Top Ensembles Feature in Chamber Music NZ 2011

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Top International and New Zealand Ensembles Feature in Chamber Music New Zealand 2011 Season

Two favourite international ensembles return, Kiwi pianist John Chen brings his acclaimed Saguaro Trio for a debut New Zealand tour, and acclaimed New Zealand musicians feature as part of Chamber Music New Zealand’s 2011 ‘Kaleidoscopes’ season.

Featuring nine concert tours across 10 centres, Chamber Music New Zealand brings artists from the United States, Austria, Britain and Australia together with a superb line-up of New Zealand musicians.

Austria’s dynamic brothers, the Eggner Trio played to ecstatic audiences throughout New Zealand in 2006 and 2008 and Chamber Music New Zealand chief executive Euan Murdoch says he is thrilled to welcome them back in 2011 to open the season.

The Eggner Trio tour begins in Christchurch on Thursday 17 March, followed by performances in Dunedin, Invercargill, Nelson, Palmerston North, Wellington, Auckland, Hamilton, Napier and New Plymouth. The programmes include Piazzolla’s sensual The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, Saint-Saëns’ second piano trio, Dvořák’s third piano trio written shortly after the death of his mother, Beethoven’s ‘Gassenhauer’ and, in both programmes, Ian Munro’s Tales of Old Russia, commissioned by Christopher Marshall.

Following on from the Eggner Trio will be tours by the New Zealand String Quartet with soprano Jenny Wollerman (April/May), Brentano String Quartet in June, British violinist Tasmin Little’s ground-breaking project The Naked Violin (May/June), Alexa Still, Martin Riseley and Diedre Irons (June/July), Saguaro Trio featuring New Zealand pianist John Chen (July/August), Latitude 37 (August/September), Ensemble Liaison with Wilma Smith (October/November) and Voices of Aotearoa with Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir in November.

“The 2011 Kaleidoscopes concert season reflects the mood of our times for inspiring new experiences while continuing to bring back favourite ensembles and playing the music which our audiences love,” Euan says.

“This year we have nine tours and are once again taking as many concerts as possible to as many centres as possible. We’re particularly excited about bringing John Chen’s Saguaro Trio to New Zealand for the first time – fresh from their triumph in the Hamburg International Chamber Music Competition.”

With their dynamic performing style, the New Zealand String Quartet is acclaimed throughout the country. The quartet is joined by soprano Jenny Wollerman for the 10-centre Chamber Music New Zealand tour with a programme featuring Beethoven, Schoenberg, Mozart and Ross Harris’ The Abiding Tides which premiered at the 2010 NZ International Arts Festival. The tour begins in Nelson.

UK violinist Tasmin Little has played with many of the world’s greatest orchestras and in May/June she heads to New Zealand as an adjudicator for the Michael Hill International Violin Competition. In association with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Hamilton Chamber Music Society and Wellington Chamber Music, CMNZ is presenting three performances of Tasmin’s ambitious and award-winning project The Naked Violin.

In June, CMNZ welcomes back US ensemble the Brentano String Quartet. Described as “passionate, uninhibited and spellbinding,” the quartet performed in Auckland and Wellington in 2007 and in 2011 they return to play concerts in five centres – Auckland, Hamilton, Christchurch, Napier and Wellington with programmes featuring renaissance works alongside Beethoven’s late quartets.

Also in June and part of July, three of New Zealand’s best-loved musicians team up for the first time as a trio – Alexa Still (flute), Martin Riseley (violin) and Diedre Irons (piano) will perform in New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Nelson and Invercargill.

Considered one of the young ensembles to watch on the international scene, the Saguaro Trio tours all 10 centres in July and August with New Zealander John Chen at the piano, together with violinist Luanne Homzy and cellist Karen Kang. The programme features a new commission by New Zealander Alywn Westbrooke.

Both John and Alwyn have strong connections to CMNZ – John’s quartet won the 2001 Chamber Music Contest National Final and Alwyn made history in 2000 when his string quartet won the contest National Final playing his winning composition.

“I have been enthralled by Alwyn’s masterful compositions ever since we were teenagers,” John says.

Drawn together by their passion for music from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, Latitude 37 tours New Zealand in August and September performing two programmes of sumptuous works from the baroque repertoire. The trio – New Zealander Donald Nicolson (harpsichord), and Australians Laura Vaughan (viola da gamba, lirone) and Julia Fredersdorff (violin) – are among the top graduates of The Hague’s Royal Conservatory.

In October and November Ensemble Liaison tours to all 10 centres with special guest Wilma Smith. Ensemble Liaison formed in 2006 and is the ensemble-in-residence at Melbourne’s Monash University.

Completing the 2011 season is Voices of Aotearoa presented by Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir in November in Wellington, Auckland, Napier, Christchurch and Dunedin.

Subscriber tickets for Chamber Music New Zealand’s Kaleidoscopes Concert Season 2010 celebrating the Diamond Anniversary are now on sale and the full programme is available at www.chambermusic.co.nz

Chamber Music New Zealand acknowledges major funding from Creative New Zealand.

ENDS

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