twentieth Century composers.

More recently, as a member of composer Kristofer’s Spike’s Wind Energy, Ewa recorded two albums, one of which, “Deck Chairs on the Titanic”, was launched at the Sydney Opera House in 2011. She also continues to collaborate with Sydney Contemporary Orchestra and teaches flute at International Grammar School and Hunters Hill Public School.

In 2013 she completed a Music Performance Course (The University of Sydney) where she mastered the performance skills with a lecturer and Sydney based pianist and composer, Dr. Daniel Rojas. In order to enrich her professional training and personal development, Ewa has in 2016 completed a Graduate Diploma in Psychology course at The University of Sydney.

Currently, Ewa is collaborating with the Hourglass Ensemble, who launched its first successful performances in The Flute Tree and in Sydney Opera House in October 2015, followed by the Ink Games recital series held at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland and Sydney Opera House in April 2016. She will continue with Hourglass in the next two projects, Journey to the Underworld in July 2016, and The Silence of Thousands in Novemeber 2016.

Gregory Andrew Kinda was born in Katowice, Poland. In 1983, his family immi­grated to Aust­ralia. In 1984, at the age of 6, he became the youngest scholar to enter the Sydney Conser­vatorium of Music in the preparatory department. In 1986 he moved to Papua-New Guinea, and in 1990 he returned to Poland. He studied at the Katowice Secondary Music School and completed university studies at the Academy of Music in Katowice.

In 1999 Gregory completed his Master of Arts degree in an accelerated three years instead of the usual five. Following post-graduate work in Norway and Poland, he returned to Sydney in 2000. From 2001 to 2006 Gregory was a piano lecturer at the Australian International Conser­vatorium of Music in Harris Park, NSW. In 2003 He additionally completed his Bachelor of Teaching degree at the University of Western Sydney. He also held a position as a piano teacher at the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Conservatorium in Penrith, NSW teaching the advanced students up until 2011. He currently works full time at Trinity Grammar School as an associate artist in the music department. Gregory has performed in Australia, Poland, Norway, Germany, Russia, France, Czech Republic Singapore and Japan.

Gregory brings a new vital energy to classical piano music. His repertoire ranges from Bach to 20th century composers such as the great Polish woman composer Grazyna Bacewicz. His prizes at international competitions have included:
3rd Prize in the F. Chopin Competition in Szafarnia, Poland 1993.
Artistic Scholarship from the F. Chopin Foundation in Warsaw, 1994.
3rd Prize in the M. Magin Competition in Paris, 1995.
2nd Prize in the National Competition in Zagan, Poland 1996.

In March 2010 he opened the state celebrations of Chopin's 200th birthday at the Sydney City Recital Hall, Angel Place, in a public recital attended by the Ambassador of Poland Andrzej Jaroszynski, the Polish Consul General Daniel Gromann and the Governor of NSW, Professor Marie Bashir AC. In 2015 he joined the Hourglass Ensemble as a founding member in their recital series at various venues in Sydney including the Sydney Opera House.