BONNIE SMART

Cellist

Bonnie Smart has performed as both a soloist and chamber musician in various venues around Australia. She has appeared alongside David Pereira in the Sydney Festival's Twilight Chamber Music Series, and has recorded with Pereira and Ian Munro on the Tall Poppies label. During 2004 Bonnie has regularly appeared as Guest Principal Cello with the Canberra Symphony. She is also a casual player with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Her playing has been televised on Channel 7's Good Friday Appeal, and broadcast on ABC FM and 3MBS FM. She has also been a soloist with the Zelman Memorial Orchestra, the Monash Sinfonia, the Melbourne University Orchestra and the Melbourne Grammar Orchestra.

In 2000 Bonnie was awarded a scholarship from the Foundation for Young Australians and an Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant to attend the International Holland Music Sessions. In 2001 she was awarded the AE Floyd Memorial Scholarship at the University of Melbourne, where she recently completed a Master of Music in Performance under the guidance of Nelson Cooke. She has been a scholarship holder in the Australian National Academy of Music's inaugural Advanced Performance Program, during which time she began lessons with David Pereira. Prior to this, Bonnie studied with Phillip Green.

Bonnie has taught cello at the Faculty of Music, University of Melbourne, and has done academic tutoring. She has also taught at Camberwell Grammar and Melbourne Girls' Grammar Junior School. This year she will be focusing her studies on education, undertaking her Bachelor of Teaching through Deakin University.

She enjoys rollerblading, cooking, gardening, spending time with her pets and learning how to improvise on the cello.