Elliot O'Brien
Viola
Elliot joined WASO in 2017
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Elliot O’Brien started playing violin at age 5. Moving to Perth with his family in 2008, he was awarded a music scholarship to attend Churchlands Senior High School, and shortly after finishing high school he was encouraged to take up the viola.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Music at from the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2013, Elliot received a full scholarship to move to Melbourne to study at the Australian National Academy of Music. Here he found tremendous gratification in focusing on chamber music in a range of groups and musical styles. Together with other ANAM students and alumni, he was a founding member of the Penny Quartet, a group that won the 2014 ANAM Chamber Music Competition. The quartet was proud to receive the John and Rosemary MacLeod Travelling Scholarship which funded their trip to study with the St. Lawrence String Quartet at Stanford University, California.
Elliot has appeared with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Elliot's principal teachers include Caroline Henbest, Chris Moore and Tzvi Friedl.
In his spare time Elliot also enjoys flying and building race drones.