Latest news
Scaling the heights of creativity – Jennifer Eriksson writes about her residency at The Banff Centre
Jennifer Eriksson, viola da gamba player, founder and Artistic Director of The Marais Project recently spent a residency at The Banff Centre in Canada, curating the ensemble’s most recent concert. It was an intensely creative and enriching time. She tells of her experiences in her own words: In January and February 2013 I undertook at short…
‘Rock your socks off’ with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Violinist Christian Tetzlaff, soloist with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Yarmila Alfonsetti is a woman with a mission. That mission is to have Sydney on a par with other international cities in its menu of live classical music concerts. As producer of classical music events for Sydney Opera House Presents, a company that is based…
Listening to new music brings rewards
If you’d prefer to listen to a much-loved classic rather than try and get your mind around a new work, think again. It may well be worth the effort of listening to something new. Scientists at Rotman Research Institute, in Toronto, found that the brain’s reward centre showed increased activity when participants heard a new piece of music. Read…
The music that influenced Reich
The ‘Modern Master’ Steve Reich talks to Phil Johnson of The Independent ahead of the world premiere of his new composition, Radio Rewrite drawn from the music of Radiohead. He discusses the musicians who influenced him. For Reich, Baroque and bepop, Coltrane and Classical were simply part of a spectrum, not to be segmented by labels. It is a fascinating…
Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard wins major opera award
American mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard has been awarded a major opera prize, the Richard Tucker Award. The native New Yorker is a graduate of the Juilliard School and has won many awards including the Beverly Sills Award in 2011. She married bass-baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes in 2008. Click here for more from the New York Times….
The challenges of performing in the Concertgebouw
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra makes its much anticipated inaugural visit to Sydney later this year, performing in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House. Celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2013, the highly acclaimed orchestra directed by Maris Jansons is resident in the building of the same name in Amsterdam’s Museum Quarter. The Concertgebouw opened on April 11,…
Latest reviews
Whitwell and Namekawa play Glass to a sell-out house at the Perth festival
Pianists Sally Whitwell from Sydney and Maki Namekawa from Japan, continue to stake their claim as premier performers of the music of Philip Glass after sell-out concerts at the Perth festival. The Australian’s Mark Coughlan reports: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/music/the-beauty-of-ref-glass/story-fn9d2mxu-1226579787647
The ACO’s Mozart, Haydn and Dean
The Australian Chamber Orchestra has combined the music of Mozart and Haydn with a new commission by Brett Dean in its latest programme. Peter McCallum reviews the concert for the Sydney Morning Herald: Click here to read.