Hania Rani

Hania Rani is considered one of the most successful and intriguing pianists and contemporary composers in the world right now, having sold out shows in London, Berlin, Tel Aviv and across North America. This young rising star is about to land on our shores for her first Australian tour, performing in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane, but her first stop — Orange.

“It was definitely important to us to have Orange as part of the tour, and a huge preference to have it as the opening location,” said Merryl Naughton of Incy Wincy Promotions, the small business she runs with her partner Peter Ross, and who are behind bringing Hania Rani to Australia.

Merryl and Peter relocated to Orange from the Hunter Valley in March last year, drawn by the food, wine, cool climate and thriving arts scene in the Colour City. Moving to an apple-growing region like Orange also made sense given their interest in making traditional cider, which they produce under the label ‘Incy Wincy Cyder’.

But music has long been a passion for both Merryl and Peter, who were running their own music festival at their Hunter Valley home until COVID brought it all to a halt.

“Pete loves music, he’s got a really great ear for music and he’ll take a few weeks and dissect a piece of music,” said Merryn. “I on the other hand am much more on the social side, I like music because it’s fun… We just decided one day; let’s have a music festival!”

The Wollombi “Paddock Sessions” kicked off in 2016, with about 60 people camping in the paddock next to Merryl and Peter’s home.

“After four years, we had 350 people and it was becoming an event that people were coming back to and looking forward to,” Merryl said.

“But then, COVID happened and we weren’t doing that anymore and we accelerated our plan to move to Orange.”

Not that they knew it was the last at the time, but the final Paddock Sessions was certainly one to remember, with the line-up including James Morrison with a 14-piece band, backup singers - the works.

“We miss that,” said Merryl. “You miss that side of things, the musical festival, and doing something in the community.”

Which leads us to how the couple found themselves organising Hania Rani’s first Australian tour.

“Pretty much, it was either fly to Europe or convince her to come here,” said Pete, who had stumbled across Hania’s music on YouTube and quickly became a fan.

“Pete started following Hania through Gondwana Records and got in touch with her manager and said you should come into Australia, and the answer was no plans,” said Merryl. “And so we kind of said, let’s fix that!”

The tour planning and negotiations took almost two years, but Peter and Merryl were determined to include Orange, and have built a good partnership with the Orange Civic Theatre that they hope will continue in the future.

“I’ve got a cue of international artists that we know and that we can connect with, and we’ll probably do something like one a year,” said Peter. “One international artist a year and bring them out, start in Orange and then do the east coast.

“The guys who manage Hania are already talking to us, saying, what about this artist? Can we do something next year? It’s definitely kicked o with a bang, that’s for sure!”

But is there a chance we’ll ever see the Paddock Sessions music festival reborn here in Orange?

“We just bought a property at Borenore and there’s a very large paddock next door that we’ve been eyeing o ,” said Peter.

“We get, I don’t know, half a dozen queries from people a month, saying when’s Paddock Sessions coming back because people miss it… it could happen!”

HANIA RANI - LIVE IN AUSTRALIA FOR THE FIRST TIME

Musical meteor, astonishing pianist and contemporary composer Hania Rani will make her Australian debut at the Orange Civic Theatre on Wednesday, April 27.

Rani grew up in Gdansk (Poland), initially inspired to study classical music, she was introduced to jazz and electronics at music school, widening her interests, “mixing Chopin and Schostakovitch with Dave Brubeck and Moderat” as she puts it. Other inspirations include composers such as Max Richter, Esbjorn Svensson, Miles Davis, Nils Frahm, Murcof, Portico Quartet, Radiohead, and even The Beatles.

“It’s what connects all these artists that inspire me, their special approach to music and sound. For me, they have big hearts and huge minds,” says Hania

Hania has performed across Europe, North America, Japan, Israel, Turkey and Russia, with sold-out shows in prestigious venues like NOSPR in Katowice, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Funkhaus in Berlin and The Roundhouse in London. In 2022 Hania was invited to Paris to perform live shows for ARTE and Cercle that were viewed over 1.5 million times in just three months).

Her debut album “Esja”, a beguiling collection of solo piano pieces on Gondwana Records earnt four prestigious Fryderyk Awards and saw Hania receive the distinguished Sanki Award for “New Face of Polish Music”.

Her follow-up album, “Home”, adds vocals and subtle electronics. The album earned Rani another Fryderyk award for ‘Best Composer’ and a Transatlantyk Golden Ark Award for “Best Young Polish Composer”.

See Hania Rani, supported by Australian jazz legend Jonathan Zwartz, at the Orange Civic Theatre on Wednesday, April 27 2023. Tickets at Ticketek.

Scan the QR code to see Hania perform live in Seattle’s KEXP

Radio studio: