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Catherine Hewgill

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Catherine Hewgill (born 1963) is an Australian cellist. Since 1990 she has been the principal cellist of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician she was a founding member of the Novalis Quartet and has recorded with The Australian Trio for ABC Classics.

Life and career

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Hewgill grew up in Perth. Her father was an academic and both her parents were amateur musicians. As a child she began playing a 3/4 size cello given to her by a family friend and shortly thereafter began formal studies in Perth with Jill Cole, a cellist with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. In 1978 her father's work took the family to London for a year where she studied at the Royal College of Music with Eileen Croxford.[1] After graduating from high school in Perth, she attended the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music where she was a student of Gabor Rejto and received her Bachelor of Music in cello performance in 1985.[2][3]

Hewgill continued her studies at the Aspen Music Festival and the Music Academy of the West[4] and had private tuition from Mstislav Rostropovich and William Pleeth. In 1988 after touring Europe with I Solisti Veneti, she returned to her native Australia, initially as a cellist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. She joined the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1989 and in 1990 became the orchestra's Principal Cellist.[1][5] That same year she became a founding member of the Novalis Quartet, a string quartet which specialised in the music of the Romantic era.[6][7]

She had a 14-month forced career hiatus when she fell outside the Sydney Opera House in 2001 while carrying her cello, a 1729 Carlo Tononi. The cello was unscathed, but all the bones in one wrist were crushed. After months of surgery and rehabilitation, Hewgill returned to the concert stage as a soloist in November 2002 with a performance of Brahms' Double Concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.[8][9] In addition to her orchestral and chamber work, she has served as an adjudicator for the inaugural Australian Cello Awards and has given masterclasses at the Australian National Academy of Music.[10][11]

Hewgill is married to a cinematographer. The couple have two children, a son and daughter.[1][9]

Recordings

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Hewgill's recordings with The Australian Trio include:

  • Saint-Saens: The Complete Piano Trios. 2008, ABC Classics[12]
  • The Australian Trio: A Piano Trio Anthology, 2006, ABC Classics[13][14]

With the Sydney Symphony Orchestra:

  • Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No 2, Romance, Song Without Words, Humoresque (SSO)[15]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Mendelson, Henry (August 2013). "Catherine Hewgill, the Mellow Cello of the Sydney Symphony", pp. 9–10. Fine Music Magazine. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  2. ^ Shugold, Marc (13 February 1985). "Music Reviews : 'Mi-parti' Introduced at Usc". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  3. ^ USC Thornton School of Music. 1980s – Undergraduate Alumni. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  4. ^ "Alumni Roster". musicacademy.org. Archived from the original on 5 June 2012. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  5. ^ Phillip Sametz (1992). Play On!: 60 Years of Music-Making with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. ABC Books. ISBN 978-0-7333-0102-5.
  6. ^ Bebbington, Warren Arthur (1997). "Novalis Quartet", The Oxford Companion to Australian Music, p. 496. Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Pleskun, Stephen (2012). A Chronological History of Australian Composers and Their Compositions – Vol. 3 1985–1998. Xlibris Corporation. p. 371. ISBN 978-1-4797-8884-2.
  8. ^ Morgan, Joyce (22 November 2002). "Injured, but still going for broke". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  9. ^ a b Meacham, Steve (29 November 2006). "Cellist faces her toughest workout yet". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  10. ^ Galvin, Nick (2 July 2013). "Bows poised for battle of cellos". The Age. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  11. ^ Australian World Orchestra (2013). Masterclass. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  12. ^ OCLC 271860993
  13. ^ OCLC 225563042
  14. ^ "A Piano Trio Anathology". Review by Michael Cookson. MusicWeb International.
  15. ^ Scott, Phillip (26 September 2013). "Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No 2, Romance, Song Without Words, Humoresque (SSO)" Archived 26 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Limelight. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
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