PFSMF-2019-Festival-Brochure-1.Pdf
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11–13 OCTOBER 2019 PORTFAIRYSPRINGFEST.COM.AU WELCOME We are honoured to be presenting our first Port Fairy Spring Music Festival in 2019. EMERGENCE is the theme we explore this year – our origins, our songs and stories of beginnings, the places and ideas which inform our artform, the wonder of metamorphosis, and how things come into being. We showcase a pantheon of emerging artists beginning SHARE IN THE with stunning Wiradjuri soprano/composer Shauntai Batzke’s world premiere song cycle in First Nations UNVEILING OF language. Yiyun Gu casts incantations from Chopin’s spellbook in Magic Piano & The Chopin Shorts, Bethany MONICA CURRO & A WEEKEND OF Simons enchants with Reception: The Musical, and STEFAN CASSOMENOS we welcome the wizardry of the Orava Quartet. Artistic Directors FINE MUSIC We have the dynamic duo of Alexandra Flood and Alex Raineri, dazzling virtuosity from flautist Eliza Shephard, and the exhilarating Partridge Quartet takes us through the quartet cycle of celebrated composer Richard Mills, culminating with the world premiere of his fifth quartet. From traditional chamber music A sunrise of glittering operatic heroes – Lee Abrahmsen, classics to exciting new works, the Dimity Shepherd, Greta Bradman, Louise Keast, Cheryl Port Fairy Spring Music Festival Pickering, Kate McFarlane, Liane Keegan, James Egglestone and David Parkin – take us on an expedition brings scintillating performances by through song, from the emergent strains of Barbara established and emerging musicians Strozzi to the triumphant grandeur of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. Intrepid vocal explorers Consort of to the world’s most liveable town. Melbourne weave a web of discovery around Gesualdo’s startlingly adventurous madrigals, and the masterful Paul Kildea entrances us with his own web of words about music. Renowned recitalists Caroline Almonte and Michael Dahlenburg delight us on Saturday 11–13 OCTOBER 2019 afternoon, and jazz giants Trichotomy and Michelle Nicolle mesmerise us with their slick tunes. The multiskilled Zephyr Quartet perform a concert entirely EVENT SPONSOR of their own compositions, as well as illuminating us with their spectacular light show Between Light. The jewel in the crown of the festival is our Saturday Gala which gathers together local talent and expertise from instrumentalists and choristers from the South West region and beyond, alongside esteemed soloists and legendary maestro Richard Mills, in a celebration of emergence. CHAIR’S WELCOME MINISTER’S MESSAGE Welcome to the Port Fairy Welcome to the 2019 Port Spring Music Festival for 2019! Fairy Spring Music Festival, On behalf of the board and all those who are part of this year celebrating 30 years the festival family, we are pleased to introduce Monica of exceptional music in one of and Stefan’s first festival program. Victoria’s most charming towns. Growing up in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, I was really lucky to live in a town with a long and immersive This program is the first from new Artistic Directors, musical history, from the famous Choral Society, to Monica Curro and Stefan Cassomenos – two brass bands like Black Dyke Mills. There were seven celebrated artists who bring vision, generosity and youth orchestras, five in symphony format, a brass a love of music and storytelling to the role. band and youth wind orchestra. There was a youth choir. We had free instrumental lessons and in Live music can reach across generations and PENNY HUTCHINSON return we were required to join one of the orchestras MARTIN FOLEY MP distance to bring us together – and so it is with Festival Chair if invited. I started my illustrious career in the 3rd Minister for the gala event In the Beginning. clarinet section of the wind orchestra! Creative Industries Acclaimed conductor Richard Mills will lead Participation of many local and visiting musicians community orchestras, top musicians like Vox is a centrepiece of the Port Fairy Spring Music Plexus and Consort of Melbourne, along with Festival in 2019 – the 30th festival. Monica and a choir of local singers and members of the Stefan are building on Iain Grandage’s legacy having Dhungala Children’s Choir. curated a classic Port Fairy program with a few For three decades, music lovers and artists have twists – including the orchestral extravaganza on made the winding coastal pilgrimage to be part of Saturday evening with a record number of local this festival with the local community. It’s an event instrumentalists and singers taking part. that demonstrates how the arts can shape our As always, this festival could not take place without towns, cities and regions – and why Victoria is the the contribution of government, Friends, corporate and creative state. individual supporters. There are many, and we thank Congratulations on 30 years and enjoy this those who have been on the journey with us, and those year’s journey! who