AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA PRESENTS
PRINCIPAL PARTNER ACO COLLECTIVE
29 APRIL – 8 MAY WA TOUR
MESSAGE FROM THE MANAGING DIRECTOR
Rather than four seasons in one day, we give you 12 seasons in one concert! Antonio Vivaldi, whose name is synonymous with the Four Seasons opts for a very literal approach, delivering meteorological tone paintings. While in South American tango master Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons, you can hear the bustle of the streets and inhale the aromas of Buenos Aires. And Philip Glass, the mercurial American composer, leaves the assignation of which movement is which season entirely up to the listener! It is a great pleasure to welcome Finnish violinist, composer and leader Pekka Kuusisto as Artistic Director of ACO Collective in 2016. The musicians of ACO Collective represent the country’s finest young string players, with many going on to careers with some of the world’s leading orchestras, including the ACO. We were delighted that Pekka and ACO Collective opened our 2016 season in February with an 11-concert tour, thrilling audiences around the country with our inspiring program, Beethoven & The 21st Century. In 2016, we also welcome Wesfarmers as ACO Collective’s Principal Partner. Thanks to their generosity and vision, we are able to continue our extensive regional touring and education programs. On a personal note, it’s a privilege to take on the role as Managing Director of the ACO, and I look forward to many exciting seasons ahead.
Richard Evans 2
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MESSAGE FROM THE TOUR PARTNER
Wesfarmers’ association with the Australian Chamber Orchestra goes back a long way. Eighteen years after we first worked together to bring this wonderful orchestra to Perth on a regular basis, we are now delighted to be able to help the ACO reach out into our regional communities in Western Australia and beyond as the Principal Partner of ACO Collective. This tour – ACO Collective’s first regional tour under the leadership of its first Artistic Director Pekka Kuusisto – will show communities across Western Australia the vitality and energy that has delighted audiences right across the country since the ensemble was formed as ACO2 in 2007. It is a privilege and a joy to support the tremendous work of the ACO as part of our commitment to making a broader contribution to the communities in which we live and work. We hope you enjoy this performance as much as we have enjoyed bringing it to you.
PRINCIPAL PARTNER ACO COLLECTIVE
Richard Goyder AO Managing Director Wesfarmers
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PROGRAM Pekka Kuusisto Artistic Director & Violin ACO Collective VIVALDI The Four Seasons, Op.8, Nos.1–4 PIAZZOLLA (arr. Desyatnikov) The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires PHILIP GLASS Violin Concerto No.2 ‘The American Four Seasons’ This concert will run for approximately one hour and 50 minutes, including a 20-minute interval.
ALBANY Entertainment Centre Fri 29 Apr, 7.30pm BUNBURY Regional Entertainment Centre Wed 4 May, 7pm GERALDTON Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Cross Sun 8 May, 3pm MANDURAH Oakmont Theatre, Frederick Irwin Anglican School Fri 6 May, 11am MANJIMUP Town Hall Sun 1 May, 2pm MARGARET RIVER Cultural Centre Tue 3 May, 7pm
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ABOUT THE MUSIC THE FOUR SEASONS, OP.8, NOS 1–4 Spring, in E major, RV269 I. Allegro II. Largo III. Allegro Summer, in G minor, RV315 I. Allegro non molto II. Adagio III. Presto Autumn, in F major, RV293 I. Allegro II. Adagio molto III. Allegro Winter, in F minor, RV297 I. Allegro non molto II. Largo III. Allegro
Antonio Vivaldi
ANTONIO VIVALDI Born Venice, 1678. Died Vienna, 1741. Vivaldi made a suitably dramatic entrance into the world, during an earthquake. He was almost two months premature – if his parents’ marriage certificate is a reliable indication – and the midwife was anxious enough about his health to conduct an emergency baptism. He was to suffer from a ‘tight chest’, perhaps either asthma or angina, for the rest of his life. Venice, the city of his birth, made in any case a dramatic backdrop to a new life. At the wealthy crossroads of Eastern and European culture and trade, it had a reasonable claim to possessing the finest musicians, artists, writers and artisans. The cathedral of St Mark had been a major musical powerhouse for more than a hundred years; but what the city really thrived on was opera. Canaletto, for example, learned his craft painting scenery. Young guns of the aristocracy flaunted their investments in opera houses, in a fashion not entirely unlike ‘dotcoms’ (and often with a similar rate of success). Vivaldi, despite being known to us today almost solely through his concertos, spent a considerable portion of his compositional life devoted to the stage, and it would be nice to think that this interest in drama spilled over into the strong contrasts found within his instrumental music. In 1703, Vivaldi was newly ordained as a priest and was employed by the Ospedale della Pietà, where opera was very definitely not a priority. A nun-run orphanage for girls, by the time Vivaldi arrived as violin master and composer in residence it already had a good reputation for music. He seems to have done so well at teaching his pupils that the Pietà saved on their