Art Song Canberra Inc. www.artsongcanberra.org SEASON OF SONG 2015 In 2015 Art Song Canberra will present seven recitals of fine art song by an outstanding array of award-winning, highly-accomplished artists, many of them widely experienced on the world stage. Background Art Song Canberra was founded as the A.C.T. Lieder Society in 1976 by a small group of devotees led by Eleanor Houston OAM of Covent Garden fame. Its purpose is to foster and extend the love of art song. This is done mainly by: presenting the Season of Song, an annual series of high quality concerts, to its members and the general public; providing development opportunities such as masterclasses for talented amateur singers; conducting Members’ Soirées, gatherings of members to sing and play together in a social setting, in the manner of the earliest Lieder societies; and awarding the Art Song Canberra Prize for supreme achievement in art song in the Open sections of the Singing Division of the Australian National Eisteddfod. In each year of its life the society has presented a series art song recitals. The great majority of the society’s artists have been highly accomplished both in Australia and internationally. Singers have included such noted Australians as Eleanor Houston, Michael Martin, Sally-Anne Russell, Greta Bradman, Merlyn Quaife, Tobias Cole, Christopher Allan, Louise Page and Christina Wilson. Overseas-based singers have included Susan Burghardt (USA), Tanya Aspelmeier, Knut Schoch, Erwin Belakowitsch and Australian Sally Wilson (Germany), Rebecca Ryan (New Zealand), Thomas Weinhappel (Austria) and Bruce Cain (USA) who appeared with guitarist David Asbury. Pianists have included (from Australia) Andrew Greene, David Miller AM, Leigh Harrold, Phillipa Candy, Alan Hicks, Margaret Legge-Wilkinson, Nigel Butterley and Darryl Coote. Overseas-based pianists have included Roy Howat (UK) and Australians Mark Kruger (Germany) and Australian Stephen Delaney (Austria). Recital programs have ranged widely from such classics of the Lieder repertoire as song cycles of Schubert and Schumann to fine art song by an immense variety of composers including Australians Horace Keats, Nigel Butterley and Betty Beath. Season of Song 2015 Season of Song 2015 will begin in March with a fascinating recital of lesser-known song by soprano Sarahlouise Owens and pianist Colleen Rae-Gerrard. In June, four talented, developing singers will perform a varied program with pianist Colin Forbes. In August, two Australian Vienna-based singers who began their training in Canberra, Sonia Anfiloff and Ben Connor, will return to perform with pianist Alan Hicks. Rachael Duncan, a favourite of Art Song Canberra audiences, will return in September with popular pianist Anthony Smith. To round off the year’s program, peerless art song duos well known to Canberra audiences will appear – Christina Wilson and Alan Hicks in October and Louise Page and Phillipa Candy in November – each with recital programs which will delight their audiences. In August, Art Song Canberra will present a masterclass for singers of art song, given by its patron, Yvonne Kenny AM. All will be welcome to join the audience to observe a master at work. High-resolution pictures are available from the press kit page of www.artsongcanberra.org Admission to the concerts includes a complimentary program and light refreshments: Full price $35; Seniors, pensioners, Friends of ArtSound FM, Friends of Wesley Music and Musica Viva subscribers $30; Art Song Canberra members $25; Full-time students $15. Page 2 of 10 pages Sunday 22nd March YES BUT DO YOU KNOW ...? 3pm, Wesley Music Centre, National Circuit, Forrest Sarahlouise Owens (soprano) and Colleen Rae-Gerrard (piano) There is so very much written and not often heard! We think we know the oeuvres of so many familiar composers, yet know of so little. This fascinating concert will feature lesser known works by familiar composers, including the early works of Britten and Berlioz, and works of Korngold and Schubert. Featured will also be unknown or lesser known versions of familiar titles. Sarahlouise Owens With a broad range of performing experience, Sarahlouise’s singing career has been largely focussed on stage repertoire and sacred music as well as the art song repertoire. She is a graduate of the ANU School of Music (Hons) and Royal Northern College of Music Manchester. She has studied with various prestigious singing teachers in both Australia and Europe including in masterclasses with such noted artists as Brigitte Fassbaender, Renata Scotto, Nelly Miricioiu and Jane Manning. She has also had success in significant singing competitions, most markedly becoming semi-finalist in the prestigious Belgian Reine Elisabeth, being the sole representative of both Australia and UK. Sarahlouise has worked extensively in Europe including for the Radio Choir in Cologne, Theater Hagen, Brussels’ La Monnaie, Paris Châtelet and the theatres of Frankfurt and Hamburg. Most significantly she was a consistent member of the ensemble of the Wagner Summer Festival in Bayreuth where she sang the role of an Edeldame in Lohengrin and covered a Blumenmädchen in Parsifal. Colleen Rae-Gerrard Colleen’s career as accompanist and