Ross Alley, a New Zealander, graduated from Victoria University of Wellington, after which he became sole pianist for the Royal New Zealand School of Dance and Musical Director for many shows in Wellington. Moving to Melbourne in 1979, he worked for the Australian Ballet School and Australian Ballet before arriving in London, where for his first ten years he was a pianist at the Royal Ballet School and Music Tutor to its Teacher Training Course.

In 1990 Ross was appointed a music lecturer at Birkbeck College, University of London, leading to a wide range of further lecturing engagements. He became a frequent speaker at the Royal Opera House, giving more than 70 talks on opera and ballet music.

He has given numerous pre-performance talks and lectures at English National Opera, Wigmore Hall, the Wagner Society, Symphony Hall Birmingham, the Gustav Mahler Society, NADFAS, Kenwood and the London Jewish Cultural Centre. Ross also organises his own private lecture series on opera at venues across London, the longest-running of which has continued for almost 30 years.

Helen Ayres is a doctoral graduate of the University of Melbourne and a founding member of Seraphim Trio. She has appeared as a guest artist with numerous Australian ensembles including Flinders Quartet, Syzygy, the Australian Octet and Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. After spending two years in London studying pedagogy at the Yehudi Menuhin School, Helen returned to Adelaide to teach violin at the Elder Conservatorium’s Centre for Young Musicians.

While living in London, Helen performed with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra, appearing throughout England, Scotland, Germany, Austria and China. In Australia she has been a member of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and has performed as guest principal with Orchestra Victoria and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

With Seraphim Trio, Helen has appeared at festivals including the Melbourne International Arts Festival, Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, Adelaide Festival of Arts, Adelaide French Festival and Peninsula Summer Music Festival, as well as Opera Australia’s Ring Festival in Melbourne. Seraphim Trio has recorded extensively for ABC Classics.

Isla Violet Baring OAM founded The Tait Memorial Trust in 1992 in memory of her father, Sir Frank Tait, and his brothers, whose work played an important part in the development of theatre and the performing arts in Australia.

Isla’s mother, the singer Viola Tait, inspired her to organise a fundraising concert in support of the young Australian singer Liane Keegan, who had recently arrived in London. The first Christmas Concert at Australia House was a great success and became the foundation of the Trust’s annual programme of events.

In 2009 Isla Baring was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division for her service to the arts through her support of young Australian musicians and performing artists.

Australian-born pianist, musicologist, composer and editor Leslie Howard is internationally recognised as one of the foremost interpreters and scholars of Franz Liszt. Born in Melbourne, he displayed exceptional musical gifts from childhood, making his mature concerto debut at thirteen in Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto. He later studied at Monash University and pursued postgraduate musical studies in Italy with Guido Agosti before settling in London in 1972.

Howard’s association with Liszt has defined a distinguished international career. In 1986 he presented ten Liszt recitals at Wigmore Hall, leading to Hyperion Records’ invitation to record Liszt’s complete works for solo piano. The resulting project ultimately extended to 100 CDs and included more than 300 premiere recordings, earning Howard a place in Guinness World Records for the largest recording project undertaken by a solo recording artist.

His repertoire extends far beyond Liszt, encompassing a substantial body of solo and chamber music and more than eighty works with orchestra. He has taught at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and given masterclasses at the Royal College of Music and Royal Academy of Music. He is also active as a composer, arranger and editor, with works including an opera, a marimba concerto, chamber music and numerous pieces for piano.

Howard has served as President of the Liszt Society since 1987 and has received major international distinctions for his contribution to Liszt scholarship and performance, including honours from the Hungarian Government and six Grand Prix du Disque awards.

Deborah Humble is one of Australia’s most successful and versatile dramatic mezzo-sopranos, performing regularly internationally and in Australia.

Her engagements have included Erda in Siegfried and Das Rheingold with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra under Jaap van Zweden, her Boston Symphony Hall debut as Erda in Siegfried, Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde in Mexico City, Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle in Melbourne and performances of Elektra at the Hamburg Staatsoper.

