Trish O’Brien is currently the Artistic Director of the Coffs Harbour Regional Conservatorium, and Artistic Director of the Coramba Chamber Music Festival. She is the cellist of the Endeavour Trio with clarinettist Paul Dean and pianist Stephen Emmerson, and Co-Director and cellist of Ensemble Q, which launches as Ensemble in Residence at Queensland Conservatorium in 2017.
With the Endeavour Trio, Trish has performed in the trio’s series at Queensland Conservatorium, Melbourne Recital Centre, Elder Hall in Adelaide and in broadcast for ABC Classic FM. As guest artist, she has performed with the Navarra Quartet (UK), the Australian String Quartet, the Grainger Quartet, with English violinist Jack Liebeck, and Swedish guitarist Johannes Møller. She performed as soloist and chamber musician at the Alpine Classic Music Festival (Switzerland), Bangalow Music Festival, Camden Haven Music Festival, Coramba Chamber Music Festival, Dunkeld Festival of Music, Four Winds Festival, Rosnay Music Festival, Gold Coast Arts Festival and Queensland Conservatorium’s Crossbows Festival. In 2016 she performed in the UK with Jack Liebeck, Paul Dean, Igor Kennaway and David Dolan at Cambridge University, Guildhall School of Music and Hampstead Heath’s St John’s Cathedral. She will be touring with the DSCH Shostakovich Ensemble (Portugal) in November to Spain, Portugal, Hamburg, and across Australia in 2018.
Trish was Artistic Director for the APRA award winning Camden Haven Music Festival from 2004 – 2008, and Artistic Director of The Piazzolla Project. She has recorded for ABC Classics, ABC Classic FM and 2MBS Records, and has toured Australia extensively as a soloist and chamber musician.
Several Australian composers including Matthew Hindson, Elena Kats Chernin, Andrew Schultz, Paul Dean, Mark Isaacs and Christopher Harley have composed works for Trish, and she performed the Australian Premieres of both the Myaskovsky Sonata for Cello and Piano, and Prokofiev Sonata for Solo Cello.
Trish was Associate Principal Cellist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (1988 – 97), as well as guest principal cello for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. As a member of the SSO, she toured the UK, USA, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, Holland and Switzerland.
Trish was Commonwealth Finalist and winner of the String Category for the ABC Young Performer of the Year, performing Bloch’s Schelomo with the Sydney Symphony and Queensland Symphony Orchestras and in the same year won the Fine Music 2MBS Young Performer of the Year. Trish was a member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, the Tasmanian Chamber Players (founding member), the Seymour Group, the Hazelwood Quartet, the Sydney Chamber Players, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, the Adelaide Chamber Orchestra and the Adelaide Contemporary Ensemble.
Trish plays a Marcellus Robin (Bordeaux) cello, sponsored by Hunter Violins.