Our Team

Meet the team bringing you Australia’s music lovin’ mag.

These voices are instrumental in shaping our publication (yes, that pun was intended).

STEPHANIE ESLAKE

FOUNDING EDITOR + MENTOR

editor@cutcommon.com

Stephanie Eslake founded CutCommon in 2014 with the vision to create an inclusive community for arts practitioners in Australia. It awarded her the City of Hobart Australia Day 2017 Young Citizen of the Year Award for her “community contribution by creating an online promotional and educational network for young Australian classical musicians”. She is also the inaugural 2017 Kill Your Darlings New Critic Award winner, won the 2018 Tasmanian Young Achiever Awards Arts and Fashion prize (semi-finalist in 2016 and finalist in 2017), and was shortlisted for the 2017 Kat Muscat Fellowship. In 2021, she received an Arts Tasmania grant to produce a new book for arts practitioners (A Writer’s Guide to the Arts), which is currently underway. She also received the APRA AMCOS 2021 Art Music Award (Luminary Award — Tasmania) for “providing a voice to emerging composers and performers” through CutCommon, and in 2023 was a top-three finalist for the Australian Women in Music Awards’ Music Journalism Award.

Stephanie has attended the Australian Youth Orchestra Words About Music program, and graduated from the University of Tasmania with degrees in media, music, and sociology. She also has certificates in broadcast and business. You may have read Stephanie’s journalism in The Guardian, Meanjin, The Mercury, TasWeekend, SBS (Life), Limelight Magazine, Junkee, The Music, Crikey, ArtsHub (ArtsHub UK, ScreenHub), Aphra Magazine, The Courier Mail, The Daily Telegraph and RendezView, Adelaide Now, Young Opportunities Australia, Perth Now, The Herald Sun, and Warp Magazine; the latter of which she has also worked as subeditor, and is now reviews curator. Stephanie also writes academic course content in writing, editing, design, and entrepreneur subject areas for educational institution Foundry (partners: University of Tasmania, Swinburne University of Technology).

The writer co-founded Upbeat Monthly News for the University of Tasmania’s Conservatorium of Music, has written program notes for Musica Viva and the Queensland and Tasmanian symphony orchestras, hosted features on Edge Radio 99.3 and ABC Classic FM, and worked in live broadcast production. In 2015, she spent time as acting editor and lead writer for The Mercury‘s music publication Pulse.

The classical saxophonist tutors woodwind, worked as co-editor and publications mentor for Hobart City Council’s Platform youth arts and culture magazine, and was part of the Making Waves’ Making Conversation interview team. She is also a grants assessment panellist on the Tasmanian Department of State Growth’s Cultural and Creative Industries Expert Register, and was selected for the ARIA Awards Voting Academy, APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards judging panel, and Australian Women in Music Awards Juror Council.

She is addicted to fuelled by coffee.

LUCY RASH

DEPUTY EDITOR – WEB + MENTOR

Lucy is a musician, writer, and community arts advocate; a lover of all things collaborative, creative, and aesthetically pleasing. Following her formative training in Art History, Sociology and Musicology, Lucy worked at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music managing community partnerships between the University of Melbourne, the Smith Family, and regional Victorian schools before joining the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s administration team in 2012.

Lucy is currently employed as Education Manager at the MSO where she is responsible for the programming, development, and management of the orchestra’s work with schools, families, and life-long learners. An experienced multi-instrumentalist, Lucy maintains an active role in the Australian music scene. She is a classically trained violinist, a session player for many of Melbourne’s top bands, a member of indie three-piece, Forest Falls, and her written work has bolstered many a band’s press kit.

Lucy regularly presents pre- and post-concert talks for the MSO and, most recently, for the Australian Chamber Orchestra. In 2018, she launched content design agency Cult Copy. When she’s not doing any of the above, Lucy is likely hanging out with her “perfect, silky soft” three-year-old whippet, Turbo.

