OMEGA ENSEMBLE – NIGHT SERENADES
LOCALLY MADE AND PLAYED. LOCAL MUSICIANS, LIVE DEVELOPING AND SUPPORTING GRASSROOTS MUSIC TALENT IN NEWCASTLE IS IN OUR DNA AND LOCALLY MADE & PLAYED IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF THIS. In December, City of Newcastle launched the Boost Arts and Culture: Live Music Grant Program. This targeted program was developed to incentivise live music across the city in February, aligning with the inaugural New Annual Festival, giving Newcastle’s emerging artists the opportunity to play in our local venues while the city comes alive. Sixteen venues across the City will host live music over the 10-day New Annual festival. The venues include;
Wickham Park Hotel, Cambridge Hotel, The Kent Hotel, Beach Burrito Co., The Mark Hotel, The Duke Of Wellington, The Ship Inn Newcastle, The Rogue Scholar, Jams Karaoke Bar, Meet Restaurant, The Stag & Hunter Hotel, The Lucky Hotel, Racecourse Hotel Wallsend, Oriental Hotel Cooks Hill, The Exchange Hotel and The Lass O'Gowrie Hotel. Some of the local talent that will be showcased across the venues include; Sneaky Freakers, Raw Candy, Elisa Kate, Matt McLaren, Threads blues band, Giant blues band, Pistol Pete, Greg Bryce, Mike Zee, Mid City, Time On Earth, Dani El Rassi, Dean Kyrwood, Howard Shearman, Prestige Inc, Kate Cornucopia, Adam Miller Trio, Brendan Fell Trio, Cliff & Co, Mick Jones and Tre Soul. New Annual is City of Newcastle’s inaugural arts festival. Spanning ten days and activating venues across the city, the festival will feature local and visiting artists sharing music, dance, contemporary performance and visual art in a celebration of creativity while showcasing our community’s journey of self-expression, resilience and recovery, and highlighting Newcastle’s identity as a creative hub with a vibrant cultural heritage. New Annual provides locals and visitors with an opportunity to discover new work, new perspectives, and new performance spaces across the city. Launching Locally Made & Played across local venues ensures that patrons can engage with the festival throughout more of the city. It will also provide visitors with a range of options to explore and experience. The Festival is headlined by a number of major commissions from local artists and companies including feature performances from Curious Legends and Catapult Choreographic Hub. Pop-up venues and installations in
Musica Viva’s 2021 Season is
On Sale Now!
When imagining the 2021 season, Artistic Director Paul Kildea saw a glorious opportunity – a blank slate – where he could build a season that celebrated the uplifting power of music. ‘We wanted to create something optimistic and thrilling, filled with pride and imagination,’ he explains. ‘All of us at Musica Viva have worked together to ensure that the musicians we’ve assembled under this single banner are outstanding in every regard.’ Glancing over the performances on offer, it’s clear that extraordinary performances await audiences with each concert. On March 1, Sydney oboist Diana Doherty will appear at the Newcastle City Hall in collaboration with her dear friends, the Streeton Trio – comprised of cellist Umberto Clerici, violinist Emma Jardine and pianist Benjamin Kopp. Alongside the music of Mendelssohn, Smetana and Martinů, a brand-new commission will be unveiled, fresh from the pen of Perth-based composer Lachlan Skipworth. When Johannes Brahms finished a horn trio in 1865, he married a combination of instruments together for the first time – the piano, the violin and the French horn. Half a century later, this work inspired another, as the composer Ernst Naumann made an arrangement of Mozart’s Horn Quintet for this very same line-up. To present these
AURA GO, EMILY SUN AND AMIR FARID (CREDIT: DANIEL SPELLMAN)
demanding works, Musica Viva has assembled three outstanding musicians - horn player Nicolas Fleury, violinist Emily Sun and pianist Amir Farid, who’ll perform at The Hunter Theatre on June 23. Also on the program is the world premiere of a Sonata by the Australian composer Gordon Kerry, commissioned by Julian Burnside and performed with dazzling virtuosity by Sun and Farid. When the recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey decided to reflect on the year that was 2020, it resulted in a deeply personal recording project called Bower. A delicate juxtaposition of music both old and new, Lacey describes it as ‘a nest, woven with memories, heart, hope.’ Musical treasures found, borrowed and made, lovingly fashioned into a sanctuary.’ Featuring seven original works from Australian composers, written for Lacey to perform in collaboration with her friend, the renowned harpist Marshall McGuire, this immersive piece offers audiences a unique shared
Civic Park and Wheeler Place will showcase the best of Newcastle’s creative arts, while visiting artists like audiovisual choreographer e4444e and the Omega Ensemble will deliver a range of compelling works. Newcastle’s iconic Hazy Cosmic Jive recording studio will provide a musical showcase of homegrown talent, while various street art activations will bring key outdoor locations to life. An open artist studio trail featuring some of Newcastle’s most dynamic independent art spaces will also offer a hands-on insight into the creative processes of a visual artist. New Annual has an eclectic and ambitious program designed to inspire, delight and encourage contemplation as it explores both light-hearted and more serious themes all across Newcastle. Highlights include Klapping which takes urban performances to a purpose-built event location in National Park, and Curious Legends holding an installation at the Summerhill Waste Facility involving illuminated puppets providing entertainment for the whole family. New Annual is the catalyst for Newcastle’s cultural events sector to take centre stage alongside leading national events and It will shine a spotlight on Newcastle’s reputation as a creative city where ambitious and accessible contemporary art and culture grow and thrive within a prosperous, diverse and resilient community.
New Annual comes alive 12–21 February. To find out more about Locally Made & Played along with the full New Annual event program, visit www.newannual.com (*information correct at the time of publication).
experience. Further enhanced with sound by Jim Atkins and lighting by Niklas Pajanti, it will be at Newcastle City Hall on July 26. The following month, the brilliant Queensland-based group Ensemble Q will bring a program featuring a showpiece written by their founding member, and clarinettist Paul Dean – his Concerto for Cello and Wind Quintet. Kildea is full of praise for this contemporary work, ‘it’s difficult, it’s virtuosic, and soloist Trish Dean is a fantastic advocate’. Ensemble Q, the Queensland Conservatorium’s Ensemble in Residence, is a collection of ‘exceptional players and wonderful people.’ Long-time friends and collaborators reunite when Piers Lane joins the marvellous Goldner String Quartet to embark on their postponed 2020 tour. Boasting a line-up of their original founding members – a rare feat for a quartet that’s over 25 years old – violinists Dene Olding and Dimity Hall, violist Irina Morozova, and cellist Julian Smiles will perform two complimentary programs on September 30. Hear the music of Dvořák, Korngold, Brahms, Elgar, alongside the world premiere of a new work by the emerging Australian composer Jakub Jankowski. Chopin’s Twenty-Four Preludes is regarded as one of the great monuments of nineteenth-century Romantic literature – and is at the heart of Chopin’s Piano, the final Musica Viva tour on November 22. An immersive blend of chamber music and theatre, it stars the astonishing pianist Aura Go, an alumna of the Musica Viva Future Maker’s program. This is an evocative retelling of the rich history and ultimate fate of the piano at the centre of Chopin’s compositions, adapted from Paul Kildea’s book Chopin’s Piano. Musica Viva’s 2021 Season is on sale now. Subscription packages are available now via www.musicaviva.com.au www.intouchmagazine.com.au | 9