payroll and didn’t renew his appointment in 1709. He was back again in 1711. It is probably not a coincidence that earlier that year he had had his greatest compositional successes to date, with the publication of concertos collectively titled L’estro armonico and La stravaganza. They were seized upon by enthusiastic composers all over Europe, and their influence can be seen in the music of JS Bach and right across the continent to France and Britain. The emphasis on a three-movement, fast-slow-fast structure was a new step away from traditional sonatas and concerti grossi, but his greatest innovation was to free up the role of the single soloist within this framework. In total we know of about 330 solo concertos by Vivaldi, mostly (about 220) for violin. The four concertos which make up the ‘Seasons’ were eventually published as part of a larger collection – 12 in all – that goes by the title
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Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’invenzione, or The Contest between Harmony and Invention. The translation requires a bit of understanding at this distance – probably it was intended to suggest a struggle between the established formality of counterpoint ‘rules’ and the individual creative impulse. The Four Seasons is unquestionably Vivaldi’s best-known work; among the most-often recorded pieces in history, and the source of his continuing fame. Each concerto represents a season, which is a subject understood by everyone. Even without knowledge of the sonnets which accompanied the concertos (by an unknown poet, possibly Vivaldi himself), a listener can guess at the picture being drawn in music. There were countless performances during the composer’s lifetime, which was not always the case in an era which valued the new and innovative. Concertos, though, however publicly rewarding, were not enough. Vivaldi was drawn irresistibly to opera, and it proved his undoing. He encountered a series of financial and artistic woes, which eventually made it prudent for him to leave his beloved Venice and travel north in search of further encouragement from Emperor Charles VI. Unfortunately, Charles died (from eating poisonous mushrooms) not long afterwards, in October 1740. Vivaldi was by then an old man, and less than a year later he too was dead, laid to rest with minimal fuss in the commoners’ cemetery in foreign Vienna. His funeral was held in the local parish place of worship: St Stephen’s Cathedral, where among the young choirboys was one Joseph Haydn. Like other Baroque composers, Vivaldi’s music all but disappeared during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, until the early music revival began to gain some traction with audiences. The Seasons also lend themselves to adventurous adaptation, not always successfully; the solo violin line has been earnestly thieved by most other treble instruments, but also by voice (singing the sonnets), cello, harp, bassoon, kazoo, the Cambridge Buskers (accordion and tin whistle) and so on. It is the work which took Nigel Kennedy to fame outside the usual range of classical audiences. And so it can prove to be a challenge for serious performers. There is the psychological weight of all those other versions – what is left for ‘me’ to say? It is quite physically tiring to perform all four concertos in one concert. There are the technical demands of its virtuoso solo parts, which are considerable. And ideally it should sound as fresh as if we were all hearing it for the first, surprising, delightful time; those are birds, there are icicles cracking, that’s a storm. . .
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FOUR SEASONS OF BUENOS AIRES (ESTACIONES PORTEÑAS) Composed 1964-1970. I.
Buenos Aires Autumn (Otoño Porteño)
II. Buenos Aires Winter (Invierno Porteño) III. Buenos Aires Spring (Primavera Porteña) IV. Buenos Aires Summer (Verano Porteño)
ASTOR PIAZZOLLA Born Mar del Plata, 1921. Died Buenos Aires, 1992. Piazzolla, although considered the quintessential Argentinian composer, in fact spent many of his formative years in New York, growing up tough and streetwise. He retained his ‘Little Italy’ American accent all his life. It was his accordion-playing father who purchased his first bandoneón (a type of accordion which is at the heart of tango bands) from a second-hand shop. Hoping to find a better life than in Depression-hit America, the Piazzollas returned to Argentina in 1930. Nine months later they went back to New York, where the budding musician would dress up as an adult and sneak into the jazz clubs of Harlem. Other important musical influences also made their mark at this time. The Piazzollas’ next-door neighbour was Bela Wilda, a former pupil of Rachmaninoff. Astor grew to love the sound of the piano in the next apartment; and from Wilda he learned to read music and to foster a lifelong adoration of Bach. In 1935 the famous tango singer Carlos Gardel visited New York. Vincente Piazzolla sent his son over to the Argentinian idol’s apartment with a gift. In a scene straight out of Hollywood, the apartment’s owner had locked himself out and asked the adolescent Astor to scramble through a window. In return, Gardel gave him two signed photos and breakfast. Astor became something of an unofficial translator and ‘gofer’ for Gardel, soaking up the tango sounds until the singer’s death in an accident two years later.
