Et in Arcadia Ego

Laila Engle, flute
Emmanuel Cassimatis (pictured), oboe
Paul Champion, clarinet
Lyndon Watts, bassoon
Carla Blackwood, French horn

Image Kate O'Brien

Generously supported by Leading Patron Ulrike Klein AO.

For more information about the artists, please read the Additional Information section below.

Laila Engle’s diverse work as a performer, educator, and producer is unified by a commitment to performances that affect, compel and engage with Australian culture. Laila balances a busy touring schedule as flautist with the Royal Australian Air Force Band, alongside teaching and freelance commitments, and her work as Co-Artistic Director of award-winning Australian chamber group, Syzygy Ensemble. In demand as a collaborator and interpreter of new work, Laila has presented over 60 premiere performances.

Emmanuel Cassimatis is a Melbourne based Orchestral and Chamber Music Oboist. He moved from Sydney to attend the Australian National Academy of Music from 2014-15 and was also an ANAM Fellow as part of Ensemble Françaix in 2017. He currently works casually with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, the Tasmanian and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras and is the Oboist of Ensemble Françaix, a co-created Double Reed Piano Trio. Emmanuel began learning the Oboe on his 8th birthday and has never looked back.

Since 2004 Paul Champion has been Principal Clarinet of Orchestra Victoria, Melbourne’s opera and ballet orchestra. As a soloist with Orchestra Victoria he has performed Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, Rossini’s Introduction Theme and Variations, and Weber’s Concertino. He has been Guest Principal Clarinet with the Australian World Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Opera Australia Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Paul has taught extensively at schools and tertiary institutions, and has been a casual lecturer at the University of Melbourne since 2007. He is also the co-founder of the educational resource website Online Virtuoso.

Lyndon Watts became principal bassoonist of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of twenty-two. After eighteen years in this position Lyndon returned to Australia, accepting the position of lecturer in music at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Melbourne University, and tutoring the bassoon class at the Australian National Academy of Music. Lyndon is an active supporter of contemporary music and has premiered many compositions, most recently by Stuart Greenbaum, Miriama Young and Linda Verrier.

Carla Blackwood enjoys a diverse career performing as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician. Carla is passionate about both historically informed performance on period instruments and discovering and advocating for new and Australian music on the modern horn. She regularly features with top ensembles around Australia and Internationally. Carla spent over a decade living in Europe, where she was most Principal Horn of the Tiroler Symphonie Orchester Innsbruck. Since 2018 Carla has been Lecturer at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.