The SOH, Australian National Academy of Music and Pacific Opera announce a new concert series in the Utzon Room.

Rising stars of Australian classical music and opera will be showcased in a series of concerts presented by the Sydney Opera House, the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) and Pacific Opera.

Members of Pacific Opera. Photo: supplied

From April to December 2017, up-and-coming young artists from ANAM and Pacific Opera will perform in the intimate surrounds of SOH’s Utzon Room. The nine-concert series is designed to help launch the next stage of their professional career, as they perform alongside international musicians and mentors, including Stefan Dohr, Principal Horn for the Berlin Philharmonic, ANAM Artistic Director Nick Deutsch and Pacific Opera Artistic Director Simon Kenway, as well as alumni of the ANAM training programme.

The repertoire will range from Schubert’s Winterreise to a selection of French and Italian arias to the Australian premiere of a song cycle commemorating the September 11, 2001 attacks by Richard Pearson Thomas called Race for the Sky.

Sydney Opera House Director of Performing Arts, Tim Calnin, said: “As we continue to explore ways to foster young artistic talent, we are delighted to be able to provide a public performance platform for these outstanding young Australian musicians. It’s wonderful to work with institutions like the Australian National Academy of Music and Pacific Opera who are championing some of Australia’s most promising classical music stars.”

Stefan Dohr, Principal Horn with the Berlin Phlharmonic will perform with ANAM musicians. Photo: supplied

Founded in 2003, Pacific Opera is a Sydney-based not-for-profit training studio for young opera singers. Last August, there were fears that the organisation might close due to lack of funding. However, in October, Pacific Opera launched a major fund-raising campaign in a bid to raise $100,000 to ensure its survival, a target it reached in November. With a major restructure, the Company is now looking to the future.

Pacific Opera launches the concert series on April 9 with Race for the Sky: 24 American Songs and Arias, featuring soprano Laura Scandizzo, violinist Lucy Warren and members of the 2017 Pacific Opera Programme accompanied by Simon Kenway. The concert will include the music of Bernstein, Sondheim, Copland, Barber and Weill, as well as the Australian premiere of Richard Pearson Thomas’s moving Race for the Sky, a song cycle for voice, violin, and piano about 9/11 which premiered in New York in 2002 on the first anniversary of the attacks.

Other Pacific Opera performances include Schubert’s Wintereisse in June and a concert of French and Italian arias and ensembles, featuring the music of Puccini, Delibes, Chabrier, Offenbach and Mozart, in December.

ANAM alumni violinist Harry Bennetts and pianist Louisa Breen. Photo: supplied

The Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), which has its home in South Melbourne Town Hall, will present six concerts. In May, faculty staff and musicians of the Academy perform Mendelssohn and Brahms. In June, Stefan Dohr, Principal Horn with the Berlin Philharmonic since 1993, collaborates with ANAM musicians on a selection of Mozart serenades. Alumni Harry Bennetts, a Sydney-born violinist currently studying at the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Academy, and pianist Louisa Breen perform Strauss’s early Sonata for Violin and Piano in July.

Nick Deutsch, ANAM’s Artistic Director and a regular oboe soloist and guest principal at Europe’s major orchestras, joins ANAM musicians for an intimate performance of Mozart’s Serenade No 10 in September. Later that month, clarinetist Lloyd Van’t Hoff, cellist Jack Bailey and pianist Alex Raineri, all ANAM alumni, perform Brahms’ Trio for clarinet, cello and piano, and in December, Timothy Young and pianists from ANAM perform in a programme that includes Carl Vine’s Sonata for Four Hands.

Tickets to the general public go on sale at 10am on Friday February 10.


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