Christopher Palameta & Olivia Sham
Biography Christopher Palameta & Olivia Sham
Christopher Palameta
Born in Montreal and currently residing in Paris, Christopher Palameta is a specialist of historical oboes and performs with many of Europe’s finest period ensembles. These include Il Pomo d'Oro and Accademia Bizantina in Italy; The Gabrieli Consort and Arcangelo in the UK; Les Arts Florissants, Pygmalion, Les Musiciens du Louvre, and Les Siècles in France; Anima Eterna, La Petite Bande and Vox Luminis in Belgium; Die Kölner Akademie in Germany; Capella Cracoviensis in Poland; and various other ensembles such as the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Ensemble Arion (Canada), the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, Suomalainen Barokkiorkesteri (the Finnish Baroque Orchestra) and MusicAeterna (Perm, Russia). With these orchestras, he has toured on five continents and recorded 52 discs for the Erato, Sony BMG, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, CPO, BIS, Alpha, Naxos, ATMA, and Analekta labels.
An ardent defender of unexplored repertoire for the oboe, Palameta's solo discography includes suites by Marin Marais (nominated in 2015 for the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik or German Record Critics’ Award), sonatas by Janitsch, Krause, Graun, Philidor and Grétry with his chamber collective Notturna for the Sony and ATMA labels, and a recording of concertos by Molter with Die Kölner Akademie for ARS.
A recipient of several research grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Christopher took his graduate degree from McGill University in historical oboes, where he studied with the late Bruce Haynes and the late Washington McClain. After his studies, he was appointed to the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (Toronto, Canada), where was a core member for five years. He is currently pursuing his PhD at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where his research on the oboe under Berlioz is supported by the Maple Leaf Trust (Canadian Centennial Fund).
He teaches historical oboes at the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki University of the Arts).
Olivia Sham
performs on both modern and historical pianos, with a particular interest in nineteenth-century historical instruments and repertoire.
Born in Australia, Olivia completed a Bachelor of Music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (The University of Sydney) on a scholarship of Outstanding Academic Achievement and Merit, where she studied with Elizabeth Powell, and graduated with First Class Honours and the University Medal. She was then awarded a full scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she completed a Master of Music with Professor Christopher Elton and graduated with Distinction. She has recently finished her doctorate on Liszt performance practice at the RAM, with the support of an Overseas Research Award. For this, she performed a public six-recital series of Liszt’s music at the RAM, including performances on historical pianos.
Olivia has won numerous prizes and awards, including keyboard winner of the Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year (2003), the John Allison Piano Scholarship (2006), and prizewinner in the Australian National Piano Award (2006). Olivia was a Making Music Philip & Dorothy Green Young Concert Artist (2013), and performs for the Keyboard Charitable Trust (fortepianos) and Weltklassik concerts (Germany). Her concerto experiences includes performances with orchestras including the Melbourne Symphony, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Ku-Ring-Gai Philharmonic Orchestra (Australia), Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (USA), Bacau Philharmonic Orchestra (Italy), and Finchley Chamber Orchestra and Guildford Symphony Orchestra (UK).
Olivia is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music. An active recitalist on both modern and historical instruments, her performance interests have taken her to museums and collections of musical instruments all over Europe and the UK. In April 2016, Olivia directed an international conference-festival (“The Historical Pianist”) at the Royal Academy of Music and at the Cobbe Collection. Her debut album, Liszt and the Art of Remembering, was released by Avie Records in November 2015 to critical acclaim.
