Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Cello and Harp Concert

Two of Australia's best-loved musicians are performing at all Saints Cathedral, Bathurst on Friday 1st April at 7.30 PM
Alice Giles is a superb musician whose skills on the harp are world-class. She has performed recitals in Europe, Israel, America and even Antarctica.


In this concert, Alice will be joined by David Pereira, whose name is inseparably associated with the cello in the minds of many.



You can find several of his beautiful performances at his homepage, including this wonderful recording of The Swan by Camille Saint-Saëns.

Tickets will be on sale at the concert
$30 per person
$20 concessions
$10 U3A/CPSA cardholders
For further information please call 6331 6622

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Highlights of Open Day, 2011


On Sunday, 20th March, 2011 students and staff performed for one another, for their families and interested community members in a variety of ensembles, including groups of recorders, guitars and flutes.

The afternoon concert featured piano solos from Heming Luo, Courtney, Luke and Timothy Powell, flute solos from Bethany Windsor and Elne Le Roux, a Scarlatti guitar sonata played by Tim Burrey and Larissa Beer singing Hopelessly Devoted to You.

The Conservatorium executive director, Fiona Thompson accompanied performers.

At the end of the day, we enjoyed a relaxed staff soirée which featured some great guitar playing from Aaron Hopper and Mark McLaughlin, a Bach flute solo from Prem Love, Oliver Harris' entertaining tuba variations on Incy Wincy Spider and this performance of a Schubert Impromptu by piano teacher, Elena Day-Hakker.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

What an artist, what a man!

Percy Grainger

Percy Grainger, one of Australia's best-known composers, though also claimed by the United States (where he lived for most of his life). The title of this post is a quote from Edvard Grieg. Grieg and Grainger were admirers of one another. After Grieg died, Grainger enjoyed playing his friend's famous Piano Concerto in A minor and even made a piano roll of it, which has been used to create a performance performed by Sydney Symphony and ... Percy Grainger (via a grand piano, specially modified to play piano rolls).

Grainger died 50 years ago, on 20th February, 1961. There are some great commemorative recordings which have been released to coincide with this.

Percy would not be happy with the Youtube clip below, because he was disappointed to be best-known for his arrangement of the English folksong, Country Gardens. I wonder what he would have made of the performance by Rowlf and Fozzie Bear?

Thanks to Mitchell Conservatorium Singing and Piano teacher, Michelle Griffin, for sharing this fun video with us.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Bathurst's Singing Star

Helen Sherman, courtesy of Hanya Chlala

Twenty opera singers from across the globe have been selected to compete in this year’s prestigious BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and one of the select finalists is local Bathurst talent Helen Sherman. Helen will be performing in Cardiff when the competition gets underway in June and she will have the added distinction of performing in front of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, internationally renowned singer, who takes up her role as Patron of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World for the first time.

Securing a top 20 place against the original six hundred opera and concert singers who auditioned for a place in the competition is no mean feat, however Helen is no stranger to the hard work and discipline.
Helen was always determined - she was like that as a little girl says her proud father, Brian Sherman.

Helen, a mezzo-soprano, debuted at Bathurst Eisteddfod, singing, dancing and playing the piano at the age of three! She began singing lessons at the Mitchell Conservatorium, learning from Olga Reeder and then graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2003.

Since then her professional singing development and career has gone from strength to strength, most recently giving debut concerts at Wigmore Hall, the Purcell Room, Bridgewater Hall and Royal Albert Hall and appeared with Roger Vignoles and Mikhail Zemtsov in the Cambridge Summer Recital series.

At the RNCM she sang the roles of Hélène (Offenbach‘s La Belle Hélène), Sesto (Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito) and Cyrus (Handel's Belshazzar), the latter in a co-production with Manchester Camerata.

She has also recorded with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra as part of an International Opera Productions prize and has broadcast a recital for Australia's ABC Classic FM.

Young Concert Artists Trust has a page about Helen, which gives links to recordings of her singing the ever-popular Une voce poco fa from Rossini's Barber of Seville and Va, liasse couler mes larmes from Massenet's Werther.

(Clicking on the hyperlinked text should take you directly to the recordings. If it takes too long, you can right click and save the files to your computer and then listen to them.)

Mitchell Conservatorium staff and students wish Helen all the very best for her performance to take out the Cardiff Singer of the World 2011 competition.