Returning to Four Winds after a resounding 2025 concert, residency and repertoire, Melbourne-based Affinity Quartet earns its place as one of the most outstanding and awarded string quartets of its generation.
Proudly supported by Gang Gang Residencies
Affinity Quartet are globally recognised for exceptional music-making, winning the 2023 Melbourne International String Quartet Competition and earning laureateships at prestigious events such as the Bad Tölz International String Quartet Competition (Germany), the Mozart International String Quartet Competition (Austria), and the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition.
Whether illuminating the clarity of a classical masterpiece or delving into the textures of contemporary Australian works, Affinity Quartet plays with a rare unity of purpose — a sense of four voices speaking as one. At Four Winds, audiences can expect playing that is both emotionally fearless and elegantly refined, delivered with the quartet’s trademark intensity and imaginative flair.
“The young ensemble thus sets in motion a perfectly coordinated machine that takes the listeners between their wheels and releases them breathlessly.”
“This group of musicians has a collective wisdom and maturity which is singularly impressive … Affinity is a musical force with which to be reckoned.”
Artists
Shane Chen, violin
Nicholas Waters, violin
Josef Hanna, viola
Mee Na Lojewski, cello
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Meet the Artists
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Shane Chen
Chinese-Australian violinist, Shane Chen has appeared as a soloist with the Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, and Australian National Academy of Music Orchestra. Soon after completing his studies at the Australian National Academy of Music with William Hennessy AM, Shane joined the Flinders Quartet in 2013 and was recognised as one of Australia’s most exciting violinists, praised by Classic Melbourne for ‘powerful and expressive playing’. Shane has extensive orchestral experience. In 2019 he was appointed Principal First Violin of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and in 2021, Assistant Concertmaster of the Hangzhou philharmonic Orchestra. Returning to Australia in 2024 Shane joined the prize-winning Affinity Quartet.
Nicholas Waters
Founding Affinity Quartet violinist Nicholas Waters completed a Bachelor of Music at Melbourne University and the Professional Performance Program at the Australian National Academy of Music with teachers Dr Robin Wilson, Sophie Rowell and Mark Mogilevski. Nicholas has been a member of Flinders Quartet, an Australian Chamber Orchestra Emerging Artist, and a Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellow. He was awarded prizes at the Kendall Violin Competition and the E.V. Llewellyn Travelling Scholarship. With Affinity Quartet, he has received major prizes in international competitions, including at Wigmore Hall London, at the Mozart International (Austria), the Bad Tölz International (Germany) and at the Melbourne International (Australia). Nicholas has held leading roles including Concertmaster of Momentum Ensemble at the UKARIA 24 Festival directed by Nicolas Alstaedt, with the Sydney Chamber Opera, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Alongside Affinity Quartet, Nicholas teaches and adjudicates chamber music.
Josef Hanna
Australian Violist Josef Hanna completed a Master of Music Performance at the University of Sydney and the Professional Performance Program at the Australian National Academy of Music. His teachers included Goetz Richter AM, Alice Waten, Dr. Robin Wilson, Zoe Black, and Sophie Rowell. As a violinist, Josef has performed regularly with leading Australian orchestras including the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria and Opera Australia, where he was also a recipient of the Opera Australia Orchestral Fellowship. A lover of chamber music, Josef is a core member of the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. He received the Henderson and Westheimer Travelling Scholarships to further his chamber music study overseas and has been mentored by world-renowned string quartets including the Schumann Quartet and Tinalley Quartet.
Mee Na Lojewski
South Korean born Mee Na Lojewski, one of Australia’s leading cellists, is the recipient of a 2024-25 Ian Potter Emerging Performer Fellowship in support of her contribution to Australian chamber music. She completed her cello studies in 2014 at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) after completing her Master of Music with Distinction at Sydney Conservatorium and the Royal Academy of Music London. Her cello teachers include Susan Blake, Howard Penny, Mats Lidström, Julian Smiles and Timothy Walden. As a 2015 ANAM Fellow, she founded Affinity Quartet with a desire to curate innovative programs exploring classical and contemporary chamber music. The same year, she was awarded the first of two Australia Council for the Arts Career Development Grants taking the quartet to the UK and Germany. Over 10 years Affinity Quartet has become one of Australia’s most outstanding and awarded string quartets, highlights include ongoing mentorship with Alban Berg Quartet founder Günter Pichler and winning major prizes at four international string quartet competitions. As a soloist, Mee Na was a Finalist in the 2015 ABC Young Performers Award, won the City of Sydney Cello Award and has performed on the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall stage. During 2011-2020 Mee Na performed with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and as Principal Cello with Sydney Chamber Opera.