Her extensive concert repertoire includes Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 and Symphony No. 8, Mozart’s Requiem, Elgar’s Sea Pictures and The Kingdom, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Verdi’s Requiem and Wagner’s Parsifal. She has also given recitals and masterclasses in Australia and the UK.

Read More

Born in Adelaide, South Australia, violinist Belinda McFarlane first came to London as Leader of the Australian Youth Orchestra for the BBC Proms. She subsequently remained in the UK, continuing her studies with Emanuel Hurwitz and Carmel Kaine before joining the Second Violin section of the London Symphony Orchestra.

A passionate advocate for communication through music, Belinda has led workshops for LSO Discovery and with her piano trio fiorini, named after her Fiorini violin, in projects around the world. She returns regularly to Australia to direct orchestras and training workshops for the Australian Youth Orchestra and Australian World Orchestra.

Belinda formerly served on the Board of The Tait Memorial Trust as Vice-Chair and has made an important contribution to the Trust’s support of young Australian and New Zealand performing artists. She now serves on the LSO Discovery Advisory Committee.

For many years Belinda was married to the late London Symphony Orchestra trumpeter Nigel Gomm.

Australian-British concert pianist and recording artist Rosemary Tuck has established an international career distinguished by her championship of neglected piano repertoire and a substantial catalogue of world premiere recordings. Born in Sydney, she studied in Canberra with John Winther, at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore with Walter Hautzig, and in London with Andrzej Esterhazy, a pupil of Heinrich Neuhaus.

Since representing Australia in a series of concerts in the United States under the auspices of the Australian-American Bicentennial Foundation, Rosemary has performed internationally at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, London’s South Bank Centre, the National Concert Hall in Dublin and the Aarhus Musikhuset in Denmark. She has appeared as soloist with the English Chamber Orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia, ABC Sinfonia and Orchestra of the City.

Rosemary has devoted considerable attention to composers whose piano music has been overlooked, particularly William Vincent Wallace and Carl Czerny. Her extensive Naxos discography includes Wallace’s Chopinesque, selected as a Gramophone Critics’ Choice of the Year in 2012, and the complete concertos and concertinos of Czerny with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Richard Bonynge. Four recordings from the Czerny series reached the UK Specialist Classical Charts, while the recording featuring Czerny’s Second Grand Concerto was named a MusicWeb International Recording of the Year in 2020.

Rosemary has worked closely with Richard Bonynge AC CBE since a 2004 Tait Memorial Trust concert devoted to William Vincent Wallace. In 2020 she was Artistic Director and soloist for Bonynge’s 90th Birthday Gala.

In 2021 she commissioned Australian composer Andrew Schultz to develop a piano concerto from an unfinished work by Richard Meale, with assistance from the Australian Music Foundation. Rosemary gave its world premiere at Cadogan Hall, London, on 15 October 2025 with the New London Orchestra conducted by Adrian Brown.

Rosemary has served on the committee of The Tait Memorial Trust since 2004, supporting the Trust’s work with young Australian and New Zealand performing artists.

Chad Vindin is a vocal coach at the Royal Academy of Music and a staff pianist at the Royal College of Music, and performs regularly across the UK and internationally.

As a collaborative pianist he is the winner of the accompanist prize at the Royal Over-Seas League Competition, the Ludmilla Andrew Russian Song Accompanist Prize at the Royal Academy of Music and the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards Accompanist’s Prize at Wigmore Hall.

Chad has worked extensively in opera as a répétiteur and conductor. He was a founding member of Sydney Chamber Opera and has worked as a répétiteur for English Touring Opera, The Grange Festival, Bury Court Opera, Bergen National Opera and the Royal Opera House, London. He was assistant conductor for The Grange Festival’s production of The Yeomen of the Guard and conductor for Uncovered Opera productions of Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos and Don Carlos.

He is a regular staff pianist at the Oxenfoord International Summer School for Singers and Accompanists with Malcolm Martineau and an alumnus of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme. As a chamber musician he has worked with ensembles including Manchester Collective, the Marsyas Trio, the Magnard Ensemble and the Instante Collective.

Chad is Chair of the Music Board and a Trustee of The Tait Memorial Trust.