Sirius Chamber Ensemble is pleased to announce our concert series for 2015, featuring two full-length concerts and two recital-style collaborations with local composers, Alan Holley and Spike Mason.
Our first concert in May – Beyond Desire: Music from England – will feature guest harpist Georgia Lowe. Georgia will join the ensemble to perform the beautiful Elegiac Trio for flute, viola and harp by Arnold Bax and the Victorian Kitchen Garden Suite for clarinet and harp by Paul Reade. Members from Sirius Chamber Ensemble recently performed in the new musical Beyond Desire at the Hayes Theatre. Composer and director Neil Rutherford has transcribed a concert suite of his vibrant score for clarinet/bass clarinet, horn, violin, cello, harp and piano. Also on the program are masterpieces of the English chamber repertoire – Benjamin Britten Cello Sonata; Gordon Jacob Four Fancies for flute, violin, viola and cello; and Geoffrey Bush Trio for oboe, bassoon and piano.
In October the engaging and talented soprano Taryn Srhoj returns to perform with Sirius in Postcards from Vienna, featuring music premiered in Vienna between 1777 and 1913. The earliest piece, Mozart’s Flute Quartet in D major (No.1) will be followed by the more recent, Seven Early Songs for soprano and piano, and Four Pieces for clarinet and piano by Alban Berg. Complimenting the program will be Richard Strauss’ Das Alphorn for soprano, horn and piano, and Brahms’ Trio for clarinet, cello and piano, although no Viennese concert would be complete without a rousing finale by Johann Strauss. We are sure that you will be delighted by a humourous arrangement of Strauss’ Tritsch Tratsch Polka by our good friend and colleague Nigel Ubrihien.
This year we are presenting our performances at two venues. Saturday evening performances will be at Glebe Justice Centre, a relaxed venue with couches. Tea, coffee and refreshments will be available and the audience is invited to bring their own food and drink to enjoy during the concert. Sunday afternoon performances will be in the beautiful space of Christ Church Lavender Bay, where we will serve an afternoon tea at interval, overlooking Sydney Harbour.
Sirius Chamber Ensemble is excited to be performing two concerts in collaboration with local composers this year. In September we will celebrate Alan Holley’s 60th birthday by presenting a retrospective of the composer’s chamber works, as well as notable compositions that have inspired his work, including Messiaen and Lutoslawski. In November, we will join forces with composer and saxophonist Spike Mason for a concert of entirely new music. More details about the two composer collaborations will be announced shortly.
Beyond Desire: Music from England
Sunday 24th May, 2pm at Christ Church, Lavender Bay, corner of Walker and Lavender Streets.
Saturday 30th May, 7.30pm at Glebe Justice Centre, corner of St John’s Rd and Colbourne Ave.
Postcards from Vienna
Saturday 17th October, 7.30pm at Glebe Justice Centre, corner of St John’s Rd and Colbourne Ave.
Sunday 18th October, 2pm at Christ Church, Lavender Bay, corner of Walker and Lavender Streets.
Performers: Ian Sykes (clarinet), Alison Evans (bassoon), Melissa Coleman (flute), Julia Zeltzer (french horn), Martyn Hentschel (violin), Georgina Price (viola), Clare Kahn (cello), Claire Howard Race (piano), with guest artists Georgia Lowe (harp), Taryn Srhoj (soprano) and Alex Fontaine (oboe).
Tickets:
$30 Adults/$20 Concession/$10 Children
Available at www.classikon.com or at the door.
sirius chamber ensemble 