LAURA BIEMMI

TRENDS EDITOR + SUBEDITOR – PRINT ISSUE #2

Laura is a writer, musicologist, and oboist from Perth. She has also written for Limelight Magazine and Seesaw Magazine, and participated in the Australian Youth Orchestra’s Words About Music program. A graduate from the UWA Conservatorium of Music, Laura completed her Honours in musicology (with First Class Honours, no less) in 2018 and commences her PhD in 2019. Laura is also a casual oboist with a number of Perth ensembles, including the Perth Orchestra Project and the Fremantle Chamber Orchestra, is a former member of the WA Youth Orchestra and the WA Charity Orchestra, and is a recipient of the UWA Delano Music Scholarship. Laura also tutors oboe to a wide range of students. In her spare time, Laura enjoys making oboe reeds, op-shopping, and baking really ugly-looking packet cakes.

MIRANDA ILCHEF

LEAD WRITER (NSW)

Miranda Ilchef is a Sydney-based musician/writer who is in growing demand as a music reviewer and artist interviewer. In addition to her work with CutCommon, Miranda has been published in Limelight Magazine, and in 2022 she participated in the Australian Youth Orchestra’s Words About Music program where she was mentored by Philip Sametz.
 
Miranda has also performed regularly as a violinist with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Project and Ensemble Apex. She has a passion for orchestral music, new music, Australian music and a burgeoning interest in Historical Performance. In 2023, her affinity for folk music led to her performing as fiddler in the musical Come From AwayMiranda graduated with Bachelor of Music Performance (Honours) in 2022 from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music under Professor Alice Waten, where she wrote her thesis on performance anxiety management.

JASMINE MIDDLETON

LEAD WRITER (WA)

Jasmine is working towards her Master of Orchestral Performance on a full scholarship at the UWA Conservatorium of Music. She has been a writer with CutCommon since 2018, and began as Lead Writer (WA) in 2020. Based in Perth, she holds a casual violin position with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and freelances with Riverside Ensembles and String Source. Jasmine has also completed her Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours in Music at UWA. During this time was awarded the Edith Cowan Prize in Music and won the prestigious chamber music competition — the Flora Bunning Memorial Prize for Chamber Music – two years in a row in two different ensembles. Jasmine is passionate about orchestral playing and engaging with the wider music community in Perth, having performed as Concertmaster in the UWA Symphony Orchestra, WA Charity Orchestra, and Perth Orchestra Project, and was a member of the WA Youth Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra of St George’s College. Australia-wide, she has participated in two AYO National Music Camps and as a Performance Fellow with Dots + Loops in Brisbane. In between her performing and studies, Jasmine works at the UWA Library and tutors a wide range of students. 

RACHEL BRUERVILLE

OPINIONS EDITOR

Adelaide-based Rachel Bruerville is a composer, arranger, cellist, singer (and now, writer!) currently studying her Honours year in composition at the Elder Conservatorium with Dr Anne Cawrse. Rachel’s main performing activity is in her role as a core member of the Adelaide Chamber Singers. Significant achievements include working on the South Australian and national tours (2016-17) of Patch Theatre Company’s Emily Loves to Bounce, composing and performing her original solo cello/vocal score in the award-winning 2017 Adelaide Fringe theatre production Stories in the Dark, being named the joint-winner of the Accompanists’ Guild of SA’s Piano in Chamber Music 2016 Composition Award, and receiving the Doctor Ruby Davy Prize from the Elder Conservatorium in 2014. Her work has been performed by ensembles including The Endeavour Trio, Gondwana Voices, Sydney Children’s Choir, and the National Youth Choir of Australia. 

