Tait Awardee, Kevin Penkin composes original score to celebrate Rio Tinto's 50 years of iron ore mining

We were delighted to learn that Western Australian composer and Tait Awardee, Kevin Penkin has composed an original score commissioned by Rio Tinto in 2016, to mark 50 years since Rio Tinto’s first contracted shipment of iron ore which departed Dampier for the Yawata Iron and Steel Company in Japan.

Hoan Maru 1966,  Rio Tinto
Hoan Maru 1966, Rio Tinto

Ahead of this milestone, thousands of Australian contractors and suppliers laid almost 300 kilometres of railway, moved 12 million cubic metres of earth and rock and installed 300,000 tonnes of plant and equipment. The company also built the towns of Dampier and Tom Price, and dredged a port to accept the largest ore carriers of the day. Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Chris Salisbury said

“When the MV Houn Maru set sail 50 years ago nobody could have predicted that Pilbara iron ore would underpin Australia’s economic growth. “The Pilbara’s vast iron ore deposits, and the people who developed them, have helped build modern Australia and some of the world’s leading economies,”

Kevin was our first Tait Scholar which enabled him to complete his studies at the Royal College of Music. The debut performance of Hoan Maru, by Perth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jessica Gethin was recorded live at the 50th anniversary celebration on Friday 26th August, 2016 at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.

B i o g r a p h y

Kevin Penkin, Tait Scholar
Kevin Penkin, Tait Scholar 2014/15

Kevin Penkin is an Australian composer who has written for video games, anime, film and the concert stage. He won ‘Outstanding Vocal Theme’ at the 2013 Video Game Music Awards for his song ‘I Race the Dawn’, and was nominated for ‘Best Newcomer’ in 2012 by Square Enix Music Online for his work with Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu on the game ‘Juza Engi Engetsu Sangokuden’.

 Since developing an interest for Japan at an early age, it was always a goal for Kevin to compose for both video games and anime. Recent efforts have seen him write for the anime series ‘Norn9’, and the highly anticipated sci-fi film ‘Under the Dog’. While expanding in the world of anime, he has remained passionate about video games, composing for the indie hits ‘Defenders Quest’, ‘Implosion – Never Lose Hope’, and ‘Deemo’.

Kevin moved to London in 2013 to attend the Royal College of Music to pursue a Masters of Composition for Screen, from which he graduated from in June of 2015. He was selected as the inaugural Tait Scholar which gave him a £5,000 per annum scholarship to support his studies. The Tait Trust commissioned an original piece for solo flute and Chamber Orchestra entitled ‘Changing Feet’ which was debuted at the 2014 Tait Winter Prom at St John’s Smith’s Square in December 2014.

Changing Feet is about changing pace. Leaving the world’s most isolated city to live in one of the most industrious and compact environments requires a huge mental change. This piece tries to reflect not only the mentality of someone who grew up in Perth, but the experience of moving to London and ultimately returning home back to Australia. This work explores what one could miss of Perth, be it the silence, the space or the natural beauty.

Kevin Penkin composer. 29th September 2014

Listen to a sample of more of Kevin’s work on Soundcloud

During his time as a student, he heavily expanded his efforts to be involved in local projects. As a result, Kevin is now working on UK based short films and theatre. He is also involved in concert music, writing for ensembles such as the ‘Perth Chamber Orchestra’, ‘Greywing Ensemble’, and the ‘And So Forth Opera Company’.

Tait Awardee, James Guan is playing in the finals of the Intercollegiate Piano Competition

James Guan, pianoWe are thrilled to confirm that 2016 Tait Awardee, James Guan, will be playing in London’s famous recital venue, Wigmore Hall tomorrow morning, competing as the Royal Academy of Music finalist in the Intercollegiate Piano Competition.
You can watch him on live stream, for those Aussies playing along at home it will be tonight at 6:55pm AWST and 9:55pm AEST. The Intercollegiate Piano Competition aims to provide students with an opportunity for outstanding students to perform at well known London concert venues.

