about
As the violist of Affinity Quartet from 2021 until 2024, she won major prizes in four international competitions in the 2022-2023 seasons. The quartet was awarded Grand Prize, First Prize for String Quartet and Audience Prize in the 2023 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, Second Prize and Best Interpretation of a Contemporary Work at the 2023 Mozart International String Quartet Competition in Salzburg, Second Prize at the 2023 Bad Tölz International String Quartet Competition and Third Prize at the 2022 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in London. With the quartet, Ruby also participated in the 2022 Montreal International String Quartet Academy where she received lessons from members of the Alban Berg, Artemis, Cecilia and Meta4 Quartets. Ruby performed and toured widely in Australia with Affinity Quartet, at venues such as the Melbourne Recital Centre and ANAM Quartetthaus, as well as regionally.
As a student at ANAM, Ruby received masterclasses from musicians such as Lawrence Power, Anthony Marwood, Gerhard Schulz (Alban Berg Quartet), Alistair Tait (Belcea Quartet) and Gabor Takacs-Nagy (Takacs Quartet) and performed under the direction of Simone Young, Douglas Boyd, Brett Dean, Stefan Asbury, Marko Letonja and Gregory Ahss.
As an orchestral violist Ruby was selected for the 2022 and 2023 Australian Chamber Orchestra’s Emerging Artist Program. She has also performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Western Australia Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria and Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra as a guest violist.
Ruby Shirres acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which she lives and works, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation, and pays her respects to Elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty has never been ceded.