CHRISTOPHER LEON

IN-HOUSE MASTERING SERVICE + GLOBAL SERIES EDITOR + MENTOR

Tasmanian composer and music producer Christopher Leon was named a semi-finalist in the 2017 Tasmanian Young Achiever Awards (arts). He graduated in 2013 with a major in Music Technology from the University of Tasmania. In 2011, he worked on a team to produce the score for American feature film Christmas With The Dead, and in 2013 was responsible for scoring a TV commercial for the State Government. Since picking up the guitar at age 12, Christopher has performed his own classical and Flamenco influenced guitar compositions across Tasmania and has swept through multiple genres on his way to electronic and orchestral music production. As an electronic artist in 2017 he performed a booked-out workshop and DJ gig at BeakerSt@TMAG and SciBar (National Science Week at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery), a set as part of Friday Nights Live at the Moonah Arts Centre, Light Up the Lane street festival, and at the Falls Festival. He now holds the position of production assistant with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and has returned to university to study ICT and gain greater knowledge in the areas of his passion, and works at the University of Tasmania IT support department.

MARK BOSCH

LEAD CRITIC

Mark is completing a Bachelor of Arts with majors in French and Gender Studies at the University of Sydney. An alumnus of the Conservatorium High School, he plays the violin for leisure, and loves playing in ensembles more than anything. Since 2017, he has been a member of the Sydney University Symphony Orchestra and Modest Orchestra. Outside of music, Mark’s interests include writing, digital cultures and the environment; he volunteers with the AYCC (Australian Youth Climate Coalition) and spends lots of his time thinking about ecological awareness. In the photo above (captured by Ollie Miller), Mark was soaking up the sounds of BackStage Music for one of his CutCommon reviews.

JESSIE WANG

LEAD WRITER (COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL AWARENESS)

Jessie is a Sydney-based musician, educator, writer, and disability and mental health advocate. She completed her Bachelor of Music at the Sydney Conservatorium with a full scholarship, after graduating as Dux of the Conservatorium High School. Ever since her high school years, Jessie has questioned how we can use music to help others and how we can engage with people outside the conventional concert hall. This desire to engage with the community has led to numerous weird and wonderful projects, such as teaching music at an orphanage in Cambodia, working at a charity that uses music to raise awareness about mental health, and regular trips to regional conservatoriums around New South Wales. Jessie is now working towards a Bachelor of Psychology, and enjoys to use her psychological knowledge in musical settings. In her spare time, Jessie likes to go on solo hikes, travel to places nobody’s ever heard of, and write daily journal entries.

SYLVIE WOODS

LEAD WRITER (NSW): 2018-2020 + CONTENT SENSITIVITY CONSULTANT

Sylvie Woods is working towards her Masters Degree in Publishing at the University of Sydney. She holds a Bachelor of Arts. Sylvie began performing classically with Opera Australia in the children’s chorus, and sang with the company from 2006-2009 in Turandot, La Boheme and Werther. Since then, Sylvie has appeared on Fine Music FM, Eastside Radio, Channel 10 and was the soloist in new work Ex Aere by Kirsten Milenko at City Recital Hall as part of Sydney’s Unashamedly Original series in 2017. Sylvie has performed in Europe with the Sydney Children’s Choir, as a soloist at the Sydney Opera House in Carmina Burana, and performed in Leonard Bernstein’ Mass with the Sydney Conservatorium Chamber Choir. She sang as a soloist in Allegri’s Miserere with the St Andrew’s College Chapel Choir, where she resided on the William Cumming Thom Choral Scholarship. Sylvie can be heard as the soloist in the World Vision The Wall commercial that was broadcast through New Zealand. Sylvie is a writer and music journalist, running her own music journalism blog called All That Glitters and contributing regularly to CutCommon. She has also published work in Sydney Arts Guide and The Ladies Network. She won the prestigious Principal’s Prize for poetry at St Andrew’s College in 2013.

