Natsuko Yoshimoto Last Blues
August 2nd 2010 04:47
Link: www.asa.edu.au/
Continuum Sax, Match Percussion with guests Natsuko Yoshimoto and Roland Peelman
Last Blues
The world premiere of Brian Howard’s Last Blues brings together an ensemble of Australia’s most influential and talented exponents of new music. Continuum Sax are joined by MATCH percussion, conductor Roland Peelman and violinist Natsuko Yoshimoto presenting a rare opportunity to hear the work of one of Australia’s most respected composers. Brian Howard’s Last Blues, borrowing its title from Cesare Pavese’s evocative poem, invokes memory and loss through a compelling and yet fragile dialogue between the violin and ensemble. This intriguing and innovative concert also features the exuberant Bagatelles by György Ligeti and new works by Margery Smith and Mary Finsterer. Supported by ABC Classic FM.
PERFORMERS: Natsuko Yoshimoto violin, Daryl Pratt and Alison Eddington percussion, Margery Smith, James Nightingale, Martin Kay, Jarrod Whitbourn saxophones and Roland Peelman conductor.
DATE Tuesday 24 August 2010
TIME 8pm
WHERE Eugene Goossens Hall, ABC Centre Ultimo, SYDNEY
TICKETS Adult $30 / Conc and Under 30 $20
BOOK ONLINE by phone (02) 8256 2222 or tickets available at the door
Continuum Sax
Australia's foremost saxophone quartet, Continuum Sax perform a unique repertoire of composed and improvised works.
Continuum Sax has collaborated with MATCH Percussion, sound artist Gail Priest, didgeridoo player Mick Davison, and jazz experimentalists the Freedivers. In 2008, they participated in the Restrung Festival at the Brisbane Powerhouse as part of the Six Pack Symphony.
Continuum Sax has commissioned or inspired works from composers including Stuart Greenbaum, Paul Stanhope, Jane Stanley, and Barry Cockcroft.
Continuum Sax has released two CDs, CONTINUUM (2001) and ICON (2005). They have just completed a recording project for reedmusic.com that will result in a wide range of educational resources for Australian saxophone quartet music.
In Review:
R16;This is a group that plays as one - a really beautiful, integrated sonority…’ – From Review of Continuum CD, 24 Hours Magazine (Oct 2002).
'Continuum Sax do improvisation very well, as in Margery Smith's fond treatment of Sandy Evans's DPM. However, the ensemble is equally impressive when playing scored works, thus affording Barry Cockcroft's quartet p a powerful...advocacy and making Perry Goldstein's Motherless Child Variations, with its telling references to Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, so memorable.' - from review, 'Deft at melding sounds, with a score or without', Sydney Morning Herald, 24 October 2006.
MATCH Percussion
Formed in 2001, MATCH Percussion, Daryl and Alison Pratt are two of Australia's leading percussionists. Their repertoire, primarily focussed on the two main percussion keyboard instruments (Daryl-vibraphone and Alison-marimba), includes music composed or arranged by Daryl and works composed especially for them. MATCH is particularly interested in the promotion and development of new Australian music for percussion. Highlights include an Australian tour in 2003 and performances at PASIC and across the USA in 2005. In 2005 MATCH released their CD Water Settings on Tall Poppies records.
Natsuko Yoshimoto violin
Born in Japan, Natsuko began playing the violin at the age of three and won a full scholarship to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England when she was eleven. She received direct guidance and teaching under Lord Menuhin and Wen Zhou Li. She continued her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester with distinction in 1998.
She has won many prizes in international competitions including the Wieniawski, the Yehudi Menuhin and the Tibor Varga. She received the Gold Medal in the prestigious 1994 Shell/London Symphony Orchestra Competition and the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa Award. In 2007 Natsuko was presented with the Iwaki Award for outstanding achievement as a Japanese artist.
Natsuko has appeared frequently at major international festivals throughout Europe, U.S.A, Asia and Australia. As a chamber musician she has collaborated with artists such as Yehudi Menuhin, Heinz Holliger, Stephen Kovacevich, Brett Dean, Stephen Osbourne and Christina Ortiz.
In 1993, she was honoured to perform solo in the presence of the Queen and the Royal Family at Buckingham Palace. Her debut recital at London's Wigmore Hall in 1998 with Freddy Kempf received widespread critical acclaim.
In great demand as a soloist, she has appeared with many world renowned orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia (London), Halle Orchestra, Odense Symphony (Denmark), Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. She has worked with many leading conductors and formed special relationships with both Yehudi Menuhin and Hiroyuki Iwaki over many years.
