In previous posts we have discussed the pieces on our Musical Tales program based on music with spoken narrative. In today’s post, we introduce our Storytellers for the show.
Actor Nigel Turner-Carroll will be performing in the Music for Gracious Living by American composer David Lang. Nigel, a graduate from NIDA, continues to work closely with mentor Annie Swann. He was nominated in the 2012 and 2013 Sydney Theatre Awards for The Greening of Grace and The Motherfu#$er With the Hat and a recipient of Glug Award for Performer On The Way 2013. Other plays Nigel has appeared in include Skylight, Step, The Birthday Boys, Thank you For Being a Friend.
Also an award-winning director, Nigel’s credits include; The Tap Pack which has most recently toured to Edinburgh Fringe festival 2016 winning The Spirit of the Fringe Award; Matthew Mithcam’s Twists and Turns which received accolades in it’s first season in the Spiegel Tent at Perth Fringe World 2014; as well as Matthew Mitcham’s second show Under the Covers premiering earlier this year. Nigel has also directed and produced Damn Good Divas Australian Tour, which won a Mo Award for Best Production Show and nominated for Best Tribute Show at the ACE Awards.
Other highlights in Nigel’s career include being artistic director of the Champions Small Business Awards (2013), directing Irish stage show Eireborne (2017), Back to Bacharach (2015), staging pre show and half time entertainment segments at the NRL Grand Final (2014) and World Cup Cricket pre game (2015) and working alongside composer Joe Accaria, in building the all female drum sensation DrummerQueens.
Soprano Taryn Srhoj will be performing two works on the program, Matilda by Joseph Giovinazzo and Abschied von der Erde by Franz Schubert. Taryn studied at The University of Auckland School of Music, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Music majoring in Voice in 2008. Her other musicianship skills include attaining AmusA in piano and being accepted into the piano programme at the Aspen Music Festival and Summer school, USA. Currently based in Sydney, Taryn has recently performed as a soloist in the Willoughby Symphony Grand Opera Gala and was a recipient of the Q Lab Artists in Residence Programme at the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre. In 2015 Taryn performed the role of Musetta in La Boheme with the Western Sydney Opera Company, Michaela in Carmen with Symphony Central Coast, Marie Antoinette for Blush Opera’s production Ladies Who Brunch in the Adelaide Fringe Festival and the role of Cora in the world premiere and subsequent tour of Fancy Me Dead by Australian composer Dr Paul Smith. Taryn has often performed with Sirius Chamber Ensemble, most notably the Alan Holley song cycle Borneo Songs and Berg’s Sieben Fruhe Lieder .
Taryn was a Young Artist with Pacific Opera in both 2011 and 2012 during which she performed the role of Bettina in The Deluded Bridegroom and also Second Spirit in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. As a Pacific Opera Young Artist she also performed as a soloist in the Pacific Opera Gala, Opera By The Lake, Opera Unlaced and covered all three roles in the premiere of new Australian work Golden Summers by James Long.
Taryn has had the privilege of premiering many new works. A highlight was performing and recording a new Soprano song cycle by Dr Paul Smith and singing in Art/Opera collaboration Project Rise; Singing The Virtual (Dr Andrew Burrell/Dr Paul Smith).
Sydney-based composer, Dr Paul Smith will be reciting Nordic Sagas to accompany his composition The Death of Baldr written for Sirius in 2014. Paul is a lecturer in music at the University of New England. He specialises in chamber music and opera. In 2016, his second chamber opera, The Spider and the Runaway Plum Blossom, was premiered in Singapore by the group Chamber Sounds. In late 2016, he composed an original piano score and performed as part of a newly devised theatre work based on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein produced by the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre. His keyboard works have been recorded and released by Italian pianist Antonietta Loffredo and she will premiere his keyboard duo, Holding Masks, in Como, Italy next month. During 2017, Paul has received three grants to workshop a new opera called Chop Chef, written in collaboration with writer, Julie Koh, which satirises reality tv food competitions. He holds a doctorate from Western Sydney University and is co-artistic director of Sydney-based Blush Opera.
Musical Tales
Instrumentalists: Vanessa Tammetta and Heloise Meisel (violins), Ella Brinch (viola), Steve Meyer (cello), Ian Sykes (clarinet), Melissa Coleman (flute), Dr Alison Evans (bassoon), Hannah Murray (french horn) and Claire Howard Race (piano).
When: Saturday 22 April 2017, 6:00pm.
Where: Christ Church Lavender Bay, Corner of Walker and Lavender Streets, Lavender Bay. For tickets and more information please visit ClassikOn.
sirius chamber ensemble 