Niki began her musical life learning piano at the age of 5 and soon moved on to the violin, and has studied and performed classical music extensively. Niki studied music initially at The University of Sydney and more recently attained her Masters of Music in Performance from the prestigious Royal Northern College of Music in the U.K. There she also worked as a freelance musician performing with orchestras such as The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and was also a violin tutor at Manchester High School for Girls.

Since her return to Australia from the UK Niki has focussed her attention and passion on many different types of music, ranging from string quartets, to country, flamenco, and popular music. Niki also performs with several groups in and around the Illawarra region including her own group High Fidelity.

Nicole works as a violist and teacher. She has played in groups such as Steel City Strings, Musica Troppo and Score Ensemble. She is currently a member of The Gleniffer String Quartet. Nicole spent five years teaching in London, during which time she studied Caribbean steel pan drumming and performed with the group Dexter’s Drummers.

Nicole is a very keen advocate of Australian Music. She has co-written a book on Australian music, written Honours and Masters theses on Australian Music History, published articles and collated the Historical Anthology of Australian Music for the University of Wollongong. She has given the world premier of a number of viola compositions including Andrew Schultz’s ‘Attack’ (AMEB Associate) and Andrew Ford’s ‘Swansong’ (AMEB Licentiate)

John Benz was born in London but received his musical education in Australia and Germany. After completing his Honours Degree with Kurt Hess at the University of Adelaide and chamber music studies with the Australian String Quartet in Adelaide, he continued his studies in Europe, receiving a German Music Performance Diploma at the Freiburg Staatliche Musikhochschule. He also participated in music courses in Europe for Cello and Chamber music with world renowned artists such as Anner Bylsma, Janos Starker, Rainer Kussmaul and the Cleveland String Quartet.

In Australia he was a member of the Adelaide Chamber Orchestra and was a founding member of the Adelaide Cello Ensemble. He has recorded several CDs in Australia, and more recently in Stuttgart with the Odeon String Quartet. Concert Tours have lead him through Europe, Russia, Korea and the USA. He previously held teaching positions at music schools in South Germany. Until his recent move back to Australia he played with the Dijon Opera Orchestra in France. Since 2002 he has been artistic director of the Flavigny Music festival in Burgundy. John joined the staff at the Conservatorium in 2009.