James is a featured artist in our 2016 Tait Winter Prom at St John’s Smith Square on Wednesday 30th November. James will play Australian composer, Malcolm Williamson’s 2nd piano concerto with the Tait Chamber Orchestra.  To book please click here

Final at Wigmore Hall – open to the public  

10th November 2016
10am – 2:30pm
entry fee: £8
Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, London W1U 2BP

box office tel: 0207 9352141

10:00 – 10:50 Jonathan Ferrucci, Guildhall School of Music & Drama
10:55 – 11:45 James Guan, Royal Academy of Music

— 30 minute break —

12:15 – 13:05 Ilya Kondratiev, Royal College of Music
13:10 – 14:00 Oda Voltersvik, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance

approx. 14:15 announcement of the winner

The final is open to the public. The four finalists will each perform a 45-50 minute programme of own choice including the compulsory work. The announcement of the winner is made approx. 15 minutes after the end of the last performance.

Adjudicators

All four piano professors of the heats/the semi final
all or at least one of the following three:
Paolo Fazioli, creator and builder of Fazioli Pianos and sponsor of the recital at the Fazioli Concert Hall
John Gilhooly, director of Wigmore Hall
Stuart Mitchell, S. W. Mitchell Capital LLP, sponsor of the live recording of the Wigmore Hall recital
As chairman:
Terence Lewis, Managing Director of Jaques Samuel Pianos

Intercollegiate Piano Competition

The Jaques Samuel Pianos Intercollegiate Piano Competition has taken place annually since 1996. Our competition aims to provide students with an opportunity to compete against like minded musicians, to gain experience in piano specific competitions and give outstanding students the opportunity to perform at well known London concert venues. The competition heats begin in May with the final and semi-final in October.

The winner will perform a solo recital at Wigmore Hall and at the Fazioli Auditorium in Sacile, Italy. The Wigmore Hall Recital will be recorded and he/she will receive 500 professionally produced CDs. A further four entrants will win a solo lunchtime recital at St James’s Piccadilly.

The competition is open to
all students (first year to postgraduate) of the four main London music colleges: Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Sponsored by S.W.MITCHELL CAPITAL and FAZIOLI
www.swmitchellcapital.com and www.fazioli.com

For more information

please download the leaflet: 5_pic_leaflet-and-entry-form
or contact us by e-mail: competition@jspianos.com.

Source: Intercollegiate Piano Competition at Jaques Samuel Pianos, London, UK

Miranda Keys' debut at The Royal Opera House

 

 

Australian dramatic soprano and former Tait Awardee, Miranda Keys, is to make her Royal Opera House debut in the 2016/17 Season as Marianne and Noble Widow (Der Rosenkavalier) with the American diva, Renee Fleming, singing the Marschallin.

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Miranda came to international attention in 2007 when she was a finalist in the Cardiff Singer of the World. She has gone on to sing at Glyndebourne, Aix en Provence Festival under Sir Simon Rattle and Sir Mark Elder with the Halle Orchestra.

 

Miranda Keys

Australian soprano Miranda Keys studied for her music degree at the Guildhall School Of Music in London. She completed the opera course at the Royal College of Music where she held the President Emerita Scholarship, the most prestigious scholarship the college can confer. She completed her studies at the National Opera Studio. She won the 2006 Wagner Society Bayreuth Bursary and the 2005 John Scott Award from Scottish Opera and was a main prize and song prize finalist in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in 2007. Operatic roles include ELISABETH (Trieste and Bologna), ARIADNE (Salzburg Landestheater and Leipzig Oper), ODABELLA (Lyric Opera Dublin), MUSETTA (Glyndebourne on Tour), LADY BILLOWS (Glyndebourne Touring Opera and Salzburg Landestheater), ELETTRA (Glyndebourne on Tour), WITCH/MOTHER (Scottish Opera on Tour).

