Biography
Bonnie Smart has performed both as 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 regularly appeared as Guest Principal Cello with the Canberra Symphony. She has also performed as 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 been a soloist with the Zelman Memorial Orchestra, the Monash Sinfonia, the Melbourne University Orchestra and the Melbourne Grammar Orchestra.
Bonnie was 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. As a recipient of a scholarship from the Foundation for Young Australians and an Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant, Bonnie has attended the International Holland Music Sessions. She has also been awarded the AE Floyd Memorial Scholarship at the University of Melbourne, where she completed a Master of Music in Performance under the guidance of Nelson Cooke.
During her postgraduate studies at Melbourne, Bonnie completed a minor thesis on a topic relating to Australian music history in the late nineteenth century. Her enthusiasm for the academic appreciation of music also saw her participate on the committee of the journal Context. In 2005 Bonnie combined her performance and academic interests, writing material for the Australian Music ExamViolin Series 8 Handbooks. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University; her research project entails examining the life, music and performance practices of the English cellist Robert Lindley (1776-1855), who was famed for his exuberant improvisations when accompanying opera, oratorio and the like!
Bonnie is Director of Studies in Music at Trinity College. She has tutored at The University of Melbourne in subjects concerning Australian music history, and in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Western music. Bonnie currently teaches cello privately in Parkville; she has also taught cello at various schools around Melbourne, and at The University of Melbourne.
Bonnie’s explorations into the world of improvisation on the cello began several years ago at a ‘Music Art Xpress’ night at Gasworks Art Park in Albert Park. This evening was followed by a series of small-scale concerts held in Bonnie’s home. Often on these occasions, Bonnie would devote a section of the performance to improvisation, using a simple chant or melodic structure as a departure point for evoking intuitive expression and flow. After many years of classical performing, Bonnie experiences improvising as an opening to new modes of expression and communication. Bonnie enjoys using improvisation in her cello teaching as a means to explore composing with young students. She is currently working on a mix of arrangements, compositions and improvisations for her first solo CD.
She enjoys cooking and you can check out her vegetarian blog here