Astor Piazzolla
In 1937, the Piazzollas again returned to their homeland, where Vicente opened a bicycle shop and a bar called Nueva York. Tango groups played in the bar, as did Astor. This was the beginning of Piazzolla’s real interest in the tango. The music was everywhere, and on the radio he heard the more innovative approach of some high-profile ‘orquestas típicas’ – tango bands. However, he loathed the hidebound approach of tango traditionalists. His heart was really with classical music. He had a good job with one of the top orquestas típicas, playing for Aníbal Troilos, but he also took composition lessons with Alberto Ginastera, whom Piazzolla later described as ‘a better composer than teacher’. Yet he was always grateful for the grounding in composition, orchestration and harmony which he received. In 1946 Piazzolla started his own band, but his love of the classics kept wider popular success at bay. He was writing ‘for ears, not for dancing’, and this confused and annoyed many tango aficionados. Much of his income was drawn from film scores – a medium in which he felt free to experiment musically. AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
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In the early 1950s, one of his ‘serious’ orchestral scores (Buenos Aires, Op.15) won a prestigious competition. The premiere caused a riot. The conductor stood on stage with Piazzolla and watched the rival groups of tango traditionalists and ‘evolutionists’, reminding him of the similar reception of The Rite of Spring. Piazzolla also gained an important prize: the chance to go to Paris and study with Nadia Boulanger, teacher and mentor of Stravinsky, Copland, Virgil Thomson and countless others. Boulanger’s success as a teacher can perhaps be measured best by the individuality she encouraged in her students. In Piazzolla’s case, she compelled him (against his better instincts) to play his bandoneón for her. ‘This is Piazzolla,’ she said afterwards. ‘Don’t ever leave it.’ His unique blend of tango, jazz and classical music is at the heart of his popular acclaim. He went on to form various ensembles to record and play his music. His synthesis of styles became known as tango nuevo. Piazzolla’s four ‘seasons’ were originally individual tangos written for his quintet of violin, piano, guitar, bass and bandoneón. They weren’t written as a set, but were composed gradually between 1964 and 1970, and Piazzolla only occasionally performed them all together. Indeed the form in which we hear them here – with a virtuosic solo violin and obvious references to Vivaldi – would be surprising to Piazzolla for whom the works were simply some of many tango nuevo (or ‘new tango’) compositions he wrote. The Brazilian composer and producer Jaques Morelenbaum was the first to extend the concept, arranging all four seasons for an instrumental ensemble in 1991 and coining the title, The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. Then, later in the decade, after Piazzolla’s death, the Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov conceived of the idea of matching these seasons to Vivaldi’s own, arranging the work for violin and string orchestra, and incorporating the snatches of Vivaldi’s own seasons which makes this version so beguiling. But also clever: recognising that Venice in winter coincides with the Buenos Airean summer, Desyatnikov incorporates Vivaldi’s winter into Piazzolla’s summer, and so on. The final result is a unique bridge between the highly familiar world of Vivaldi’s concertos and the sultry mystery of the Argentinian tango.
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VIOLIN CONCERTO NO.2, ‘THE AMERICAN FOUR SEASONS’ Composed 2009 Movement I Movement 2 Movement 3 Movement 4
PHILIP GLASS Born Baltimore, 1937. Philip Glass is best known as one of the founding composers of minimalism in the 1960s, along with Steve Reich, Terry Riley and La Monte Young. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Glass studied at the Juilliard School and after that, went to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger. While in Paris, he was hired to transcribe Ravi Shankar’s score for Chappaqua into western musical notation. And it was in Shankar’s extraordinary music that Glass heard the possibilities for his own compositional voice to come to the fore. Glass has written more than 50 film scores, as well as music for opera, dance, theatre, chamber ensemble and orchestra. The ‘minimalist’ label is applied freely to all of Glass’ compositions, but he prefers to call it ‘music with repetitive structures’, as the very word ‘minimal’ infers simplicity when quite often, they are anything but. .. Glass’ second violin concerto, scored for solo violin, strings and synthesizer was written for American violinist Robert McDuffie. McDuffie explained the work’s genesis: “I’d always been in love with [Vivaldi’s Four Seasons]. I thought it would be fantastic to create a project where the Four Seasons could be combined with a modern piece. Then I thought: ‘Oh my gosh. Philip Glass is America’s Vivaldi! Wow. That’s perfect. I’m going to go to him and tell him that’.. .”
