Promoting the wider public awareness of neurodivergent experience and benefits through classical music with a special emphasis on South Australia’s creative women; I make beautiful music with special people to create experiences of colourful harmony for audiences of all ages.

Teaming up with talented individuals, I produce high quality harmonic experiences to resonate with audiences of all ages. I’m especially interested in amplifying the continuing history of South Australia’s creative women, and in encouraging more music education for children.

Creative Arts Fellow 2024 at National Library of Australia, Celia was awarded the Justice Elizabeth Fullarton “Excellence in Classical” Award at Australian Women in Music Awards 2023.  Master of The Kings Music, Judith Weir CBE, dedicated her first Oboe Concerto to Celia, co-commissioned by Adelaide, Tasmanian and Western Australian Symphony Orchestras in 2018. 

As a soloist she has performed with BBC Symphony Orchestra at The Barbican/Sir Andrew Davis, The Proms/John Adams, Adelaide Symphony/Douglas Boyd and Mark Wigglesworth, BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Richard Hickox and Mark Wigglesworth, Christchurch Symphony/Tom Woods, and Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gordon Hunt.

She has recorded dedicated solo works by Lord Michael Berkeley and Spanish film composer Carlos Miranda and presented two solo UK Premieres by Elliot Carter, both with the composer.

Chosen by the London Symphony Orchestra as a student for training with Leonard Bernstein, Celia also studied violin with legendary Hungarian educator Bela de Csillery, a pupil of both Kodaly and Hindemith. She was elected an Honorary Associate, Royal Academy of Music, London, in 1997. Formerly Chairman and Principal Cor Anglais with BBC Symphony Orchestra, Celia worked regularly in the Royal Albert Hall at The Proms, including the world’s biggest classical music concert, Last Night of the Proms, and at Abbey Road Studios in London, before relocating to Australia in 2007.

Celia now presents primary schools program Colours of Home with Musica Viva in Schools with guitarist Caspar Hawksley on tour across Australia. This work is driven by her lifetime’s experience of seeing colour in harmony: chromesthesia, a type of synesthesia (involuntary sound to colour experience). She is now researching the history of synesthestic composer Miriam Hyde.

Celia received a major ArtsSA Fellowship in 2020 to found her globally distributed label and YouTube Artaria celebrating chamber music recorded in South Australia. 

Celia has founded several chamber groups with select local soloists as well as a continuing duo relationship with collaborative pianist Michael Ierace for over a decade. These groups play both publicly and privately on demand, commission new repertoire, and all have a continuing commitment to music education:

Tarrawatta Trio with Michael Ierace and Thomas Marlin, cello, began at Collingrove Homestead, Barrossa and at North Adelaide Baroque Hall. Their unique Exclusive Musical Soirees were described in Limelight: “…so intimate … like musicians playing for themselves …”

Echo and Source with Michael Ierace and Mark Gaydon, bassoon, which began at Carrick Hill and Adelaide Town Hall private events, has commissioned several significant works for Double Reed Trio, performed and broadcast live for Musica Viva and in Bangkok, Thailand.

Beautiful Dreamers with Michael Ierace (keyboard); evolved from the lighter side of their classical duo created during Covid pandemic. Celia and Michael devised a popular, informal program for private events, aged care homes and hospitals featuring repertoire from music theatre, opera and shows.

Known for her genuine audience connection, Celia devised a series of personally introduced Signature Series concerts in 2018 in The State Dining Room, Ayers House. She was appointed Resident Artist with the National Trust of South Australia 2020-2024, undertaking artistic retreats at South Australia’s founding homestead Collingrove in the Barossa Valley. Celia has presented her uniquely illustrated pre-concert talks for Adelaide Symphony and for the Australian Chamber Orchestra. 

Celia talks in detail about her unusual life in music.