JOSEPH ASQUITH

LEAD WRITER (EDUCATION)

Completing his Bachelor of Music (Honours) in 2015 at the University of Newcastle (Australia), Joseph wrote an acclaimed 78-page dissertation which focused on the interplay between ‘Music and Zeitgeist’ under the supervision of musicologist/harpsichordist Rosalind Halton. He also studies and performs a plethora of genres including baroque, classical, romantic, folk and contemporary as a soloist and ensemble member. Joseph has received piano tutelage from esteemed Australian pianists including Marilyn Wilson (Newcastle), Andrew Chubb (Newcastle), Clemens Leske (Sydney), and Michael Kieran-Harvey (Hobart). He spent time at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2016, where he was mentored by celebrated pianist/musicologist Paul Hersh (USA). In 2019 and 2020, he attended the piano music festival Music at Château d’Aix in the South of France, studying closely with pianists Paul Roberts (UK) and Martin Sturfält (Sweden). Joseph is a passionate teacher, having obtained a Masters of Teaching with Distinction (Secondary) in 2017 from the University of Newcastle. He has taught in an array of schools, as a classroom and peripatetic teacher, in New South Wales and also in England. Joseph currently lives in London, where he is appointed as Head of Music at an OFSTED-Outstanding Secondary School.

MYLES OAKEY

EUROPE CORRESPONDENT + SUBEDITOR – PRINT ISSUE #1 + 2016 CUTCOMMON YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR

Europe-based writer, educator and musician Myles Oakey graduated in 2017 with a Bachelor of Music (Honours)/Bachelor of Education (Secondary) from the University of New South Wales. He was awarded the Arts and Social Sciences Deans list award from 2015-17, and 2016 Honours Bursary Award for Music. An aspiring academic and writer, Myles intends to pursue the study of ethnomusicology and ethnography, exploring the human dimension of music making. As a musician, Myles is a classical guitarist, although his experience includes involvement with the UNSW Balinese Gamelan Ensemble Suwitra Jaya, performing at the 2016 Bali Arts Festival in Denpasar, and various events around Sydney. Myles has been a contributor to CutCommon since he was announced CutCommon Young Writer of the Year in 2016, and has established a solid platform within Australian arts journalism.

ALISON PARIS

LEAD WRITER (CHILDREN AND EARLY LEARNING)

Alison Paris is a Brisbane soprano and graduate of the University of Queensland School of Music, where she majored in voice performance with honours. Alison began singing classically after joining the Singapore Lyric Opera Chorus for their 2012 production of La Traviata. Since then, she participated in much of the music scene in Singapore before moving back to Australia to study. While completing her undergraduate degree, she performed with a number of choirs and orchestras. The highlight of her studies thus far has been her performance as the soprano soloist in the university’s performance of Faure’s Requiem in the Queensland Performing Arts Centre. She has performed as numerous roles in UQ’s production of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, as Barabarina in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, and as Dido in Dido and Aeneas. She also undertook an internship at Opera Queensland, where she was able to observe rehearsals, and work with industry professionals behind the scenes. Outside of performing, Alison teaches music in private and class lessons.

JEFFREY PALMER

UNITED STATES CORRESPONDENT

Countertenor Jeffrey Palmer is a singer, actor, and arts writer based in Brooklyn, New York. Debuting as a soloist at the age of nine, singing the Pie Jesu from the Fauré Requiem Mass, Jeffrey has gone on to perform in venues across the globe, including The Theatre Royal Bath in England, Knock Shrine in Ireland, the Hefei Grand Theatre in China, and San Francisco’s Kanbar Center, Boston’s Jordan Hall, and New York’s Steinway Hall in the United States. He has collaborated with jewelry line Erickson Beamon on four New York City fashion week shows (leading him to be hailed as “ethereal” by English journalist and Vogue editor-at-large Hamish Bowles), and has lent his voice to presentations with visual artists such as Andres Serrano, Joan Snyder, and Jennifer Wen Ma. Musical collaborators have included pianists Riko Higuma of Zodiac Trio and Dr Irena Portenko, violinists Timothy Fain and Yijia Zhang, cellist Danny Bensi, and singer/songwriter David Fox. He can also be heard on the soundtrack of the 2016 Netflix documentary Amanda Knox. In 2019, Jeffrey released Beauty 美, his first full-length album in collaboration with pianist Riko Higuma for Blue Griffin Records. Including works by Debussy, Schumann, Purcell, and modern composers Huang Ruo and Andrew List, this album is a selection of musical works that each provide their own unique reflection on the idea of beauty, and that have personally touched these two musicians in profound ways. As a writer, Jeffrey has had several articles and poems featured in print and digital publications in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Jeffrey holds a BA in music from Bath Spa University.

