One of Canberra’s brightest young musicians is about to take off to study at Albert Einstein’s old college in Switzerland, but not before he gives a farewell concert.

James Monro, a third-year student at the ANU in physics and music, is no stranger to Canberra audiences. 

I first came across him when I was on the judging panel at the Cello Mini-Festival in February 2023, where took out the first prize.

Monro was always going to be either a musician or a scientist. His mum, Prof Tanya Monro, is Australia’s Chief Defence Scientist and used to play cello in the Burnside Symphony Orchestra in Adelaide. 

His dad, David, is an IT expert who plays trumpet in his spare time and his two younger brothers are studying music in the ANU’s pre-tertiary courses.

When I catch up with James, he’s busy preparing to take off on July 15, first to the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Acqui Terme, Piedmont, Italy, then to Switzerland. 

There, thanks to the ANU’s inspired exchange program, he will be studying at ETH, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, where Einstein studied mathematics and natural sciences from 1896 to 1900. 

Under the exchange program, James’ fees and insurance are paid, and as well, ETH has offered him five options for subsidised accommodation. 

That’s a relief, since Zürich has the reputation of being pretty well Europe’s most expensive city. I’ve been there on two study trips, so gave him a few tips on how to cut corners,

While his purpose in being at ETH is to study physics, as his famous forbear had done, he will also study with influential cellist Orfeo Mandozzi, in a perfect balance of interests.

The combination of mathematics and music is well-known but, according to James, the theoretical end of physics is pretty much the same thing and it’s a phenomenon the ANU plays into.

James is not taking one of the university’s famous double-degrees but rather a PhB, a Bachelor of Philosophy in Science, using his spare minor slots to study music. 

He is, as you would expect, besotted, with the cello, which he likens to the human voice. Besides, both his mum and his grandmother played it. 

“I feel like the cello is an extension of the body, very natural, and I enjoy its versatility, you can get some really rich flow.”

He vaguely remembers as a child during a family drive, looking out the window when somebody started playing cello on radio – “I can remember I said, this is really fantastic, I want to play the cello, too.”

As he jets around, he finds it is almost humanly companionable and we note how many cellists have to take an extra seat for their instrument. His is a 1910 cello from the collection of Britain’s George Henry Withers.

The idea of his farewell concert, his last before he leaves to play with the Australian Youth Orchestra in Melbourne on July 7, is to make a bit of extra money to pay for those $16 cups of coffee in Zürich. 

His associate artist will be pianist Edward (Teddy) Neeman, with whom he has played several times, including twice at the Belgian embassy in Canberra, and they are cooking up a fiery feast, beginning with Astor Piazzolla’s Le Grand Tango for Cello and Piano. 

Written in 1982 and dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich, the work effectively substitutes the cello for the great Argentine composer’s chosen instrument, the bandoneon, with the same drama and biting quality. 

The central piece in the concert will be a gentler offering, Schumann’s Cello Concerto, although he reminds me that the third movement has a more “energetic and jumpy” edge.

In a kind of encore, the concert will conclude with Cassadó’s Dance of the Green Devil.

Passion and Poetry, James Monro and Edward Neeman, Wesley Music Centre, June 16.