Philip Glass
So Robert McDuffie met Philip Glass in his house in New York’s East Village. “I said: ‘I hope you don’t mind, but I think that you’re America’s Vivaldi.’ And he answered, ‘I am honored. . . He’s a genius and I love that comparison. Thank you very much.’” McDuffie did not hold back when laying out what he wanted Glass to produce when writing this concerto: “I want it to be the same instrumentation as Vivaldi, but instead of the harpsichord I want you to use the synthesizer and to tap into the indigenous Philip Glass rock ‘n’ roll kickass texture that turned David Bowie on to your music, that turned David Byrne on to your music, and that turned Paul Simon on to your music. I want that indigenous Philip Glass sound to come through so that people can hear the sound of the Philip Glass ensemble.”
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‘The American Four Seasons’ was premiered in Toronto on 9 December 2009. Whereas Vivaldi’s Seasons have accompanying sonnets and the works themselves indicate which of the seasons is being depicted, Glass and McDuffie disagreed so adamantly on which was which in his concerto that they decided to leave it up to the listener. In addition to the four ‘seasons’, Glass wrote four solo pieces (a Prologue and three songs), rather like cadenzas. The composer himself wrote of the work: The Violin Concerto No.2 was composed for Robert McDuffie in the Summer and Autumn of 2009. The work was preceded by several years of occasional exchanges between Bobby and myself. He was interested in music that would serve as a companion piece to the Vivaldi “Four Seasons” concertos. I agreed to the idea of a four-movement work but at the outset was not sure how that correspondence would work in practice – between the Vivaldi concertos and my own music. However, Bobby encouraged me to start with my composition and we would see in due time how it would relate to the very well-known original. When the music was completed I sent it onto Bobby, who seemed to have quickly seen how the movements of my Concerto No.2 related to the “Seasons.” Of course, Bobby’s interpretation, though similar to my own, proved to be also somewhat different. This struck me as an opportunity, then, for the listener to make his/her own interpretation. Therefore, there will be no instructions for the audience, no clues as to where Spring, Summer, Winter, and Fall might appear in the new concerto – an interesting, though not worrisome, problem for the listener. After all, if Bobby and I are not in complete agreement, an independent interpretation can be tolerated and even welcomed. (The mathematical possibilities, or permutations, of the puzzle are in the order of 24.) Apart from that, I would only add that, instead of the usual cadenza, I provided a number of solo pieces for Bobby – thinking that they could be played together as separate concert music when abstracted from the whole work. They appear in the concerto as a “prelude” to the first movement and three “songs” that precede each of the following three movements. All notes by Australian Chamber Orchestra © 2016
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PEKKA KUUSISTO ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & VIOLIN Recently described by one critic as a musician “who surely has the most personal sound of any classical violinist now alive”, Pekka Kuusisto is internationally renowned for his fresh approach to the repertoire. An advocate of new music, Kuusisto works with composers such as Nico Muhly, Daniel Bjarnason, Thomas Adès and Sebastian Fagerlund. As soloist, he performs with Seattle, Toronto, BBC Scottish, Singapore and Cincinnati symphony orchestras, as well as the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Bamberger Symphoniker, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia and Philharmonia Orchestra. Collaborating with performers across the artistic spectrum, Kuusisto joined forces with actress Seela Sella and director Kristian Smeds for a new theatrical production Tabu at the Finnish National Theatre, which featured Kuusisto as both composer and performer. A keen chamber musician, regular partners include Anne Sofie von Otter, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Nicolas Altstaedt, Alexander Lonquich and Olli Mustonen. Kuusisto is widely recognised for his directing work, and, in addition to his position with ACO Collective, he becomes Artistic Partner with Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra from September 2016. He also regularly directs the Mahler, Swedish and Irish chamber orchestras, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and Britten Sinfonia. Pekka Kuusisto received the Nordic Council Music Prize in 2013 and is Artistic Director of the award-winning ‘Our Festival’, based in Sibelius’ home-town. His latest recording features Fagerlund’s Violin Concerto with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (BIS). Pekka Kuusisto plays a Giovanni Baptista Guadagnini violin of 1754 kindly on loan from the Finnish Cultural Foundation. Photo by Mick Bruzzese
