Eleanor Mancini has been a member of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra since 1980, playing in the First Violin section. Eleanor studied at the famous Stolyarsky School of Music in Odessa, Ukraine for 12 years, finishing with top honours, and completed her Bachelor degree in Moscow with the Russian Academy of Music under Professor Peotr Bondarenko, David Oistrakh’s assistant. She also studied Quartet class with the renowned 1st Violinist of the Borodin String Quartet, Rostislav Dubinsky.
Since moving to Melbourne in 1979, Eleanor has performed with various chamber groups including Pro Arte, Melbourne Musicians and the Philharmonia of Melbourne, for which she lead the second violin section for 12 years. In 1989 Eleanor performed as a soloist with the MSO in the “Hoffnung” Festival Concert at Hamer Hall and says that she will never forget this exhilarating experience of performing solo in front of the packed concert hall with then Chief Conductor Hiroyuki Iwaki in the audience. Eleanor says that returning to Russia with the MSO in 2003 and making documentary about the whole journey with the Foreign Correspondence was very emotional
experience for her.
Both concerts in St Petersburg, in Mariinsky and Smolny were major highlights of her musical career. In October 2004, as part of the Melbourne International Art Festival, Eleanor performed three quartets by Australian composers Elena Katz-Chernin, Larry Sitsky and Linda Phillips and in 2010 her newly established quartet Alla Corda participated in a tribute concert to the Musicians of Terezin. In 2011 her quartet group took part in the MSO Chamber Players concert performing a piece by her favourite Australian composer Elena Katz-Chernin.