CARISSA DYALL

Like every good Asian kid, Carissa started her musical journey at a tender age with learning to play the violin and piano. After being caught several times plucking her violin with a pick, her parents decided it was best for her to learn guitar. This backflipped on them when she shunned medicine, accounting, and law, deciding to study music instead, specialising in classical guitar performance. Discovering her love for organisation and spreadsheets, Carissa pivoted in the direction of arts management and is currently pursuing an interest in philanthropy. Despite the weekly existential crisis, she enjoys and is grateful for the challenges and diversity that come with being part of the performing arts. There is never a dull moment. Attempts to include something non-arts related in her life consist of spending her house deposit on specialty coffee and trying not to kill her houseplants, along with recently adding mushroom growing to her repertoire of interesting (but not quite useful) skills.

ALEXANDRA MATHEW

Alexandra Mathew is a mezzo soprano, secondary school singing teacher, and occasional musicologist, and possesses a Master of Music in Musicology from the University of Melbourne and a Graduate Diploma in Vocal Performance from the Royal College of Music, London. Alexandra has performed in opera, chamber music and oratorio across Australia, the United Kingdom, and China, and has collaborated with a number of composers on new works. Her writing has appeared in Australian Book ReviewContext musicological journal, LimelightCutCommon, and Collections magazine.

BRIDGET O’BRIEN

Hailing from the Sunshine Coast, 20-year-old soprano and writer Bridget O’Brien is finishing her final year of a Bachelor of Music in Performance at the Queensland Conservatorium. She has written and sung since near-infancy, and through her tertiary studies has discovered ways in which her passions are able to complement each other. From plugging and reviewing con-centric events for The Griffith Collective, to being a featured runner-up in CutCommon’s 2017 Young Writer of the Year Competition, Bridget started writing as a regular CutCommon contributor in April 2018. Since, she’s enjoyed channelling her opinionated verbosity into profiling artists through interrogation, and offering her voice of criticism. Since 2017, Bridget has taken the role of PR Media and Marketing Director of fresh, independent company Brisbane City Opera. Alongside exploring how to promote the unique and the young, she has worked in assistant director capacities, committed to enlivening Brisbane’s arts and culture scene with her take. Bridget has performed in the chorus of a variety of productions across the Brisbane scene, and as a featured soloist in events through the Sunshine Coast. Through the next few phases of her education, she hopes to engage further performance study, work in direction apprenticeships across Europe, exploring creative writing in the contexts of scripts and libretti, and continue to spotlight the best of the performing arts through her writing.

JO ST LEON (VALE)

Jo is a musician and aspiring author from Hobart. Alongside her work with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, she is studying creative writing at Southern Cross University. She writes short stories, feature articles, and concert reviews, and is currently working on a series of reflections arising from her experience of living with cancer. Her journalism can be found in CutCommon, Limelight, Stringendo, and Elephant Journal. She is thrilled to have recently won third prize in the Writers’ Forum short story competition with her story Georgina’s Dilemma. After a lifetime of touring the world with her viola, she has finally settled in a little house by the Mt Wellington fire trail, where she lives in domestic bliss with her two cats. She travels as little as possible. In addition to playing and writing, Jo loves to cook, read, and swim.

KIYA VAN DER LINDEN-KIAN

Kiya is someone who loves all things writing and music. Based in Melbourne, he has an interest in a wide range of cello repertoire and regularly performs in a variety of ensembles from bands and orchestras to solo works. His days often include performing, writing about music, teaching, interviewing artists, and whatever else in between. He is also the creator of the Scored podcast, a platform for young artists from any discipline to discuss their works, industry, and share their stories. When not doing music, Kiya likes to spend his time relaxing at home, maybe picking up a good book or trying out a new recipe!

