Victorian State Concert Orchestra

1. Advance Australia Fair
2. Thieving Magpie - Overture
3. Song to the Moon
4. More
5. La Paloma
6. Horn Performance
7. Anything You Can Do
8. Granada 
9. O Mio Babbino Caro
10. Pomp and Circumstance March

1. My Fair Lady
2. Holy City
3. Donner and Blitzen
4. The Jewel Song
5. Music Of The Night
6. One Fine Day
7. The Prayer
8. Pirates of the Caribbean
9. Time to Say Goodbye

Loretta's love, dedication and passion for the violin began at age 7, playing in many local orchestras and string ensembles. Some of these include, Melbourne Youth Orchestra, Australian Youth Orchestra, Geminiani, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Australian Pops Orchestra and she participated in many National Music Camps and Eisteddfods.

At the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, Loretta formed a successful violin/cello duo performing weekly for two years at the Spaghetti Theatre Restaurant, the Spaghetti Tree and Clifton Hill Hotel. Her highlight during this time being a performance at the dinner given in honour of Wan Li, Vice Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China at Government House, Melbourne. 

This was followed by extensive work with string quartets, winning the Musical Society of Victoria's 'Herbert N. Davis Chamber Music Award' in 1987, presented by Sir Yehudi Menuhin. During this time, Loretta was also working as a violin teacher at Avila College and Bialik College. In 1990 Loretta was awarded her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music from the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University.

After moving to Adelaide, Loretta then studied with the highly regarded Australian violin pedagogue, Ms Lyndall Hendrickson, where she also studied Educational and Psychological Learning Theories at the University of Adelaide and was awarded her Graduate Diploma in Education, majoring in Classroom Music and Instrumental Methodology.

Loretta also assisted Ms Hendrickson for six years, teaching beginner violin to students in the String Methodology component of the Bachelor of Music Degree, at the University of Adelaide. She was awarded a scholarship and in 1995, implemented a beginner violin teaching program at Gloriamus, Jakarta, Indonesia.

In 1996, Loretta furthered her violin performance studies with the internationally recognized Miss Beryl Kimber O.B.E., F.R.A.M. at the University of Adelaide, receiving a Graduate Diploma in Music Performance. She was also awarded the ‘Alexander Clark Memorial Scholarship’ and her L.Mus.A.. During this time Loretta taught at many private schools, Mercedes College, St. Ignatius College, Prince Alfred College, St. Peter’s Collegiate Girls’ School.

Continuing violin studies for a short time with Dr. Semyon Kobets, she also studied Clinical Pilates, working with physiotherapists as well as studying physiology and reading extensive literature on posture.

Returning to Melbourne, Loretta worked as a violin teacher at Carey Baptist Grammar School and freelance violinist performing with many orchestras such as La Fraternità di Solisti, Melbourne City Opera, Pro Musica, Nicholas Chamber Orchestra, Star Chorale, etc. and as concertmaster to numerous musical theatre production orchestras. 

Recently, Loretta recorded a solo violin composition by Melbourne based and very highly esteemed composer, Barry McKimm, which will be released in 2024. It forms part of a larger work, ‘Colombine’.

Currently, Loretta is extremely honoured to have received a dedication by Barry McKimm, for his new Second Violin Concerto.

Following a four-year engagement as Assistent Generalmusikdirektor at the Volksoper Wien and a seven-year tenure as Erster Kapellmeister at the Luzerner Theater, Warwick Stengårds is an Australian/Swedish freelance conductor based in Vienna. 

In addition to an extensive symphonic canon, Stengårds has a music-theatre repertoire of over 100 works performing with companies such as Vienna State Opera, Volksoper Wien, Folkoperan Stockholm, Opera Australia, Victoria State Opera, Chamber Made Opera and West Australian Opera where, in 1991, he was appointed Music Director.

Operatic highlights include the world premieres of Naske’s Die Rote Zora, Das Städtchen Drumherum, Enakos, Koehne's Love Burns, Tahourdin's Heloise and Abelard, Ingham's Transfigured Night, Koukias' Mikrovian and Australian premieres of Reimann’s Die Gespenstersonate, Turnage's Greek, Williamson's Our Man in Havana, Swiss premieres of Greek, Kraus’ Soliman II and Joplin’s Treemonisha

Stengårds also has wide experience with choral groups. In addition to a four-year term as Director of Queen's College Chapel Choir, he was Music Director of the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir for four years followed by a three-year appointment with the University of Western Australia Choral Society.

He has conducted the West Australian and Tasmanian Symphony Choruses, the undergraduate choirs at the Universities of Melbourne, Monash, Macquarie and Western Australia, the Ashton Smith Singers, the Newcastle University Choir, the Willoughby Symphony Choir and Harmonia Sacra.

In Europe, aside from the internationally acclaimed Johann Strauss Capelle and Schönbrunner Schlossorchester where he was appointed Chefdirigent in 2004, Stengårds has conducted the Ulster Orchestra in a series of concerts and recordings for the British Broadcasting Corporation, the SL Orkester, the Uppsala Kammarorkester, Klangforum Wien, MUSIKFABRIK (Koeln), the Wroclaw Philharmonic, the Rundfunk Sinfonie-Orchester Saarbrücken (featuring soloist Andreas Scholl), DalaSinfoniettan, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the European Doctors Orchestra and the Nürnberger Symphoniker.

Veronica is a lyric soprano, completing a Bachelor of Music Performance at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, under the tutelage of Loris Synan OAM and Vivien Hamilton.

She has enjoyed success in vocal competitions and Eisteddfods, and performs regularly as a soloist with the Victorian Concert Orchestra as part of its regional touring program.

She greatly enjoys performing in community theatre productions in genres ranging from opera to operetta and music theatre.

Nicholas is a tenor and actor based in Melbourne, Victoria. In 2016 he obtained a Diploma of Music Theatre from Box Hill Institute and in 2018 obtained a Bachelor of Music (Music Theatre) from the Australian Institute of Music in Melbourne.

This year he is completing his Bachelor of Music (Honours) at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music with the hope of pursuing further study overseas in 2025.

He is in his third year of being a member of the Opera Scholars Australia young artist program, and credits this with helping improve his skills in classical singing.

Nicholas has also created various cabaret projects, most recently Tony Abbott in: My Story My Way (MD Matthew Nutley), which premiered at the 2022 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. As an actor Nicholas most recently starred as the lead in Rain Falling on the Abattoir at Cracked Actors Theatre Company.

Nicholas is thankful for the opportunity to be back for another year as the resident tenor of the Victorian Concert Orchestra.

Nicholas is represented by JR Management and is a proud member of MEAA.