The Mint, Macquarie Street Sydney 4pm

JEAN FRANCAIX Wind Quintet No. 1
DANIEL McCALLUM Seamless Transitions (world premiere of new work commissioned for SOE by Ars Musica Australis in 2007)
NINO ROTA Nonet (violin, viola, cello, doublebass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn)

SOE has become well known for its creative programming and the first concert of 2008 is no exception.  Italian composer Nino Rota is best known for his film music, including scores for The Godfather and Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet.  Composed in 1959, his Nonet is the largest of his chamber works.  Also for large ensemble is the work Seamless Transitions (commissioned in 2007 by Ars Musica Australis) by the young and exceptionally talented Australian composer Daniel McCallum.  These pieces are teamed with Jean Francaix’ characteristically lively Wind Quintet.

City Recital Hall, Angel Place, 7pm


DANIEL ROJAS World premiere of new work for Double Bass and Ensemble
MARTINU Trio
SCHUBERT Octet

Presented in association with

This concert encompasses diverse musical influences, from the Eastern European strains permeating Martinu's spontaneously conceived Trio to the German formality of Schubert's Octet, while an array of musical materials bubble away in Daniel Rojas's Hard-boiled Overture.

RESONATE SERIES
Art Gallery of NSW

MOZART Clarinet Quintet
STRAUSS Four Last Songs
STRAUSS selection of waltzes

Strauss's Four Last Songs, presented here with pianist Andrea Katz and soprano Merlyn Quaife, show the composer's calm acceptance of the inevitability of death. As he lay dying less than a year after their completion, Strauss said 'Dying is just as I composed it...'. The songs are performed alongside a selection of the waltzes for which the composer is most well-known, as well as a Mozart quintet featuring his favourite instrument, the clarinet.

Music Workshop
Sydney Conservatorium of Music
4 pm


STUART GREENBAUM Flute and Percussion Chamber Concerto (world premiere)
BRAHMS Piano Quartet in c minor
HINDEMITH Octet

Featuring percussionist Claire Edwardes and flautist Emma Sholl, Australian composer Stuart Greenbaum's new chamber concerto draws on diverse popular music influences. Brahms's Piano Quartet in C Minor delves into the tangled emotions of an unrequited lover, from anger and fury to frustration, sorrow and despair, in stark contrast to Hindemith's lively Octet.

Music Workshop
Sydney Conservatorium of Music
7 pm


SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR Clarinet Quintet GEORGE A. PALMER Double Clarinet Chamber Concerto
BRAHMS Serenade in D, Op. 11 for flute, 2 clarinets, horn and strings

In their final concert for 2008, the Sydney Omega Ensemble once again join with virtuoso clarinettist Dimitri Ashkenazy to present a new work by Sydney-based judge and composer George Palmer. This concert also features an early work by English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor along with an unusually buoyant Brahms Serenade.

Andrea Katz - Piano

Andrea Katz made her concert debut at the age of fourteen. She has appeared with all major orchestras in Argentina and Israel, where she also performs in recital, chamber music concerts and radio broadcasts.
Since becoming an Australian resident in 1994, she has appeared in Lieder and chamber music recitals including her own series of Lieder and Art Song concerts at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Some of the programmes have included performances of Schubert’s Die Winterreise and Schwanengesang and Brahms Four Serious Songs with Australian baritone Jonathan Summers (and a subsequent recording for ABC Classics), Love and Death songs from Schubert to Britten with soprano Merlyn Quaife, a Wolf programme with baritone Peter Coleman-Wright and  two evenings with soprano Yvonne Kenny. She has also preformed in recitals with violinists Pekka Kuusisto, Gil Shaham and Julian Rachlin.
She is a member of The Sydney Soloists.
In 2000 and 2001 she took part in the production of Tango Sinfónico for the Sydney Festival and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. This included the casting of Tango musicians and dancers, devising the programme and also performing duets with Argentine pianist and composer Pablo Ziegler.

back
to top

Claire Edwardes - Percussion

Australian percussionist Claire Edwardes is a passionate advocate of contemporary music with a successful performance career in Australia and Europe.

She graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music as student of the year and undertook postgraduate studies at the Rotterdam and Amsterdam Conservatories graduating in 2003 as a Master of Music with distinction. Claire has had great success in many competitions throughout the world and was winner of the 1999 Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year and the 2001 Llangollen International Instrumentalist Competition (Wales). In 2005 Claire was awarded the prestigious MCA/Freedman Fellowship for Classical Music and in 2007 she won the Classical Music Award for Outstanding Contribution by an Individual .

Claire has been invited to perform as soloist and chamber musician at festivals such as the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Cheltenham Festival, The Adelaide Bank Festival of the Arts and The Birtwistle Festival (London). Concerto highlights include performances with the Dutch Radio Chamber Orchestra (Concertgebouw, Amsterdam), the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, and the Sydney, Melbourne and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras. She is assistant artistic director of Ensemble Offspring (Australia) and has initiated several new ensembles in Europe including her percussion duo with Niels Meliefste, Duo Vertigo. In April 2005 Duo Vertigo were awarded third prize in the Gaudeamus International Interpreters Competition.

back
to top

Dimitri Ashkenazy - Clarinet

Born in 1969 in New York, Dimitri Ashkenazy began playing the piano at the age of six and then switched to the clarinet under the tuition of Giambattista Sisini, with whom he continued studying when he entered the Conservatory of Lucerne in 1989. Since completing his studies, he has gone on to perform widely, both as soloist and chamber musician. On tour, he has appeared at the Royal Festival Hall in London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, at the Hollywood Bowl with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, at the Sydney Opera House with the SBS Youth Orchestra, at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, in Japan with the Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony and Mito Chamber Orchestras, and in the U.S. with the San Diego Chamber, Napa Valley Symphony and Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestras.

In addition to the major concertos for the clarinet, his repertoire extends to include contemporary works such as Peter Maxwell Davies' Strathclyde Concerto No.4, which he has performed with the composer himself conducting both in London and Santiago de Compostela, and Krzysztof Penderecki's own transcription of his Viola Concerto with the composer himself conducting both in Poland and on tour in Spain. He also gave the world premiere performances of concertos by Marco Tutino (with the Filarmonici della Scala, Milan) and Filippo del Corno (with the orchestra "I Pomeriggi Musicali"). An active chamber musician, he has performed with the Kodály and Brodsky Quartets and with partners such as Edita Gruberova, Barbara Bonney, Helmut Deutsch, Cristina Ortiz, David Golub, Radovan Vlatkovic, Ariane Haering, Jeremy Menuhin, Maria João Pires, and of course his brother Vovka and his father Vladimir Ashkenazy.

In addition to his concert activity, Dimitri Ashkenazy has made numerous CD (Pan Classics, Decca, Ondine), radio (Radio Nacional de España, France Musiques, Radio della Svizzera Italiana, DeutschlandRadio) and television recordings, and been invited to give master classes at the Australian National Academy in Melbourne, Australian National University, Sydney Conservatorium, Oklahoma City University, the Reykjavík College of Music, California State University Sacramento, the Merit Music Program in Chicago, the Aula de Alto Rendimiento Moguer, and the Conservatorios Superiores of San Sebastián and Granada.

back
to top