PLAYERS

Josh Bennett

// mandolin & guitar

A multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer, and performer with a love of music from the world over. Josh's musical universe is all about string instruments, both bowed and plucked.

Holly Downes

// double bass

Known for showcasing the melodic capabilities of the double bass—which she wields with the deftness of a violinist—Holly is also a master of unusual accompaniment textures and new instrumental techniques.

Shane Lestideau

// violin & viola d'amore

Shane Lestideau is a Franco-Australian violinist with a passion for historical music, fiddle tunes, and rarely heard instruments such as the viola d'amore. Her compositions often take inspiration from the Australian landscape.

Rachel Johnston

// cello

One of Australia's most versatile performing and teaching artists, Rachel Johnston is a well known classical and alternative cellist. Her stellar career involves both soloing and playing alongside international stars.

Paperbark Quartet

Australian music for strings

Paperbark Quartet brings you four exceptional string players, composers and arrangers. Each with a distinguished solo career, they unite their diverse skills and styles to create music unique to Australia. Classical quartet repertoire brushes shoulders with new commissions and compositions from the group itself, as well as a dynamic folk repertoire and improvisation.

Violin & Viola d'amore

Shane Lestideau

One of Australia’s leading multi-genre violinists, Shane’s career is defined by its diversity. A classically-trained violinist with folk flair by day, and a folk fiddler with classical chops by night, she is equally at home with Mozart or Bach as she is playing in a trad session or ripping through solos on a festival stage. Following her passion for period instruments and historical performance practices, Shane trained on baroque violin in Paris and has since become a specialist in the field of 18thC Scottish music. A regular player with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Melbourne Baroque Orchestra, Shane directs Evergreen Ensemble with whom she has recorded and produced seven albums—three for ABC Classics.

Shane’s past performances and productions include the Victorian dates of Bill Bailey’s 2024 ‘Thoughtifier’ tour, an orchestral appearance in the 2024 Netflix film ‘Mozart’s Sister’, a UK tour in 2023, soundtrack recordings for the Melbourne Theatre Company and short films and documentaries, French tours with harpists Gwenaël Kerléo and Ysa, and the ‘Origin’ tours with Breton band, Aodan. Off-stage, Shane teaches at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and is a published writer with a PhD in musicology.

Mandolin & Guitar

Josh Bennett

Josh Bennett is a multi-instrumentalist (or as he calls it: a mental-instrumultiest), and one of Australia's most versatile musicians. Equally at home on guitar, sitar, dilruba (bowed sitar), fiddle, mandolin, bouzouki and tabla, his ability to attain such expertise across so many instruments and to blend his music into so many genres is astonishing.

The Australian Folk Music Awards Instrumentalist of the Year (2024), he's performed around the world, on guitar at guitar festivals, on mandolin at Bluegrass festivals, and on sitar for Pandit Ravi Shankar at his home in Delhi, India. He was Musical Director of the "Live at the Nash” Variety Show at the National Folk festival in 2024 and 2025, and holds the equal top record with Mal Webb for the most number of gigs at a Woodford Festival with 26 shows over 5 days.

He runs “String Along Sessions”, a regular community music gathering that facilitates collaboration and participation in music across skill levels, and regularly tutors at music camps such as StringMania, Turramurra, and Wirrina Bluegrass Music Camp. He’s composed music for film and stage, including Independent Theatre’s adaptation of E.M Forster’s “A Passage To India", short films “Strike Out”, “Azadi” and the award-winning “Twin Flame”. His music can be heard on albums and stage performances by Mustered Courage, The Bombay Royale, Freshly Squeezed, Liz Frencham, Lucy Wise, Tenzin Choegyal, Dya Singh, Beyond The Lake, Parvyn, BluGuru, and Canyon Dust.

Cello

Rachel Johnston

Originally from New Zealand, Rachel studied in Christchurch and London with Alexander Ivashkin and Natalia Pavlutskaya, at the Juilliard School in NY with Aldo Parisot, and in Cologne with the Alban Berg Quartet before playing for 7 years as a member of the Australian String Quartet- becoming one of Australia's best-known cellists, performing for audiences across the country as well as in the US, UK, and Europe.

She has appeared at many of the country's leading festivals including the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, the Canberra International Chamber Music Festival, the Sydney International Festival, and Musica Viva's Huntington Festival of Music, and has curated programs for the Perth International Arts Festival and the Adelaide International Cello Festival. Rachel has performed with many great artists from Australia and abroad such as Anne-Sophie von Otter, Alina Abragimova, Piers Lane, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Liwei Qin, Pieter Wispelwey, Nicholas Altstaedt, Slava Grigoryan, Katie Noonan, Sara Macliver, Fiona Campbell and the Goldner and Juilliard Quartets, and undertaken local collaborations with an array of leading artists including Kristian Chong, Kristian Winther, Anna Goldsworthy, Sally Walker, Nikki Vasilakis, Kirsten Williams and Daniel DeBorah.

As a sought after performer and teacher Rachel has performed, taught masterclasses and given improvisation workshops in NZ, Australia, Europe, the UK, Singapore, China and New York. She has recorded extensively for radio, toured with ARIA winning Australian artists such as Archie Roach and iconic rockers You Am I, was part of the Missy Higgins' Encore Tour which won an ARIA award for Best Live Act in 2024, toured and performed with cabaret favourites Alan Cumming, Paul Capsis and Meow Meow, has given international premiere performances of works by Sofia Gubaidulina, Brett Dean and Elena Kats-Chernin as well as many local composers, and has recorded extensively including works for ABC Classics and Chandos.

Her passion is exploring music across various genres while celebrating its unique ability to unite, communicate and inspire through performance and teaching.

Rachel is studying towards a PhD in the area of non-classical cello techniques and repertoire, but is on temporary hiatus due to two adorable but slightly villainous children. She lives with said creatures and partner Trent on a rural property in Majors Creek, NSW.

Double bass

Holly Downes

Holly Downes is an Australian double bassist, composer, and educator renowned for showcasing the melodic possibilities of the double bass with the deftness of a violinist. A founding member of acclaimed chamber-folk trio The String Contingent, Holly has toured widely across Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Scandinavia, releasing six albums of original music.

Her musical projects span folk, classical, jazz, and contemporary styles, and she regularly performs with banjo-led folk band The Good Behaviours and alongside songwriter Fred Smith in his Sparrows of Kabul project. Known for her adventurous accompaniment textures, technical agility, and creative leadership, Holly has also collaborated with The Griffyn Ensemble, Empire State Elevators, and the Lucy Wise Trio.

Beyond the stage, she holds a Master of Teaching and a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology, and currently works as a classroom strings specialist and bass teacher at St Leonard’s College in Melbourne. Holly became Co-Artistic Director of the National Folk Festival in 2023 and has been at the heart of Stringmania since its inception.