Justine is sought after as soloist, chamber musician, concertmaster and orchestral violinist. Through her Creative Performance Coaching business ListenFeelPlay Justine supports musicians worldwide to maximise their performance success and enjoyment through insightful mind+body awareness.
From 2002 to mid-2017, as a founding member and violinist of NZTrio, Justine performed throughout New Zealand, Australia, Asia, South America, the USA, Europe and Scandinavia.
The group collaborated extensively across the arts spectrum, working with animated film, contemporary dance, theatre, voice, as well as cross-cultural musical works with masters of Māori taonga puoro, Chinese guzheng, and Cambodian traditional instruments. Commissioning and performing close to 40 works from NZ composers, NZTrio was subsequently honoured with a KBB Music/CANZ citation in 2012 and the Lilburn Trust Citation in 2017 for outstanding services to New Zealand Music.
An active recording artist, Justine has recorded Douglas Lilburn’s Piano and Violin Duos with pianist Michael Houstoun, and violin sonatas of Debussy, Janáček and Bartók with pianist Sarah Watkins. During her time with NZTrio, they built up a varied catalogue of recordings resulting in many nominations for awards. Their collaborative ‘classical-meets-jazz’ album, Vicissitudes with the Mike Nock Trio, was a finalist for Best Jazz Album in the 2017 Jazz Awards and their CD Sway won the ‘Classical Artist of the Year’ award in the 2017 Vodafone Music Awards.
In 2015, Justine recorded Chris Watson’s ogee – for solo violin and orchestra with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra – subsequently nominated as a finalist for the 2019 SOUNZ Contemporary Award.
Justine’s notable orchestral career saw her appointed to NZSO Sub-Principal 1st-Violin in the 1990’s, followed by Concertmaster of the Auckland Philharmonia from 2000-2004, where she was regularly featured as soloist. During that time, she was also involved within the first four international judging panels of the Michael Hill International Violin Competition.
A graduate of the University of Canterbury, Justine has a Masters degree from San Francisco Conservatory and a Doctoral degree from Stony Brook in New York. She has taught violin at Wellington’s Victoria University and held a position as Violin Lecturer at The University of Auckland.
Justine plays a 1868 J.B.Vuillaume violin.
