Riley Skevington
Associate Concertmaster
After completing a Bachelor of Arts (Majoring in Music and Specialist Music Studies) at the University of Western Australia, Riley gained a scholarship at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) in 2014. Studying with Dr. Robin Wilson, Riley went on to win the Kendall National Violin Competition, the Australian Youth Classical Music Competition and was a semi-finalist in both the ABC Young Performers Award and the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition.
After ANAM, Riley earned a position in the prestigious Karajan Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker, performing regularly with the Orchestra from 2018-2021. Riley’s time in Berlin saw him tour extensively with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and perform Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at the Philarmonie accompanied by the Karajan Academy. During this time he worked closely with conductors such as Kirill Petrenko, Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim, the late Mariss Jansons, Zubin Mehta, Andris Nelsons and Reinhard Goebel.
Riley has performed in a number of National and International festivals including; the BBC Proms, the Menuhin Festival, Musikfest and MaerzMusik in Berlin and most recently in summer festivals in Salzburg, Baden-Baden, Amsterdam and China.
A proponent of new music, Riley has worked extensively with a number of notable composers, giving world premiere performances of chamber works by; Unsuk Chin, Enno Poppe, Péter Eötvös and closer to home; Paul Stanhope and Emma Greenhill.
In demand as a soloist, Riley has given concerto performances with; the Karajan Academy Orchestra, the ANAM Orchestra, the Geelong and Fremantle Symphony Orchestra’s and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with a performance of the Brahms Violin Concerto.
Complementary to his role with WASO, Riley is Head of Strings at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), enjoying a varied workload of teaching, directing and lecturing.
Riley currently performs on a violin made by and generously on loan from the German Luthier Stefan-Peter Greiner.