Autumn

‘The words (she was looking at the window) sounded as if they were floating like flowers on water out there, cut off from them all, as if no one had said them, but they had come into existence of themselves. “And all the lives we ever lived and all the lives to be are full of trees and changing leaves.” She did not know what they meant, but, like music, the words seemed to be spoken by her voice, outside her self, saying quite easily and naturally what had been in her mind the whole evening while she said different things.’

– Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)

PAUL GRABOWSKY Solo

SATURDAY 8 MAY 7.30PM

I get along without you very well, Of course I do Except when soft rain falls And drip from leaves Then I recall The thrill of being sheltered in your arms Of course, I do But I get along without you very well.

– Hoagy Carmichael (1899–1981)

Since UKARIA opened its doors in 2015, Paul Grabowsky has been one of our most popular artists. He’s performed with Lior, Vince Jones, Kate Ceberano, Megan Washington, Deborah Conway, Lisa Gerrard, Paul Kelly and Archie Roach, and many of these performances have marked the beginning of collaborations that continue today. In 2014 Paul released the album Solo on ABC Jazz. This is jazz for the connoisseur: rich, engaging, full of allusion and wit. It’s also jazz at its most seductively approachable, in the tradition of Bills Evans’s Alone and Keith Jarrett’s The Melody at Night With You. In his first solo appearance at UKARIA, Paul performs many of the works from that acclaimed album, closing the set with one of the most achingly beautiful standards of all time: Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘I Get Along Without You Very Well.’ Duration | Approximately seventy minutes without interval.

Note | This performance will be presented with cabaret-style seating. Tickets Adult (A) $55 Concession (C) $50 Student (S) $25

RILEY LEE AND SATSUKI ODAMURA Picture Dreams

SUNDAY 9 MAY 2.30PM

‘[Lee’s] sound is so astonishingly pure: it aches with the sadness of loss and the sadness of wisdom, pulses with the joy of being alive and whispers of an elegance almost too exotic to be true.’

– The Sydney Morning Herald

Riley Lee has been playing the shakuhachi for fifty years. In 1980 he became the first non-Japanese grand master, and since moving to Sydney from Hawaii in 1986, has been instrumental in creating a professional presence of traditional Japanese music in Australia. Riley’s request in 1988 to the Sawai Koto School in Japan that a koto player be sent to Australia facilitated the immigration of Satsuki Odamura.

Now Director of the Koto Music Institute of Australia, Satsuki has pioneered the art of teaching and performing on the koto and shamisen since her arrival in Australia. Several of Australia’s finest composers have been inspired to write for her, including Ross Edwards (Koto Dreaming) and Peter Sculthorpe (Little Requiem). Riley and Satsuki are frequent collaborators, sharing a passion for the blending of traditional and contemporary cultures, and a deep reverence for the importance of Ma, a Japanese concept that speaks of ‘the space between two notes’, a world of hidden beauty after the reverberation of each string. Together at UKARIA for the first time, Riley and Satsuki create music of profound stillness and beauty, transcending the linearity of time to find a place between transience and eternity. Duration | Approximately seventy minutes without interval.

Note | Complimentary afternoon tea will be served after the performance. Tickets Adult (A) $55 Concession (C) $50 Student (S) $25

TAMARA-ANNA CISLOWSKA WITH RAINER JOZEPS Silence and the Piano

SUNDAY 16 MAY 2.30PM

‘The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between’

– Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

In our contemporary world, silence and stillness are rare commodities: they create the necessary conditions for introspection, allowing us to commune with the starved, neglected parts of ourselves. For the past thirty years, Rainer Jozeps has been one of Australia’s most experienced arts executives, leading organisations such as the West Australian Ballet and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, in addition to serving in numerous advisory roles. He is also a meditation practitioner and guide, with fifteen years of training in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, and an accredited Lifeline crisis counsellor.

Since winning the ABC Young Performer of the Year award at the age of fourteen, Tamara-Anna Cislowska has been a bright star in Australia’s pianistic firmament. She’s released several critically acclaimed albums with ABC Classic, including the complete works of Peter Sculthorpe (2014), the ARIA-nominated Into Silence (2017), and two hugely successful collaborations with Elena Kats-Chernin (Butterflying and Unsent Love Letters – Meditations on Erik Satie). Join Tamara and Rainer for a guided meditation through contemplative works by Brahms, Liszt, Rachmaninov, Arvo Pärt and Peteris Vasks. Before and after each piece, silence will fill the auditorium, culminating in John Cage’s 4’33” – a work known by many, mocked by some, and widely misunderstood. In a COVID-19 world, it assumes an extraordinary relevance: when experienced and shared intentionally, silence can be transcendental. Duration | Approximately seventy minutes without interval.