In 2001, she became the leader of the Australian String Quartet and is presently first violinist of Grainger Quartet and Sydney Soloists. She has been invited to be a Guest Concert Master by prominent orchestras. Additionally, Natsuko has given many master classes and workshops in renowned musical institutions and conservatoires around the world.
Natsuko has given many world premieres of works by Australia's most prominent composers and has recorded for Virgin Classics, ABC Classics and Melba Records.
Roland Peelman
Acclaimed musician of great versatility, Roland Peelman was born in Flanders, Belgium and has been active in Australia over 25 years as a conductor, pianist, artistic director and mentor to composers, singers and musicians alike.
Peelman has received numerous accolades for his commitment to the creative arts in Australia and specifically for his 20-year directorship of The Song Company, during which the ensemble has grown into one of Australia’s most outstanding and innovative ensembles.
Peelman is widely recognised as one of Australia’s most renowned musicians receiving the NSW Award for “the most outstanding contribution to Australian Music by an individual” and named “musician of the year” by the Sydney Morning Herald’s music critic in 2006. The following year, he was again featured as one of Sydney’s top twenty musicians and most recently, he was listed in “The 100 Most Influential People in Sydney” -published by The Sydney Magazine at the end of 2009.
In 2009 Sydney Morning Herald reviewer Peter McCallum named Peelman “The Innovator”, praising him as the mastermind behind two of Sydney’s “best moments” in music, referring to the Tenebrae III dance collaboration to music by Gesualdo, and the Festival Licht, featuring music by the composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Peelman has also been widely recognised for his creativity in commissioning new artistic projects, including Kalkadunga Yurdu with didgeridoo artist and composer William Barton.
His overview and understanding of the music canon is unique. With a repertoire that includes the major classical works from Bach to Gershwin as well as a vast oeuvre of early music, be it Lassus, Monteverdi, Schütz or Purcell, Peelman is Australia’s most innovative and versatile musical director. His passion for new music has been crucial to an ever-growing repertoire of concert music as well as music theatre. Over the years Peelman has directed numerous recordings and premiere seasons of new operas such as Black River, Fahrenheit 451, The Burrow, The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, Gauguin to name just a few.
He has worked with most orchestras in Australia and has conducted an abundance of new work with specialist ensembles such as Sydney Alpha, Libra and Ictus (Belgium-Germany) and most regularly with Australia’s leading new music group Ensemble Offspring.
He remains a regular guest at festivals in Australia and abroad and with the Song Company, continues to develop new projects that intend to change and re-invigorate the nature of concert, both in form and content.
Last Blues
PERFORMERS: Natsuko Yoshimoto violin, Daryl Pratt and Alison Eddington percussion, Margery Smith, James Nightingale, Martin Kay, Jarrod Whitbourn saxophones and Roland Peelman conductor.
DATE Tuesday 24 August 2010
TIME 8pm
WHERE Eugene Goossens Hall, ABC Centre Ultimo, SYDNEY
TICKETS Adult $30 / Conc and Under 30 $20
BOOK ONLINE by phone (02) 8256 2222 or tickets available at the door
Continuum Sax
Australia's foremost saxophone quartet, Continuum Sax perform a unique repertoire of composed and improvised works.
Continuum Sax has collaborated with MATCH Percussion, sound artist Gail Priest, didgeridoo player Mick Davison, and jazz experimentalists the Freedivers. In 2008, they participated in the Restrung Festival at the Brisbane Powerhouse as part of the Six Pack Symphony.
Continuum Sax has commissioned or inspired works from composers including Stuart Greenbaum, Paul Stanhope, Jane Stanley, and Barry Cockcroft.
Continuum Sax has released two CDs, CONTINUUM (2001) and ICON (2005). They have just completed a recording project for reedmusic.com that will result in a wide range of educational resources for Australian saxophone quartet music.
In Review:
R16;This is a group that plays as one - a really beautiful, integrated sonority…’ – From Review of Continuum CD, 24 Hours Magazine (Oct 2002).
'Continuum Sax do improvisation very well, as in Margery Smith's fond treatment of Sandy Evans's DPM. However, the ensemble is equally impressive when playing scored works, thus affording Barry Cockcroft's quartet p a powerful...advocacy and making Perry Goldstein's Motherless Child Variations, with its telling references to Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, so memorable.' - from review, 'Deft at melding sounds, with a score or without', Sydney Morning Herald, 24 October 2006.
