Australian Haydn Ensemble: Schubert Songs

The Australian Haydn Ensemble is one of this country’s leading historically informed orchestras and chamber music groups. Formed in 2012, the ensemble has performed all over Australia, and has collaborated with leading Australian and international historical specialist performers. The Australian Haydn Ensemble’s founder, artistic director and principal violinist Skye McIntosh is one of the Library’s Creative Residents in 2025.

Schubert Songs weaves together some of Classical and Romantic composer Franz Schubert’s beloved lieder (songs) with four movements of Mendelssohn for String Quartet. Schubert’s lieder are traditionally performed with voice and piano, but for this program you will hear stunning arrangements for baritone and string quartet.

Much more than a lieder recital, this concert features some of Schubert’s most darkly hued songs, superbly delivered by David Greco’s mahogany bass-baritone, and intensified by expressive string quartet accompaniments.

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David Greco, Bass baritone

‘One of the foremost singers of his generation’ (Limelight 2022). David Greco is internationally regarded for his recordings of Schubert and Bach, having sung across Europe and in celebrated opera festivals.

He appears regularly with Australia’s finest orchestras, most recently as soloist in Verdi’s Requiem at the Sydney Opera House, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with West Australia Symphony Orchestra, and the Duruflé Requiem with Sydney Symphony.

He has been a principal artist with Opera Australia in The Eighth Wonder, The Love of Three Oranges and Handel’s Theodora. In 2023 he made his debut with Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand, as Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas.

David has an impressive catalogue of recordings including Jack Body’s Poems of Love and War and solo bass cantatas of JS Bach with the Netherlands-based Luthers Bach Ensemble.

He is an active researcher into historical performance of 19th-century voice and his PhD led to the first Australian recordings of a historically informed performance of Schubert’s songs cycles Winterreise and Die schöne Müllerin, the latter receiving an ARIA nomination for Best Classical Album in 2020.

David’s album of Schubert’s Schwanengesang will shortly be released as an Australian-first recording.

Skye McIntosh, Violin

Skye McIntosh is the founder and Artistic Director of the Australian Haydn Ensemble, now in its 12th year. This audacious undertaking is a testament to Skye’s musicianship and entrepreneurial spirit.

AHE, known for its innovative and ambitious programming, was delighted to perform at the Adelaide Festival in 2022 and Canberra International Music Festival in 2022 and 2023, as well as continuing to tour to Canberra and across regional NSW each year.

Skye attended the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Queensland Conservatorium and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She has made numerous concert appearances as soloist and director, and led the AHE on its first tour to the US in 2023, including a performance at Carnegie Hall. She has also toured nationally with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, as well as performing with the Orchestra of the Antipodes (Pinchgut) and the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra.

ABC Classics has recently released AHE’s third CD, featuring Skye performing Mozart’s Violin Concerto in G major.

Skye is playing a violin by Tomaso Eberle, 1770, Naples

Matthew Greco, Violin

Matthew is a concertmaster, soloist and core member of some of the world’s leading period instrument ensembles. He has been a regular member of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and concertmaster of the Orchestra of Antipodes (Pinchgut Opera) since 2006. In 2010 he moved to the Netherlands where he studied baroque violin at the Royale Conservatoire of the Hague and worked with leading European ensembles including De Nederlandse Bachvereniging and Les Talens Lyriques (France). He is a founding member of the Sydney-based ensemble The Muffat Collective.

Matthew enjoys teaching baroque violin at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music as well as performing with a variety of international ensembles and festivals in Australia and Europe.

Committed to producing a unique and individual sound based on historical performance practices, Matthew believes that 17th- and 18th-century music is full of vitality and emotions that speak to us now as much as they did in the past.

Matthew is playing a violin by David Christian Hopf, 1760, Quittenbach

Karina Schmitz, Viola

Hailing from the east coast of the United States, American violist Karina Schmitz has settled in Australia and is thrilled to be immersed in its rich and vibrant music scene. In addition to performing with the Australian Haydn Ensemble, she is principal violist with Orchestra of the Antipodes (Pinchgut Opera), and has performed with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra, Van Diemen’s Band, Salut! Baroque, and Ensemble Galante.

In the United States, Karina was principal violist of the Handel & Haydn Society in Boston, principal violist of Apollo’s Fire in Cleveland, principal violist of the Carmel Bach Festival in California, and founding violinist/violist with New York-based, 17th-century ensemble ACRONYM.

Karina holds viola performance degrees from New England Conservatory of Music (Boston) and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Her early music studies began as an undergraduate at Oberlin Conservatory with Marilyn McDonald, David Breitman, and Miho Hashizume, and she continued her training in the Apollo’s Fire Apprentice Program.

Karina is playing a viola by Francis Beaulieu, 2011, Montreal after Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza,1793, Milan

Daniel Yeadon*, Cello

Dr Daniel Yeadon is a Senior Lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, where he teaches cello and viola da gamba, coaches chamber music, and engages in research into learning, teaching and historical performance practices. Originally from the UK, Daniel read physics at Oxford University and then completed his postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music in London.

Daniel has a love for a wide range of musical genres and is an exceptionally versatile cellist and viola da gamba player, performing repertoire from the Renaissance through to Contemporary. Daniel is a passionate chamber musician, playing regularly with Australian Haydn Ensemble, Ironwood, Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra, and Bach Akademie Australia. For many years Daniel was a member of the renowned Fitzwilliam String Quartet and the exuberant period instrument ensemble Florilegium. He has made many award-winning recordings.

Daniel is playing a cello by William Forster II, 1781, London

*Daniel Yeadon appears courtesy of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music

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