BELLINGEN – Sixteen-year-old Xanthe Bartholomaeus and her 14-year-old brother Flynn, both residents of Bellingen, recently completed a transformative week of music-making at the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra’s prestigious Young Musicians Studio (YMS), Australia’s only national youth orchestra experience dedicated to historically informed performance.
By Michael Burt
Bellingen music siblings Xanthe (16) and Flynn (14) Bartholomaeus have just enjoyed a week of music-making at nationally acclaimed One of three week-long programs offered yearly by the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra, YMS is Australia’s only national youth orchestra experience for historically informed performance (HIP). It attracts high school and tertiary musicians from all over the state and even (this year) South Australia, Queensland, Victoria and the ACT.
Participants like Xanthe and Flynn got to dive into 18th-19th century masterworks by Haydn and Beethoven, explore historical expressive techniques, try out gut strings and historical instruments, and bring the music to life in a final concert on Saturday 12 July.
It was Xanthe’s second YMS Academy, and she liked the first so much that her younger brother Flynn was inspired to audition for this year.
Xanthe had wanted to play violin since she was four years old – and got her wish at age 10. She didn’t even know about the viola, but once she heard it, she was hooked.
“I thought it was an amazing instrument,” said Xanthe. “But then I had an internal tussle – do I give up the violin and all those leading, show-off aspects?”
When she was 15 the viola won out, and soon she was successfully auditioning for YMS.
“My friend Lily told me she was doing this really cool camp, and I should audition,” Xanthe remembers. Auditions were just one month away, so she knuckled down, got to work – and was accepted into YMS 2024 NSW State Academy last October.
“It was so much fun, such a great experience. I’ve done a lot of camps, and YMS has such a strong community aspect. Everyone is so nice. And the programming is very balanced between talking, playing and learning.”
It’s also the only truly national youth orchestra for HIP – Historically Informed Performance. Xanthe had played on gut strings before, but this was total immersion.
“I think it’s so cool to find out all the old stuff about the instruments, how they’ve changed.,” she says. “I love the different sounds and tone qualities. Playing with a classical-era bow at YMS gave me a much better idea of how phrasing worked back then.”
Xanthe still plays the violin – “it’s like talking with an old friend” – sings in local choirs and composes, including duets for herself and her brother Flynn.
Like Flynn, she participates in local jazz improvisation groups and festivals.
Flynn started playing violin at age eight, inspired partly by Xanthe and partly by the concertmaster in the Bellingen orchestra.
Like Xanthe, Flynn has played in the Bellingen Youth Orchestra and Bellingen Youth Orchestra Sinfonia for a while, but after Xanthe enjoyed YMS 2024 NSW State Academy so much, he decided to audition for 2025 and was accepted!
So, what’s it like having a musical sibling in the Bartholomaeus family?
“We’re all pretty musical,” says Flynn. “Dad plays bass, Mum’s learning cello and our younger sister plays the flute. We do a lot of practice together and have done four performances of duets Xanthe wrote for us.”