EMMA SULLIVAN

Emma is a Melbourne musician, educator and writer. Along with her role of principal double bass in Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, she performs regularly as a casual musician with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Particularly memorable experiences have included touring Europe with the MSO, playing at the Olympic Arts Festival with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in Beijing, and touring the east coast of Australia with the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s regional touring subsidiary, ACO2. Before settling in Melbourne, Emma performed with orchestras in New Zealand and the United States of America, and completed her Masters of Music at the University of North Texas under esteemed double bassist, Jeff Bradetich. She was a fellow at the Australian National Academy of Music in 2009 and was awarded equal first prize in the ANAM Concerto Competition. In 2012, Emma won the prestigious Peter Mitchell Churchill Fellowship to undertake a two-month period of intensive study and mentoring under renowned French double bass performer and pedagogue Thierry Barbé in Paris. She recently completed her doctoral project, Collaborative Contrabass, which was focused on researching, performing, and promoting chamber music for the double bass. Emma is passionate about teaching and mentoring young musicians and is the proud founder of VCASS Double Bass Day, which brings together student bass players from across Victoria to participate in masterclasses and perform together in a massed double bass ensemble.

LEWIS INGHAM

Melbourne composer Lewis Ingham is passionate about the presentation of new music in Australia, particularly by young composers. He has completed degrees in both composition and screen composition from the University of Melbourne and Box Hill Institute respectively. Originally from the rural town of Hepburn Springs, Lewis loves the urban environment of Melbourne in which he now resides; and finds constant musical inspiration from his surrounds. Outside of music, Lewis is still basking in the premiership glory of the Western Bulldogs and enjoys a hit of tennis, challenging the stereotype that musicians are no good at sport.

CHLOE SANGER

Chloe is a freelance multi-instrumentalist and writer living in Melbourne. She is a founding member of six-four, a chamber music collective that specialises in experimental and new music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Chloe is also performs regularly across Melbourne as a member of five-piece experimental art-pop band Diana’s Foresters, violinist for Nimbus Trio, and session musician who has worked with multiple recording artists. Aside from her musical projects, she is a violin tutor for Border Music Camp, run by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra librarian Alistair McKean, and teaches violin, voice, guitar and piano. She completed her Bachelor of Music majoring in Violin Performance in 2016 under the tutelage of Mark Mogilevski, and is always looking to extend her musical education in the realms of contemporary and electronic music (i.e. she goes to a lot of gigs).

And just a few of our well-loved guest contribs and team members over the years (*commence drum roll*)…

MADELINE ROYCROFT (Trends Editor 2016-18)
CELINE CHONG (2017 CutCommon Young Writer of the Year, Lead Writer (QLD) 2018-2020)
ZOE DOUGLAS-KINGHORN (Lead Writer)
LEAH BLANKENDAAL (Con Fuoco Series Coordinator 2017)
SAMUEL COTTELL (Lead Writer and mentor 2014-16)
THOMAS MISSON (Contributor 2014-2017)
BEN NIELSEN (Contributor and mentor)
ELEANOR WOOD (London correspondent 2016-18)
NATASHA LIN (Music Therapy series 2017)
CAROL SAFFER
ELSABETH PARKINSON
JESSICA CARRASCALAO-HEARD
MEGAN BURSLEM
ALISON PARIS
MONTANA ROSE
EMMA SULLIVAN
ANTONIA ZAPPIA
CAMPBELL BANKS
KIERAN WELCH
ANGUS DAVISON
DYLAN HENDERSON
ZOE BARKER
UMA MUTHIA
TAMARA KOHLER
ANGUS MCPHERSON
SPENCER DARBY
GABRIELLE RUTTICO
ANDREW MESSENGER
SAM GILLIES
DELIA BARTLE

Would you like to join our team? Email editor@cutcommon.com with your areas of interest.

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