MATCH Percussion
Formed in 2001, MATCH Percussion, Daryl and Alison Pratt are two of Australia's leading percussionists. Their repertoire, primarily focussed on the two main percussion keyboard instruments (Daryl-vibraphone and Alison-marimba), includes music composed or arranged by Daryl and works composed especially for them. MATCH is particularly interested in the promotion and development of new Australian music for percussion. Highlights include an Australian tour in 2003 and performances at PASIC and across the USA in 2005. In 2005 MATCH released their CD Water Settings on Tall Poppies records.
Natsuko Yoshimoto violin
Born in Japan, Natsuko began playing the violin at the age of three and won a full scholarship to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England when she was eleven. She received direct guidance and teaching under Lord Menuhin and Wen Zhou Li. She continued her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester with distinction in 1998.
She has won many prizes in international competitions including the Wieniawski, the Yehudi Menuhin and the Tibor Varga. She received the Gold Medal in the prestigious 1994 Shell/London Symphony Orchestra Competition and the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa Award. In 2007 Natsuko was presented with the Iwaki Award for outstanding achievement as a Japanese artist.
Natsuko has appeared frequently at major international festivals throughout Europe, U.S.A, Asia and Australia. As a chamber musician she has collaborated with artists such as Yehudi Menuhin, Heinz Holliger, Stephen Kovacevich, Brett Dean, Stephen Osbourne and Christina Ortiz.
In 1993, she was honoured to perform solo in the presence of the Queen and the Royal Family at Buckingham Palace. Her debut recital at London's Wigmore Hall in 1998 with Freddy Kempf received widespread critical acclaim.
In great demand as a soloist, she has appeared with many world renowned orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia (London), Halle Orchestra, Odense Symphony (Denmark), Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. She has worked with many leading conductors and formed special relationships with both Yehudi Menuhin and Hiroyuki Iwaki over many years.
In 2001, she became the leader of the Australian String Quartet and is presently first violinist of Grainger Quartet and Sydney Soloists. She has been invited to be a Guest Concert Master by prominent orchestras. Additionally, Natsuko has given many master classes and workshops in renowned musical institutions and conservatoires around the world.
Natsuko has given many world premieres of works by Australia's most prominent composers and has recorded for Virgin Classics, ABC Classics and Melba Records.
Roland Peelman
Acclaimed musician of great versatility, Roland Peelman was born in Flanders, Belgium and has been active in Australia over 25 years as a conductor, pianist, artistic director and mentor to composers, singers and musicians alike.
Peelman has received numerous accolades for his commitment to the creative arts in Australia and specifically for his 20-year directorship of The Song Company, during which the ensemble has grown into one of Australia’s most outstanding and innovative ensembles.
Peelman is widely recognised as one of Australia’s most renowned musicians receiving the NSW Award for “the most outstanding contribution to Australian Music by an individual” and named “musician of the year” by the Sydney Morning Herald’s music critic in 2006. The following year, he was again featured as one of Sydney’s top twenty musicians and most recently, he was listed in “The 100 Most Influential People in Sydney” -published by The Sydney Magazine at the end of 2009.
In 2009 Sydney Morning Herald reviewer Peter McCallum named Peelman “The Innovator”, praising him as the mastermind behind two of Sydney’s “best moments” in music, referring to the Tenebrae III dance collaboration to music by Gesualdo, and the Festival Licht, featuring music by the composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Peelman has also been widely recognised for his creativity in commissioning new artistic projects, including Kalkadunga Yurdu with didgeridoo artist and composer William Barton.
His overview and understanding of the music canon is unique. With a repertoire that includes the major classical works from Bach to Gershwin as well as a vast oeuvre of early music, be it Lassus, Monteverdi, Schütz or Purcell, Peelman is Australia’s most innovative and versatile musical director. His passion for new music has been crucial to an ever-growing repertoire of concert music as well as music theatre. Over the years Peelman has directed numerous recordings and premiere seasons of new operas such as Black River, Fahrenheit 451, The Burrow, The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, Gauguin to name just a few.
He has worked with most orchestras in Australia and has conducted an abundance of new work with specialist ensembles such as Sydney Alpha, Libra and Ictus (Belgium-Germany) and most regularly with Australia’s leading new music group Ensemble Offspring.
He remains a regular guest at festivals in Australia and abroad and with the Song Company, continues to develop new projects that intend to change and re-invigorate the nature of concert, both in form and content.
| 30 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