concert pianist began with studies in Europe with Karl Ulrich Schnabel and Paul Badura-Skoda. In New Zealand she has performed extensively with Dame Malvina Major, Anthea Moller, Ronald Woodcock and other eminent singers and instrumentalists. As a concert pianist Colleen has played in Australia, Malaysia, Brunei, Estonia and Europe and made many recordings on CD and Radio. From 1992 - 2005 she was a lecturer, accompanist and repetiteur at the Australian National University School of Music where she was associated with many young musicians, in opera productions, graduation recitals and embassy concerts. She worked with the first Wesley Scholars and served on the Wesley Music Foundation as the School of Music representative. Colleen also established the first fortepiano courses at ANU. Colleen returned to New Zealand in 2005, living in Hawke’s Bay, continuing her active concert and teaching career. She was Director of Music at St Matthew’s Anglican Church in Hastings and a Trustee for the NZ Singing School. Back in Canberra in 2011 Colleen taught fortepiano at the ANU and accompanied student recitals on fortepiano. She now teaches piano at the ANU School of Music and at Wesley Music Centre, gives concerts and lectures and plays the organ at Wesley and at St Paul’s Church in Manuka. Page 3 of 10 pages Sunday 31st May LOVE BLOSSOMS IN MAY 3pm, Wesley Music Centre, National Circuit, Forrest Alexander Knight (baritone) and Kimberley Steele (piano) The exciting Steele-Knight duo has been working together for five years now, bringing together a balance of lush and fiercely beautiful repertoire. This concert will be no exception, featuring Robert Schumann's Dichterliebe cycle and Gerald Finzi’s Let Us Garlands Bring in addition to repertoire by Samuel Barber and others. You are invited to enjoy an indulgent afternoon and fall in love again with a sumptuous world of sound. Alexander Knight Alexander Knight has recently completed an Advanced Diploma of Opera at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, having already graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Performance. He has performed with many Australian ensembles in venues around NSW and the ACT, including Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Sydney Chamber Choir, Sydney University Graduate Choir and the Song Company. In 2013 Alexander received the audience prize and was a finalist in the IFAC Australian Singing Competition, and sang the role of Aeneas alongside Fiona Campbell in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with Sydney Philharmonia. Operatic roles have included John Brooke in Adamo's Little Women, Le Podestat in Bizet's Le Docteur Miracle, Bob in Menotti's The Old Maid and the Thief, Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Aeneas in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Uberto in Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona, Arthur/Officer 3 in Peter Maxwell-Davies' The Lighthouse and the Forester in Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen. Concert appearances have included Britten's War Requiem, Orff's Carmina Burana, Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem, Bach's St. John Passion, Magnificat and Christmas Oratorio, Mendelssohn's Elijah and Paulus, Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on Christmas Carols, the Requiems of Faure and Mozart, Schubert's Mass in E-flat, Handel’s Messiah and Saul, Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolai and Nelson Mass, Beethoven’s Mass in C and Ninth Symphony, Britten’s Rejoice In The Lamb, Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers, and Grieg's Peer Gynt with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy. Kimberley Steele Vibrant pianist and educator Kimberley Steele is a musically sensitive, virtuosic and energetic solo and collaborative artist. In 2013 she performed in Canberra with notable and upcoming artists including cellists David Pereira and Jack Hobbs, sopranos Louise Page and Rachael Thoms, as a soloist with the National Capital Orchestra and with various ensembles including the Canberra Choral Society. Having graduated with first class honours and as Margaret Smiles Accompaniment Competition winner from The Australian National University, Kimberley went on to be awarded the Geoffrey Parsons Australian Scholarship and a Graduate Diploma in Accompaniment from Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Drawn to collaborative pianism, she was subsequently appointed Head of Accompaniment at the Conservatorium High School. During her time in Sydney, Kimberley worked with numerous musical organisations including Sydney Philharmonia and Sydney Sinfonia in addition to working with many tertiary vocal and instrumental students. Kimberley has a Masters of Teaching and since returning to Canberra she has been lecturing in Creative Arts Education at the Australian Catholic University in addition to freelancing as a pianist, teacher, conductor and guest lecturer. Her latest performance project has been forming the foray quintet, inspired by the beautiful repertoire available for piano quintets. For more information and upcoming events, please see her website at www.kimberleysteele.com.