NORTHERN LIGHTS: A BALTIC VOYAGE – GUEST ARTISTS

Return to Northern Lights: A Baltic Voyage

Ariella Caira, a UCT Theatre and Performance Honours graduate-turned-cellist, is a Cape Town-based musician with close to two decades of professional experience as a performer. Originally classically trained, Ariella has a passion for chamber music and ensemble playing, having performed in many orchestras and quartets over the years, including Wired, ACE and Simply Strings. She collaborates frequently with other musicians and has recorded for a variety of artists and genres including; Good Luck, Jeremy Loops, Hot Water, Paige Mac, Alice Phoebe Lou, Stealth Ulvang, Shen Winberg, Nicky Schrire, Aron Turest-Swartz and many others as well as recording frequently for movie soundtracks at studios such as Milestones and Pressure Cooker Studios.

Ariella is also a permanent member of SAMA award-winning all-girl instrumental pop group Sterling EQ. The band has enjoyed local and international success, performing in 12 different countries, including Turkey, India, Seychelles and UAE, featuring frequently in the media and on television shows. Sterling EQ has released three albums and a DVD independently and a fourth album, Pulse, through EMI South Africa (now Universal). Ariella also teaches cello privately and at St Cyprian’s School for Girls in Cape Town and when not making music, can be found recording voice-overs for radio and television advertisements or overdubbing for international movies.

Matthew was educated at Diocesan College (Bishops) where he studied organ under Director of Music, Mark Mitchell, as well as singing in the Chapel Choir. He spent a year at UCT in 2012, singing in the UCT Choir under a friend, John Woodland, before accepting the Davidge Organ Scholarship at Trinity College, Oxford, where he matriculated in 2013 to read for a Masters in Chemistry. While Organ Scholar, Matthew trained the College Choir for weekly services and annual tours to Europe and was admitted to Fellowship of Trinity College, London, and the Royal Schools of Music in music performance. Following the scholarship tenure, he then went to sing at Keble College, Oxford, under composer and organist Matthew Martin, taking part in the early music festival performance of Bach’s monumental B Minor Mass.

Matthew recently completed the MChem degree, being awarded first class honours and a thesis prize, and will take up a place on Oxford’s Doctoral Training Programme for Interdisciplinary Bioscience in September.