Vera Marcu graduated from the Music University in Bucharest with a Masters Degree in violin performance. She joined the Romanian Opera Orchestra in 1997 and at the same time continued studying in masterclasses and summer academies with Alexandru Gavrilovici and Victor Pikaisen. Vera arrived in Australia in 2000 and started having viola lessons with Anne Louise Comerford and Roger Benedict. She is currently working as a freelance violist with the Sydney Symphony and the Opera and Ballet Orchestra as well as teaching violin and viola at Roseville College and from her private studio.

Andrea Ng graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with a Bachelor of Music in Performance in 2009. She has participated in Asian Youth Orchestra, Pacific Music Festival and Sydney Sinfonia. She was principal of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra for two years and associate principal of Sydney Youth Orchestra in 2005. She has also participated in chamber music masterclasses with the Grainger and Borodin String Quartet. Her teachers include Jane Hazelwood, Reiner Schmidt and Jeremy Williams. She currently maintains a busy schedule conducting at Woollahra Public school and Burwood girls high school, performing with her quartet Encore strings and private teaching.

Natascha and Nigel have collaborated their classical/jazz backgrounds to form a unique duo transcribing and re-arranging some of their favourite music for clarinet and accordion.

Natascha completed her Bachelor of Music Diploma at the Sydney Conservatorium and then spent 17 years studying and freelancing with orchestras and as a soloist in Europe before returning to Sydney with her family and three daughters.

She has performed with Opera Australia, Sydney Chamber Opera, Opera House Baby Proms Concerts, Omega Ensemble and in recent years tutored at the SYO Summer Schools. Natascha has over 30 years of teaching experience and currently is on staff at Ascham School. Recently she was appointed Band Director at her daughters school Balgowlah North Public conducting two of their bands.

Nigel started playing accordion at the age of 7 but gave it up soon after in favour of the trumpet which he studied through to tertiary level, attaining his Associate Diploma in Jazz Studies at the Sydney Conservatorium. He has over 30 years of teaching and freelance playing with various big bands, rock & roll bands and jazz ensembles.

In his early twenties, it was The Buddy Holly show that gave him a role playing the accordion, and the instrument that had been in its case for far too long began to be played at jazz gigs with The Moods Band.

In the past 5 years Nigel's interest in French and alpine music has seen him play regularly at the German beer halls, cafes, markets and French breakfasts at private schools. Nigel currently teaches trumpet from his home studio and enjoys the challenge of conducting bands at Balgowlah North Public together with his wife.