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Faculty 2011

Photo - Winds faculty - 2011



Conductor: Bjørn Breistein Trumpet: Matthew Sadler Trombone: Mark Hampson Horn: Erik Albertyn, Boris Mohr Clarinet/flute/saxophone: Brian Smith Oboe: Hilary Mohr Percussion: Dario Broccardo


Conductor: Bjørn Breistein was born in 1973 in Bergen, Norway. He studied at the Grieg Academy in Bergen, and is a professional euphonium player in the Bergen Military Band. As a euphonium soloist he has won three national competitions in Norway, and has also appeared as a soloist in Germany, Scotland and New Zealand. Bjørn is now increasingly focusing on conducting – he has attended master classes in Norway, the Czech Republic and Germany with teachers such as Kirk Trevor, Johannes Schlaefli, Tsung Yeh, Bjørn Sagstad, Rolf Gupta, Colin Metters and the late Alan Hazeldine.

As a conductor, Bjørn has a special interest in contemporary music. He has conducted premieres of the works of several Norwegian composers, including Jan Erik Mikalsen, Stig Nordhagen and Johan Modahl Leiva. He is especially fond of Torstein Aagaard-Nilsen’s compositions, and has conducted his works on many occasions.

This season, Bjørn conducts the Sandviken Wind Band; the current Norwegian national champions. He also works with the Bergen Symphonic Band, many of the members of which study at the Grieg Academy. Bjørn has worked with the Pleven Philharmonic Orchestra in Bulgaria where this September he spent three weeks conducting two concerts and recording three concertos for tuba and orchestra. The soloist was Eirik Gjerdevik, and the record will be relased under the Lawo Classics label in 2012.

Bjørn is excited to be back in South Africa where he will be conducting the Natonal Youth Wind Orchestra for the second consecutive year, and looks forward to introducing music by one of his favourite Norwegian composers, Geirr Tveitt, to our musicians and audience.


Trumpet: Matthew Sadler was born in London in 1981. He attended Winchester College as a Music Scholar and spent his Gap Year at the Universtität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Vienna. After receiving a First Class History Degree at University College London in 2003, he studied the trumpet at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Munich, with Professor Hannes Läubin. In 2006, he won a two-year scholarship as a member of the Herbert von Karajan Orchestral Academy giving him the opportunity to rehearse, perform and tour with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, playing under the greatest conductors in the world. He also performed in chamber music concerts with musicians such as Sir Simon Rattle and Pierre Laurent-Aimard. Matthew’s recording of Marches Héroique by Telemann with his organist Marcus Sterk appeared in Winter 2008 and was featured on BBC Radio 3. Since leaving the Karajan Academy, he has played in various ensembles including the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, where he is on trial, Musica Aeterna, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stockholm, the Bach Collegium Stuttgart, and WorldBrass. In 2009 he founded a Brass Quintet, Ensemble Schwerpunkt with whom he performs principally contemporary music, also collaborating with composers on new works. Ensemble Schwerpunkt won the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Prize der Preußischen Kulturbesitz in Berlin in 2010.


Trombone: Mark Hampson was educated in London at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and after Aufbaustudium in Mannheim for two years, he worked at the Nationaltheater Mannheim before moving to Spain and after being a member of the GMJO from 1993-1996.

Since then he has been a member of the orchestra in Gran Canaria and a founder member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. He has also played every Lucerne Festival Orchestra project and has collaborated with the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, NDR Hannover and Cadaquez Orchestra along with most of the orchestras in Spain.
He is also a member of various brass ensembles including MCO Brass, Canarian Brass Quintet and LFO brass. He is hoping to expand his teaching activities and is already a tutor at the Orquesta filarmonica de Gran Canaria academy.


Clarinet/flute/saxophone: Brian Smith. Originally from Buffalo, New York, Brian J. Smith has spent the last 18 years contributing to the musical scene in South Africa. Brian is a tallented multi-instrumental musician. He began his training at the age of seven in classical piano through Mrs. Estelle Seifert under the supervision of the Royal Ontario School of Music and the Bradley School of Music (Toronto Canada). He later went on to study voice with Robert Vehar and flute at the University of Buffalo with Marlene Witenauer, principal Flautist of the Buffalo Philharmonic. During this period Brian also started began his journey with the saxophone family which is his passion. His experiences in the University of Buffalo’s Consortium Musicum and with former professor of music, John Coulter (Wits) have given him a deep appreciation and love for early music. He currently has an extensive teaching practice in Johannesburg and boasts one of the largest groups of adult wind instrumental students. He is particularly involved in specialised church performance and music. He continues to perform on numerous recordings both secular and religious and has contributed his multi- instrumental skills to over 30 musical productions in the last 15 years. In 2008 he formed the South African Saxophone Quartet with the sole purpose of re-defining and bringing greater enlightenment about the saxophone to the broader South African public. Brian also constructs early instruments and has a deep affinity for the simple flutes and ethnic whistles. He resides in Northcliff, Johannesburg, with his wife, Ronel and two teenage sons Sean and Brendan.


Oboe: Hilary Mohr was born in Grahamstown in 1982 and went to school at the Diocesan School for Girls. She graduated from the University of Cape Town with a BMus (Orchestral Studies) in 2003, and with an MMus in 2007, both under Sergei Burdukov.

In 2003 Hilary was a member of the UCT Wind Quintet, which won the overall prize at the Huguenot Competition for Instrumentalists in Stellenbosch – this was the first occasion on which an ensemble won the overall prize. In September 2004 she travelled to the United Kingdom as the recipient of the Royal Overseas League / South Africa Travel Scholarship, which involved master classes with Sarah Francis at Dartington International Summer School, solo and chamber performances on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and a lunchtime concert at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

In October 2005 she attended master classes with Hansjörg Schellenberger, former principal oboe of the Berlin Philharmonic, in Sachrang, Germany. Hilary was selected in 2001 as oboe cadet in the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the “Sanlam Maestros of Tomorrow” scheme, and continues to play with the CPO, as well as the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic and Eastern Cape Philharmonic Orchestras on an ad-hoc basis.


Percussion: Dario Broccardo joined the Eastern Cape Philharmonic’s Music Investment Project in January of 2011.  He teaches percussion and conducts choirs and the BSO.  He studied BMUS at WITS and, since then, has played with orchestras including the NSO, JPO, JFO, KZNPO and is currently a percussionist with the ECPO.  When based in Johannesburg, Dario taught percussion and drumkit at various music centres.  Since then he has moved to the Eastern Cape and has been a music teacher at Kingswood College in Grahamstown.  Before accepting the position as percussion teacher, he was also involved as the percussion instructor for the Youth Orchestral Experience in 2010 and it was this that led to his deciding to join the ECPO and the investment project in a full-time capacity.  He is also the current director of the Rhodes University Chamber Choir.

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