Experience the best live music best live the Experience JANUARY, FEBRUARY, MARCH 2020 TUE 21 JANA UARYY MuM sis c aannd tecchnonoloogyg colliided iinn Holly Herernnddono ’ss breathtakaking eexperrimem nttaal foro msm . Fun for kids at Music Play Family Festival Tenebrae resurrects a Renaissance masterpiece Percussion phenomenon Taikoz in Chi Udaka The Complete Beethoven Piano Concertos PP1000016130 JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH 11 Sat Melbourne Youth Orchestra p9 3 Mon Free Music p15 1 Sun Italian Guitar p28 2020 Summer School: In Concert 4 Tue Love & Languish p15 2 Mon Ears Wide Open 1: Schumann p31 16 Thu Beethoven Big Sing p6 Free Music in the Salon p29 5 Wed The Virgin’s Muse p15 A Day in the Life of You p8 3 Tue Patty Griffin p30 Rapping with Defron p7 6 Thu Bartók in Contrast p16 Trio Romantique p31 Song Play p7 7 Fri Origins p16 The Wonderlands p8 4 Wed Beethoven 130 p31 8 Sat Natalya Plays: Studio Ghibli p16 17 Fri Meeting Mozart p6 5 Thu Vivaldi’s Venice p32 - Chopin Style Laura the Astronaut p8 6 Fri Stars Without Makeup p33 Explores the Planets 10 Mon Golden p18 Frankenstein Instruments p7 7 Sat Vivaldi’s Venice p32 11 Tue Moon Duo p17 Song Play p7 8 Sun Vivaldi’s Venice p32 The Wonderlands p8 12 Wed Deva Premal & Miten p18 with Manose 10 Tue Freiburg Baroque Orchestra & p34 18 Sat Mimi’s Symphony p7 13 Thu p19 Kristian Bezuidenhout, Stinky Silly Songs p8 Gene Kelly the Legacy fortepiano African Drumming Circle p7 15 Sat David Helfgott in Concert p19 Beethoven’s Razumovsky p33 p7 Song Play Hoang Pham in Concert p19 11 Wed p35 The Wonderlands p8 Freiburg Baroque Orchestra & 17 Mon This Mirror Has Three Faces p20 Kristian Bezuidenhout, 20 Mon Tenebrae p5 fortepiano 18 Tue p21 LUNARIS p9 Kate Tempest Wolfie to Ludwig p33 19 Wed p22 21 Tue Holly Herndon p10 Yeasayer 12 Thu Dare to Hope p36 p20 William Tyler Goes South p9 Terramusica: Silk & Ink 13 Fri Top Class Music p36 20 Thu p23 22 Wed Hiss Golden Messenger p12 The New Pornographers The Vampires p36 Southeast Alaska Odyssey p9 21 Fri p23 The New Pornographers 14 Sat Rhiannon Giddens p37 23 Thu p14 Chi Udaka – Taikoz & Critical Exchange p24 To Sleep, Perchance to Dream p38 Lingalayam Dance Company 16 Mon p38 Ann O’Aro p13 22 Sat A New World: Intimate Music p24 Evergreen Ensemble from Final Fantasy Kapsberger & the Secrets of Music p38 24 Fri p14 Chi Udaka – Taikoz & Beautiful Balkans: p24 17 Tue Greta Bradman & Calvin p39 Lingalayam Dance Company Songs About Her Torch Songs p13 Bowman 23 Sun 3MBS Beethoven 250 Marathon p25 Melting Moments p39 31 Fri Leather Lungs: Son of a Preacher p13 24 Mon Project Ludwig p26 18 Wed Chaika p39 Top Class Dance p25 19 Thu A French Connection p40 25 Tue Garrick Ohlsson, piano p26 20 Fri Through the Thorns to the Stars p40 Schubert’s Lovestruck p25 Miller Boy 22 Sun Concert 1 p40 26 Wed Weyes Blood p27 23 Mon Mozart’s Figaro for Winds p42 Miniature Masterpieces p28 24 Tue Elisabeth Leonskaja, piano p41 27 Thu Italian Guitar p28 Mustonen & Brahms p42 Opus p28 25 Wed Palinka! p42 28 Fri St David’s Day Welsh Concert p29 26 Thu To Bach & Back p43 Journey to the Danube Delta p29 Sinofuturists: Alex Wang & p44 29 Sat Garrick Ohlsson, piano p26 Chill Chill 27 Fri Sinofuturists: Howie Lee & p44 Toem Chen 29 Sun Debussy’s La Mer p44 The information in this brochure is correct at time of printing. Artist line-up and program subject to change without notice. 2 Wominjeka, Inside this issue Welcome HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER p12 I’m delighted to present to you the brilliant Hiss Golden Messenger’s heartfelt tunes music you’ll hear at Melbourne Recital Centre capture the soul of American folk music, this summer. It’s the start of another year of highlighting singer-songwriter M.C. Taylor’s unforgettable performances at Australia’s best mature talent for spinning stories on guitar. place to hear some of the world’s greatest music-makers. The Centre is at the heart of Melbourne’s vibrant music scene: a home to Victorian and Australian musicians and a platform for superb artists from around the globe. We welcome KATE over 200,000 people each year to enjoy music TEMPEST in all its diversity. In 2019 we celebrated our 10th Anniversary by commissioning new work, The 10th Season of our critically acclaimed p21 inviting new audiences and showcasing the Great Performers series begins with one of the art of emerging and established stars. greatest pianists of her generation, Russian Feel the force of British spoken-word artist, This anniversary year has set the stage for legend Elisabeth Leonskaja. She is a performer rapper, poet, novelist and playwright Kate another landmark year in 2020, which includes of supernatural insight and musicality, and this a significant musical milestone: Beethoven’s will be a concert to cherish. Tempest’s incredible gift for language. 