Innovative orchestra that was once located in Manchester, UK, is now thriving on Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. The Michael Haydn Orchestra is mostly of teachers, exceptional students, and alumni of the schools in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, the Michael Haydn Orchestra also brings together musicians from the leading collectives of Australia and abroad. We celebrate the local musical talent along with the Australian cultural heritage. During our concerts, we will combine music-making with presentations in collaboration with leading specialists in musical and artistic topics we seek to explore with our audience.
FOUNDER
MARCO BELLASI
Principal Conductor and Artistic Director
Music Director
Prize-winning conductor, a dual citizen of Italy and Australia, Marco has recently finished his appointment as Junior-Fellow conductor at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester United Kingdom.
In addition to the RNCM orchestra, he has worked with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Hallé Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini and the Liverpool Ensemble 10/10.
His repertoire includes symphonic, choral, opera and contemporary music. He met critical success in the RNCM for his performance of Sibelius’ Symphony No 2, Prokoviev's Violin Concerto No 1 and Ravel’s 'La Valse'. He also conducted Stravinsky’s’ Feu d’Artifice’ in the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester and Steve Reich’s’ Eight lines’ in the presence of the composer. He worked with Sir Mark Elder CBE and has assisted him at various times with the Hallé Orchestra. He was an active participant in the 2017 'Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy' where he worked with Maestro Riccardo Muti on Verdi's Aida and performed in a public concert in Ravenna Italy. In addition to his International music career, he was the Musical Director at the Northern Rivers Symphony Orchestra from 2020 to 2025, has worked on many occasions with the Gold Coast Chamber Orchestra, and has performed with the orchestra of the University of Queensland in the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC). He is also the musical director at the Coolamon Singers in Burleigh Heads.
Ayesha Gough
Concert Pianist
Co-Founder and director of chamber music
Australian pianist Ayesha Gough is known for her captivating performances, combining superb technique with deeply emotional interpretations. Her performance with the Russian National Orchestra, under the baton of Mikhail Pletnev, was described by Moscow’s Musical Life Magazine as virtuosic and sensitive.
First prize-winner at the 2015 Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition, Ayesha has performed with the Queensland Symphony, the Queensland Conservatorium Symphony, and the Queensland Pops Orchestra under such conductors as Edvard Tchivzhel, Nicholas Braithwaite, Daniel Carter, and Marco Bellasi. Her recital opportunities have taken her throughout Australia, as well as New Zealand, Italy, Japan, and China.
Ayesha has developed her own style of unique and engaging performances grounded in traditional pianism. As the recipient of the 2022 Michael Kieran Harvey Scholarship, she created the project ‘Landings’, an exploration of the Australian landscape via improvisation, videography, and poetry. More of Ayesha’s compositions can be found on SoundCloud.
Ayesha studied under Oleg Stepanov for 10 years, both at a pre-tertiary and tertiary level at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University. Throughout 2018, she continued study in Italy with Boris Petrushansky at the Accademia Pianistica Internazionale “Incontri col Maestro”. In 2020, she graduated from the Royal College of Music, London, with a Masters with Distinction. At RCM she studied with Andrew Zolinsky and Gordon Fergus-Thompson whilst undertaking research concerned with pushing the boundaries of the piano recital.
CO-FOUNDER
SAVVA ZVEREV
Violin Soloist
Conductor
“I thought to myself, ‘May thy pure and peaceful spirit hover around me, dear Haydn! If I can ever become like thee, peaceful and guileless, in all matters none on earth has such deep reverence for thee as I have.’ (Sad tears fell from my eyes. . . .)” Franz Schubert wrote these words in his diary after visiting Michael Haydn's grave in Salzburg.
Michael Haydn and the Path to Enlightenment
Michael Haydn (1737-1806) was Salzburg’s leading composer during his lifetime and a respected composition teacher who taught, amongst others, Anton Diabelli, and Carl Maria Von Weber, the father of the Romantic German Opera; he also influenced and inspired composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Schubert. Michael Haydn was a contender of Mozart's father, Leopold, at the court of Salzburg and had a strong musical influence over his son Wolfgang Amadeus. Young W.A. Mozart absorbed Michael Haydn's style and his great knowledge of counterpoint during the years he spent in Salzburg. Even when Mozart left Salzburg for Vienna, he continued to be inspired by Michael Haydn's compositions, which he often got on loan from him and which he copied; he sometimes even reworked some of these into his own compositions. Michael Haydn's name and oeuvre were overshadowed for unexplained reasons after his death; perhaps this happened because of the ever-growing fame of his elder brother Joseph Haydn or perhaps because his figure would come into the way of a popularised false image of W.A. Mozart as a genius that needed no teachers or cultural roots.
The name Michael Haydn perfectly represents our aim to inspire the Mozarts of the future!
UPCOMING PERFORMANCE
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