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ACO COLLECTIVE ACO Collective is the ACO’s critically acclaimed 17-piece string ensemble which delivers the ACO’s regional touring and education programs Australia-wide. ACO Collective (formerly known as ACO2 ) combines musicians of the ACO with Australia’s most talented young professional musicians at the outset of their careers, creating a combined ensemble with a fresh, energetic performance style. These young professionals have all participated in the ACO’s year-long Emerging Artists’ Program and are in demand from Australia’s professional orchestras, but dedicate themselves to the ACO’s high-octane performance style for intense touring periods. ACO Collective commenced touring as ACO2 in 2007 and since then has performed in more than 80 regional centres in every state and territory, all of Australia’s state capitals, and has toured to Japan. The Ensemble works regularly with guest artists of the highest calibre, both international and Australian, including violinists Elizabeth Wallfisch, Benjamin Schmid, Henning Kraggerud and Thomas Gould; cellist Daniel Müller-Schott; harpist Alice Giles; recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey; singer/songwriter Tim Freedman from The Whitlams; and oud player Joseph Tawadros. In 2013, the ACO presented the Ensemble in a national subscription tour led by Richard Tognetti and it was named by The Australian as “one of the year’s must-see concerts”. Biennially, the Ensemble is the Orchestra-in-Residence at the Vasse Felix Festival in Western Australia and in 2014 it was the Orchestrain-Residence at the Canberra International Music Festival. This year, internationally acclaimed Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto takes up the inaugural position as ACO Collective Artistic Director. ACO Collective, under Kuusisto’s direction, opened the ACO’s 2016 National Subscription season with an 11-concert tour of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide and Newcastle. ACO Collective will also undertake a tour of regional New South Wales, under the direction of special guests, the celebrated string quartet, Meta4, later this year.
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MUSICIANS ON STAGE Violin Pekka Kuusisto ZoĂŤ Black 1 Benjamin Adler 2 Amy Brookman 3 Peter Clark 3 Madeleine Jevons 3 Liam Keneally Thibaud Pavlovic-Hobba 1 Riley Skevington 2 Rollin Zhao Viola Caroline Henbest 1 Nathan Greentree 2 Elizabeth Woolnough 2
Cello Daniel Yeadon 1 Alexandra Partridge 2 Anna Pokorny 3 Double Bass Bonita Williams 2
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Theorbo Samantha Cohen Keyboard Brenda Jones 1 ACO 2 2016 Emerging Artist 3 Emerging Artist alumni
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2016 EMERGING ARTISTS The Emerging Artists’ Program connects the next generation of string musicians with the stars of the ACO in a dynamic ensemble with a fresh and unique sound of their own.
BENJAMIN ADLER VIOLIN Benjamin Adler completed a Bachelor of Music (Performance) at the Sydney Conservatorium in 2015 under Alice Waten, with whom he continues to study. He started playing violin and piano at five, attending Newington College on a full music scholarship. Ben was selected for the 2010 Kennedy Center/National Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Institute in Washington. In 2013, he won Best Performance of an Australian Piece in the Kendall National Violin Competition, and was a semi-finalist in the Gisborne International Music Competition. He has since performed as a soloist with the Sydney Conservatorium Wind Symphony and the Conservatorium Chamber Orchestra. Ben was leader of the Chamber Orchestra from 2013 to 2015, and concertmaster of the Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra. He received the 2014 Frank Hutchens Student of the Year Prize. Ben is also first violinist of the Hillel String Quartet, with whom he has toured Europe, Melbourne and Western Australia.