250th Birthday. It’s apt that in March, the superb We’re delighted to welcome back Australia’s Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and fortepianist beloved arts companies and ensembles for Kristian Bezuidenhout play all of Beethoven’s their 2020 seasons. The Centre continues to piano concertos with authority and panache. be a showcase of Australian excellence – both You’ll hear much more from Beethoven nationally and locally. THE NEW throughout the year; look for the Beethoven250 PORNOGRAPHERS icon on events which feature the maestro’s Melbourne Recital Centre is proud to be part masterpieces. of Melbourne Arts Precinct, a dynamic place where audiences and artists meet. As the p23 In January, we welcome families to Music Play, renewed Southbank Boulevard streetscape is our annual festival for music-loving children revealed in 2020 and the Precinct continues to (and grown-ups), who can experience a classical develop, the Centre is poised to embrace the The Canadian indie band that has been voyage through The Planets and an introduction next decade and beyond. swooning you for the last two decades with to the orchestra with Justine Clarke. A rich and its blissful harmonies makes its long-awaited eclectic summer season continues acclaimed The new decade is a great time to try new things. Melbourne return. choir Tenebrae, avant-pop trail-blazer Holly Why not use your next visit to discover an artist Herndon, and the incredible energy of drum or musical style you haven’t experienced before? ensemble Taikoz. The stars of the music festivals shine in Elisabeth Murdoch Hall in February and March, including Yeasayer, Weyes Blood, EUAN MURDOCH Patty Griffin and Rhiannon Giddens. CEO, Melbourne Recital Centre ELISABETH LEONSKAJA p41 The Centre welcomes everyone, and we have a range of services and facilities We acknowledge the traditional owners to ensure our concerts and events are The scintillating virtuosity of great Russian on whose land Melbourne Recital Centre stands – accessible. See page 20 for more information, pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja comes to the fore we pay our respects to Melbourne’s First People, to visit melbournerecital.com.au/access, in a relevatory recital of Mozart sonatas. Elders past and present, and to our shared future. call us on 03 9699 3333 or email [email protected] for advice. 3 Staff Picks Concert & Event Manager Harriet Gregory shares her picks of the performances at the Centre this season. Deborah Cheetham’s prestigious prize Yorta Yorta woman, soprano, composer, Deborah Cheetham has been an important art Holly Herndon Artistic Director of Short Black Opera and leader for more than 25 years, recently emerging Melbourne Recital Centre Board Director as one of Australia’s most exciting compositional This woman is new music! Turning the Deborah Cheetham AO was honoured with the voices. Ms Cheetham composed Australia’s computer lab into her sound lab, Holly’s Melbourne Prize for Music 2019 at a ceremony on first Indigenous opera, Pecan Summer, and her experiments with technology and A.I. 13 November 2019. The prestigious music award opera company Short Black Opera has been a are nothing short of evolutionary. is granted every three years to an outstanding vehicle for the development of a new generation Tue 21 January | More on page 10 Victorian musician of exceptional musicianship, of Indigenous opera singers. Short Black Opera skill and creativity and is worth $60,000. will present Pecan Summer at Melbourne Recital Centre in October 2020 in celebration of the 10th The Melbourne Prize caps an amazing year anniversary of its premiere. for Deborah Cheetham who has had major works premiered by the Melbourne Symphony Deborah Cheetham was appointed to the Orchestra, PLEXUS, Rubiks Collective and Syzygy Melbourne Recital Centre Board of Directors in Ensemble, the latter performing the Merlyn Myer October 2019. She is the first Indigenous person Music Commission Song for Dulka Warngiid, to sit on the Centre’s Board. Moon Duo inspired by the tapestry that hangs in Melbourne Psychedelic rock meets funk and disco Recital Centre. grooves inspired by outer space. As if that wasn’t enough, extraordinary live light projections (The Lightship) take everything to the next level. A 360° tour of Elisabeth Murdoch Hall Tue 11 February | More on page 17 You can explore Elisabeth Murdoch Hall in a new way with a virtual model of this exquisite space created by engineering firm ARUP (who also provided acoustic engineering for the Centre’s design). Using state of the art technology, ARUP took high resolution scans of the Hall, stitching them together into an immersive virtual tour. Tenebrae Get up close to the hoop pine timber panels, The voices of English choir Tenebrae imagine you’re on stage and discover the are a perfect match for the world-class features that make the Hall one of the finest acoustics of Elisabeth Murdoch Hall.