Shannon Pittaway

Shannon Pittaway is a founding member of the Australian Brass Quintet and bass trombonist of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. He began playing the cornet at the age of six with guidance from his father Wayne Pittaway and grew up playing in Salvation Army brass bands. He holds a Bachelor of Music Performance from the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia and a Masters of Music from Northwestern University in Evanston, U.S.A. Whilst at the V.C.A. he studied tenor trombone with Ken McClimont and bass trombone with Eric Klay of the Melbourne Symphony and then completed his studies with Charlie Vernon and Michael Mulcahy of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Shannon has performed with the Melbourne Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Canberra Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony, Malaysian Philharmonic, Albany Symphony and the State Orchestra of Victoria. He was also a member of the Australian Youth Orchestra that toured China in 1998. Later that year he was a finalist of the International Trombone Associations “Lewis Van Haney” competition and following that in 1999, a semi finalist of the International Bass Trombone solo competition in Guebwiller, France. In 2002 he was a fellow of the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra in Sapporo, Japan and following that in 2009 was invited to participate in the Pacific Music Festival’s 20th Anniversary Orchestra. The PMFAO drew alumni from the last twenty years of the festival to recreate the first orchestral concert at PMF conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

In 2004, Shannon took up the position of bass trombone and contrabass trombone with the Finnish National Opera. Whilst in Europe he toured with the Finnish Radio Orchestra and the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra. The Singapore Symphony has taken him on tours through Asia, Europe, and the U.S.A.

Shannon is on the Artist Faculty at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore. He has received awards and grants from “The Foundation for Young Australians”, “The Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust”, “The Potter Foundation” and a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.