RILEY SKEVINGTON VIOLIN Riley Skevington is currently studying at the Australian National Academy of Music under Robin Wilson. Originally from Western Australia, Riley was the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships including Tunley Music Scholarship (UWA); the Lynn Kan Memorial Prize (UWA), the Margrete Bello and Flora Bunning Memorial Prizes for Chamber Music (UWA) and the WA Curriculum Council Music Exhibition as the highest performing student in the Tertiary Entrance Examination. Internationally, Riley has performed at the Royal Albert Hall in the BBC Proms, the Yehudi Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, as well as Beijing, Copenhagen, Berlin and Amsterdam. He has participated in masterclasses with Henning Kraggerud, Kurt Nikkanen, Professor Robert Hill, Mischa Maisky, Maxim Vengerov, Stefan Jackiw, Daniel Dodds, Boris Kuschnir and the Goldner, TakĂĄcs, Elias, Doric, Borodin Quartets and the Australian String Quartet. Riley frequently performs live on both 3MBS and ABC Classic FM. 14
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NATHAN GREENTREE VIOLA Nathan Greentree took up viola in 2012, having previously studied violin. In 2015, he completed a performance degree at the Sydney Conservatorium, under Roger Benedict. He received the Frank Hammond Merit Scholarship and Helen Bainton Award, and was principal viola in the Symphony and Chamber orchestras. He participated in the SSO Sinfonia (2013-15) and worked alongside members of the Royal Concertgebouw and London Symphony orchestras during their Australian tours. Nathan has performed both nationally and internationally with his ensemble, the ‘4’ String Quartet, including the Conservatorium’s Estivo Chamber Music Summer School, the Today Show, Fine Music 102.5 and TEDxSydney, and was a finalist in the 2014 Musica Viva Chamber Music Awards. Nathan has taken part in several masterclasses with such artists as Wolfram Christ, Paul Silverthorne, Ivo-Jan Van Der Werff, and the Goldner and Amaryllis String Quartets. He was the RAI Grant Music Scholar at the Shore School. In 2016 Nathan will also take part in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s Fellowship Program.
ELIZABETH WOOLNOUGH VIOLA Elizabeth Woolnough is in her final year of a Bachelor of Music (Performance) at the Sydney Conservatorium, studying with Roger Benedict. Elizabeth has been a member of the Australian Youth Orchestra (AYO), and is currently the violist in the Hillel String Quartet, with whom she performed throughout Europe in January this year. In 2012, Elizabeth won the Central Coast Concerto Competition and in the same year participated in a masterclass with Paul Silverthorne, Principal Viola of the London Symphony Orchestra. She was Principal Viola of Bishop Orchestra at National Music Camp in 2013. Recent achievements include participating in the 2013 AYO International Tour, playing with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, performing with the Sydney Symphony Sinfonia, playing with Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and being invited to perform in Verona as part of the Sydney Conservatorium Estivo Summer School. In 2015, she was a Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellow and took part in the Australian World Orchestra’s Chamber Music Festival.
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ALEXANDRA PARTRIDGE CELLO Alexandra Partridge holds a Masters of Musical Arts from the New Zealand School of Music. During her time there, she received numerous scholarships and awards including the Barbara Finlayson Trust Scholarship, the Freemasons Lankhuyzen Award and the NZ School of Music Director’s Scholarship. She is currently studying at the Australian National Academy of Music, under Howard Penny. Alexandra’s piano trio, the Queensbridge Trio, was finalist of both the ANAM Chamber Music and the Great Romantics competitions. In 2016, Alexandra toured with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Germany, having successfully auditioned for their residency program. From a young age, Alexandra has been passionate about orchestral playing and has been principal cellist of the NZSO National Youth Orchestra. She is also a casual player with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Wellington and has been a contract player with the Southern Sinfonia. Alexandra has participated in masterclasses with the Borodin String Quartet, the London Haydn Quartet, Torleif Théeden, Tim Hugh and Lynn Harrell.
BONITA WILLIAMS DOUBLE BASS After completing undergraduate studies at the Victorian College of the Arts under Sylvia Hosking, Bonita Williams moved to the USA to undertake her Masters of Music at Boston University. There she studied with Boston Symphony Orchestra double bassists Ed Barker and Todd Seeber. She also participated in masterclasses with several renowned musicians such as Hal Robinson (Philadelphia Orchestra), Ben Levy (Boston Symphony Orchestra), and Donald Palma (Orpheus Ensemble). Bonita has performed regularly with Orchestra Victoria and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In the USA, she worked with several orchestral ensembles including the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Hawaii Symphony, New Haven Symphony, and was Principal Bass in the prestigious early music ensemble, the Cantata Singers. Bonita was recently appointed as Section Bass with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra. She continues teaching double bass privately as well as through the Sydney Youth Orchestra program.
