4pm Saturday 15 August – Sarah Watkins & Bede Hanley – Pastoral and Colourful duos and solos for Piano and Oboe.
Sarah Watkins has an impressive career as a collaborative pianist in New Zealand and abroad Named three times as Classical Artist of the Year for her CDs with trombonist David Bremner, violinist Andrew Beer, and violist Robert Ashworth. Sarah has performed many times for the Greytown Music Group, and this year she will be performing with Canadian Bede Hanley, principal oboe of the Auckland Philharmonia. A frequent soloist, Bede has an extensive concerto repertoire, including a “tour de force” concerto composed specially for him by fellow Canadian Gary Kulesha.
The Greytown concert will be an afternoon of pastoral nature-themed duos and solos: Saint-Saens, Godard, and Lili Boulanger from France, Canadian composers Coulthard and Mozetich with a floral touch, Americans Peter Schickele and Anthea Talbot-Howard, and then, bringing nature closer to home, Douglas Lilburn’s 3 Sea Changes.
4pm Sunday 30 August – NZ Trio with “Space Jump”
This year the audience will meet the trio’s new cellist, Matthias Balzat, who says “Music has been my life since the spritely age of three.” He has 6 older siblings. Led by their parents, they played together and toured the globe, entertaining with folk, Celtic and classical music. Violinist Amalia Hall and pianist Somi Kim are thrilled with the appointment of Matthias. They say, “Matthias was one of the first to spring to mind in our search for a new cellist, and we knew after just minutes of rehearsing with him that he was the one!”
“Matthias was one of the first to spring to mind in our search for a new cellist, and we knew after just minutes of rehearsing with him that he was the one!”
The programme opens with “Space Jump for Piano Trio” by Fazil Say, inspired by Felix Baumgartner’s record-breaking 2012 sky dive from the edge of space, and is followed by Robert Schumann’s Piano Trio No 2 – effervescent and cheerful. After the interval will be “Field Notes in Autumn, a piece written in Wellington by Keith Moss, evoking feelings of autumn, and a Piano Trio by Reena Ismail, who wishes she could live in America and India at the same time.
Both concerts held at 57 Wood Street Greytown. Admission $30, children $10. For bookings, contact Ed and Juliet Cooke, 06-3049 497, or email efjacooke@gmail.com