Note | Complimentary afternoon tea will be served after the performance. Tickets Adult (A) $55 Concession (C) $45 Student (S) $25

PIERS LANE Waltzing into Eternity

SUNDAY 23 MAY 2.30PM

Blessed with an impeccable memory, an exquisite cantabile touch and an almost superhuman technique that makes even the most challenging repertoire look like ‘water off a duck’s back’ (Limelight), Piers Lane is one of Australia’s finest concert pianists. Few musicians in the world can rival his encyclopaedic repertoire – which exceeds over one hundred concerti – and his eclectic discography of over sixty recordings. Ahead of the Sydney International Piano Competition, Piers returns from London for this very special recital at UKARIA.

Johannes Brahms Klavierstücke, Op. 119 Brett Dean Hommage à Brahms Ludwig van Beethoven Sonata in A flat, Op. 110

INTERVAL

Fryderyk Chopin The Complete Waltzes Duration | Approximately two hours, including a twenty-minute interval. Note | Complimentary afternoon tea will be served during the interval. Tickets Adult (A) $55 Concession (C) $45 Student (S) $25

ALEXANDRA OOMENS WITH PINCHGUT OPERA ARTISTS Cantatas of the French Baroque

SATURDAY 29 MAY 4.30PM

2020

This concert has been rescheduled from the 2020 Season

Sunset: Approximately 5.30pm

In 2019 Pinchgut Opera became the first Australian company to win an International Opera Award. Under the artistic direction of renowned Baroque exponent Erin Helyard, this concert showcases the talents of Pinchgut Opera artists in a delightful semi-staged presentation of mini-operas. Featuring the pure-toned beauty of soprano Alexandra Oomens, cantatas by Montéclair, Clérambault and Campra express the great Baroque themes of love, vengeance and fidelity – all set against the stunning backdrop of the Adelaide Hills.

Alexandra Oomens | Soprano Matthew Greco | Violin Anton Baba | Viola da gamba Simon Martyn-Ellis | Theorbo Erin Helyard | Harpsichord Michel Pignolet de Montéclair La mort de Didon from 1er livre de cantates

François Couperin ‘Troisième Concert’ from Concerts Royaux Prélude Allemande Courante Sarabande

André Campra Daphne from Cantates françoises François Couperin ‘Troisième Concert’ from Concerts Royaux Gavotte Muzette Chaconne légère Louis-Nicolas Clérambault Médée from Cantates françoises

Duration | Approximately seventy minutes without interval.

Tickets Adult (A) $55 Concession (C) $50 Student (S) $25

RICHARD TOGNETTI AND ERIN HELYARD Bach and Beethoven

SUNDAY 30 MAY 11.00AM | 2.30PM

2020 This concert has been rescheduled from the 2020 Season

‘It’s our job to bring the listener in through our portal. A numinous moment when, hopefully, we can make time stand still.’

– Richard Tognetti

Richard Tognetti has been the lodestar of the Australian Chamber Orchestra for thirty years. He’s appeared as a soloist with all the major Australian symphony orchestras, along with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Academy of Ancient Music, and the Camerata Salzburg. Erin Helyard, the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Pinchgut Opera, has forged new standards of excellence in historically informed performance: who could forget his Helpmann Award-winning role in Barrie Kosky’s production of Handel’s Saul?

Johann Sebastian Bach

Adagio from Violin Sonata in G minor, BWV 1001 Sonata for Violin and Keyboard in G, BWV 1019 Ludwig van Beethoven Eight Variations on Grétry’s ‘Une fièvre brûlante’, WoO 72 Sonata for Piano and Violin in F, Op. 24 No. 5 Spring Duration | Approximately sixty-five minutes without interval.

Note | Both performances feature the same program. Complimentary afternoon tea will be served after each performance. Tickets Adult (A) $55 Concession (C) $45 Student (S) $25