join us for the first time this year. 4 55 “In the Beginning” … FESTIVAL PROGRAM Creation myths tell us how things began. EMERGENCE All cultures have primary creation myths, the first stage in the psychic life of the species. PERFORMANCE TIME VENUE PAGE As cultures, we identify ourselves through our BY MONICA collective dreams or “cosmogonies”, and these SCHOOLS CONCERT: 11.30am Reardon 16 creation stories help to explain metaphorically MAGIC PIANO & THE CHOPIN SHORTS & 1.30pm CURRO who we are in the world. HOUSEHOLD NAMES: FRIDAY 4pm Merrijig 22 FRIDAY AND STEFAN Our festival’s theme EMERGENCE explores these KAWAI OPENING GALA: EMERGENCE 8pm Reardon 8 metaphors, from grand philosophical concepts ZEPHYR: BETWEEN LIGHT 8pm Stadium 10 CASSOMENOS right down to a single seed giving rise to an LATE NIGHT JAZZ: MICHELLE NICOLLE 10pm Drill Hall 11 enormous forest, or indeed 12 humble notes becoming an epic symphony. TROCKNE BLUMEN 10am Lect Hall 12 Live music is a magnificent lens through which CHOPIN’S PIANO 10am Reardon 13 to view these life-giving elements and processes MILLS QUARTET CYCLE PART 1 11.30am St John’s 14 of emergence, from darkness to light, from infancy to adulthood, from the fog of ignorance MAGIC PIANO & THE CHOPIN SHORTS 11.30am Reardon 15 SATURDAY and prejudice to the clear skies of understanding JAZZ VOCAL MASTERCLASS 11.30am Lect Hall 16 and acceptance. SATURDAY LUNCH: GRETA BRADMAN 12.45pm Drill Hall 17 Our programs reflect these journeys, where things PIANO MASTERCLASS 12.45pm Lect Hall 16 are now and from whence they came – Gesualdo MILLS QUARTET CYCLE PART 2 2pm St John’s 18 to Ligeti; a modest piano giving life to 24 universally loved Preludes; ancient Indigenous ALMONTE PLAYS RAVEL 2pm Reardon 19 stories transformed into songs for now; how one DAHLENBURG PLAYS GRIEG 3.30pm Reardon 20 enlightened philanthropist can cause the creation ZEPHYR: IN THEIR OWN WORDS 3.30pm Drill Hall 21 of an important body of work; the continuing metamorphosis of the mighty genre of jazz. HOUSEHOLD NAMES: SATURDAY 3.30pm Merrijig 22 ITALIAN SONG BOOK 5.15pm Lect Hall 23 This year we present many emerging artists, we give them a platform on which to shine and an RECEPTION: THE MUSICAL 5.15pm Reardon 25 audience who will understand and appreciate SATURDAY GALA: IN THE BEGINNING 8pm Stadium 26 their prodigious abilities. The seeds need nutrients and sunlight to thrive! ORAVA: ANCESTRY 8pm Reardon 28 LATE NIGHT CHANSON: LEE ABRAHMSEN 10pm Drill Hall 29 Finally, in a gesture of gratitude to the town and region that has so generously hosted our festival for 30 years, we have excavated a little deeper VENI CREATOR SPIRITUS 10am St John’s 30 into the South West of Victoria to uncover what HANSON-DYER IN WORDS 10am Reardon 31 has been here all along. Our Saturday Night Gala HOUSEHOLD NAMES: SUNDAY 11.30am Merrijig 22 will unveil an awe-inspiring legion of some of the SUNDAY most talented and passionate choristers and METAMORPHOSIS 11.30am St John’s 32 instrumentalists that could be found anywhere HANSON-DYER IN MUSIC 11.30am Reardon 33 for a huge celebration of the shared joy of being SUNDAY LUNCH: GRETA BRADMAN 12.45pm Drill Hall 17 humans joined by music, no matter where we ORAVA: LA CREATION DU MONDE 2pm Reardon 34 came from, or how we got here. TRICHOTOMY TWENTY 2.15pm Drill Hall 35 CLOSING GALA: SONG OF THE EARTH 3.45pm Stadium 36 LEGEND Reardon: Reardon Theatre St John’s: St John’s Church Lect Hall: Lecture Hall Stadium: Southcombe Park Stadium Drill Hall: Drill Hall @ Victoria Hotel Merrijig: Merrijig Inn 6 7 DATE & TIME MAIN Shauntai Batzke Friday 11th October, 8pm KAWAI OPENING BELOW Monica Curro, Stefan Cassomenos, VENUE Jason Bunn, Emma Sullivan GALA: EMERGENCE LEFT Jenny Khafagi, Reardon Theatre Michael Dahlenburg FEATURING SHAUNTAI BATZKE, TICKETS FESTIVAL DIRECTORS, AND FRIENDS $49/$39 conc. Shauntai Batzke Voice The 2019 festival emerges – from the harmonious Stefan Cassomenos Piano opening bells of the Vingt Regards, as Messiaen Monica Curro Violin fixes our gaze on the dawn of creation – from the Jenny Khafagi Violin mellifluous Adagio movement of the Beethoven Jason Bunn Viola violin sonata now synonymous with springtime – Michael Dahlenburg Cello and from Ravel’s jubilant 1914 masterwork Piano Emma Sullivan Double Bass Trio, which drew its inspiration from the unfinished composition Zazpiak Bat, Ravel’s patriotic celebration of the ancient Basque culture of south-western Europe. MESSIAEN Regard du Pére (from Vingt Regards) EMERGENCE concludes with a celebration of our own First Nations culture, in the world premiere BEETHOVEN Adagio molto of a newly commissioned work by Shauntai espressivo (from Spring Batzke – one of Australia’s leading sopranos, Sonata, Op 24) and a major emerging compositional voice in RAVEL Piano Trio the Australian art music scene, migrating across genres. Her visionary project is an epic song cycle BATZKE New Work exploring her Wiradjuri heritage, with her own (World Premiere) powerful lyrics written in First Nations language.