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ACO NATIONAL EDUCATION PROGRAM The ACO pays tribute to all of our generous donors who have contributed to our National Education Program, which focuses on the development of young Australian musicians. This initiative is pivotal in securing the future of the ACO and the future of music in Australia. We are extremely grateful for the support that we receive. If you would like to make a donation or bequest to the ACO, or would like to direct your support in other ways, please contact Sally Crawford on (02) 8274 3830 or sally.crawford@aco.com.au EMERGING ARTISTS & EDUCATION PATRONS $10,000+
Daniel & Helen Gauchat
Bruce & Joy Reid Trust
Andrea Govaert & Wik Farwerck
Andrew & Andrea Roberts
Mr Robert Albert AO & Mrs Libby Albert
Dr Edward C. Gray
Mark & Anne Robertson
Australian Communities Foundation – Ballandry Fund
John Grill & Rosie Williams
Margie Seale & David Hardy
Kimberley Holden
Rosy Seaton & Seamus Dawes
Philip Bacon AM
Angus & Sarah James
Tony Shepherd AO
Daria & Michael Ball
Di Jameson
Peter & Victoria Shorthouse
Steven Bardy & Andrew Patterson
Miss Nancy Kimpton
Anthony Strachan
The Belalberi Foundation
Wayne Kratzmann
John Taberner & Grant Lang
Guido & Michelle Belgiorno-Nettis
Elmer Funke Kupper
Leslie C. Thiess
Luca Belgiorno-Nettis AM
Irina Kuzminsky & Mark Delaney
Andre Biet
Bruce & Jenny Lane
The Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP & Ms Lucy Turnbull AO
Kay Bryan
Prudence MacLeod
David & Julia Turner
Liz Cacciottolo & Walter Lewin
Anthony & Suzanne Maple-Brown
Bruce & Jocelyn Wolfe
Rod Cameron & Margaret Gibbs
Alf Moufarrige
E Xipell
Stephen & Jenny Charles
Jim & Averill Minto
Peter Yates AM & Susan Yates
Rowena Danziger AM & Ken Coles AM
John & Anne Murphy
Professor Richard Yeo
Dr Ian Frazer AC & Mrs Caroline Frazer
Louise & Martyn Myer Foundation
Peter Young AM & Susan Young
Ann Gamble Myer
Jennie & Ivor Orchard
Anonymous (2)
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THANK YOU The ACO would like to thank the supporters of ACO Collective’s Western Australia Tour. In particular, we thank our government and corporate partners, the trusts and foundations, members of ACO Next and the many generous patrons of our Emerging Artists’ and Education Programs who have made this tour possible. PRINCIPAL PARTNER ACO COLLECTIVE
PATRONS – NATIONAL EDUCATION PROGRAM Marc Besen AC & Eva Besen AO
Janet Holmes à Court AC
TRUSTS AND FOUNDATIONS
Holmes à Court Family Foundation
The Neilson Foundation
GOVERNMENT PARTNERS
VENUE PARTNERS Perth Theatre Trust Shire of Manjimup Arts Margaret River Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre Mandurah Performing Arts Centre Queens Park Theatre 18
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The Ross Trust
The Luminous World exhibition was on show from January to March this year at the National Art School in Darlinghurst, Sydney. It featured 50 works by leading Australian and New Zealand artists, all from the Wesfarmers Collection. Luminous World brought together a selection of contemporary paintings, objects and photographs in a conversation about light. The ACO was invited to use the exhibition space for a photo shoot to welcome Pekka Kuusisto to his new role with ACO Collective as Artistic Director and to help launch Wesfarmers’ new Principal Partnership of ACO Collective. This photo, featuring Lydia Balbal’s painting Winnpa (2008), was taken just after Pekka and Richard Tognetti had played their priceless antique Italian violins surrounded by priceless contemporary antipodean artworks. We thank Wesfarmers for sharing their art with us and the world. It was a magical day.
Pekka Kuusisto with Richard Tognetti. Photo by Mick Bruzzese.
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Richard Tognetti AO Artistic Director Pekka Kuusisto ACO Collective Artistic Director Richard Evans Managing Director Phillippa Martin ACO Collective Manager Caitlin Gilmour Education Assistant Opera Quays, 2 East Circular Quay Sydney NSW 2000 PO Box R21 Royal Exchange NSW 1225 Administration 02 8274 3800 (Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm) Email aco@aco.com.au /TarraWarraMA
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Web aco.com.au /AustralianChamber Orchestra
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