miranda-keys-prono

Other roles include COUNTESS, FIORDILIGI, MISS WINGRAVE, MISS JESSEL, FEMALE CHORUS and MADAME LIDOINE. She has sung 3rd NORN in Götterdämmerung under Sir Simon Rattle (in Aix and Salzburg), Sir Mark Elder (for the Halle orchestra, recorded on the Halle label), Ed Spanjaard (Reisopera), and Donald Runnicles (BBC Proms). GERHILDE in Die Walküre for the Halle conducted by Sir Mark Elder and released on the Halle label (Manchester International Festival), AUFSEHERIN in Elektra (Rome and Bari), �FIDELIO conducted by Gianandrea Noseda (Turin). Recent highlights include AUFSEHERIN at Opera National de Paris conducted by Philippe Jordan, and at the BBC Proms conducted by Semyon Bychkov, MARIANNE LEITMETZERIN at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the BBC Proms conducted by Robin Ticciati and MISS JESSEL for Glyndebourne on Tour, LADY BILLOWS in Albert Herring (cond. Oksana Lyniv) and MARIANNE DI LEITMETZERIN in Der Rosenkavalier (cond. Kirill Petrenko) for Bayerische Staatsoper. Future highlights include her debut at The Royal Opera, London in Der Rosenkavalier (cond. Andris Nelsons) and a return to the Bayerische Staatsoper.

 

 

 

Miranda Keys website

Book for Rosenkavalier

Elena Xanthoudakis shines in Anna Bolena (Melbourne Opera)

We are thrilled to read this glowing review for Tait Awardee, Elena Xanthoudakis, who is singing the title role in Melbourne Opera’s production of Anna Bolena. Rob Holdsworth reviewed ‘Anna Bolena’ (Melbourne Opera) for Australian Book Review‘s Arts Update.

Elena Xanthoudakis as Anna Bolena

The star of Melbourne Opera’s Anna Bolena is Elena Xanthoudakis, last seen as Mary Stuart in 2015. Xanthoudakis has a fine soprano voice and is blessed with superlative technique and acting ability. What a performance this is! Whenever Xanthoudakis was on stage, the audience was riveted by Anne’s plight. The Act II mad scene that ends the opera, with its Home Sweet Home reminiscence, was especially poignant.

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To read the full review please click here

Source: Anna Bolena (Melbourne Opera)

Jayson Gillham shows why he has the world at his fingertips | News Local

Lovely article from the Daily Telegraph about Tait Awardee, Jayson Gillham, and a stunning review for his City Recital Hall concert in Sydney on the 24th October. His tour now continues to Adelaide with the Adelaide Symphony and then ends with a sold-out recital at the Melbourne Recital Centre.

CHILDHOOD piano lessons for brilliant young virtuoso Jayson Gillham’s meant a 500km round car trip with his mum from his home in Dalby, Queensland. All those miles and effort paid off when, at the age of 17, he reached the semi-finals of the gruelling Sydney International Piano Competition. A scholarship and move to London, where he is now based, added further polish and eventually led to a Masters degree at the Royal Academy of Music. Now he is back on home ground after a much-acclaimed Sydney Symphony debut earlier this month performing Beethoven’s Piano concerto No. 4 with piano great Vladimir Ashkenazy conducting. And, as part of that triumphal tour, Gillham played a program of Bach, Handel, Beethoven and Schumann in the latest of the SSO’s International Pianists In Recital series. He opened with what he describes as a “here I am” piece in Bach’s Toccata and fugue in C minor BWV 911, which incidentally opens his newly-released debut recording for ABC Classics. 

DAZZLING 

The work, with its deft interplay between left and right hand, showed off Gillham’s grace and elegance, as well as a dazzling and smoothly-controlled technique. His articulation and accuracy in both hands, complemented by astute use of the sustain pedal, meant that all the “voices” of the double fugue came through with crystal clarity. The prodigious variations in Handel’s Chaconne in G indulged Gillham’s flashier side, albeit seasoned with great taste, sensitivity and judgment. This was a reading carved not of granite, but more one of polished marble Beethoven considered Handel the greatest composer of them all so the eight-minute set of variations made an apt curtain-raiser to the final piece of the first half, the Waldstein sonata. Here the 30-year-old soloist forsook blood and guts for a more refined approach to Beethoven and at times the rondo finale was a little rushed. 

This was a reading carved not of granite, but more one of polished marble. 

Jayson Gillham performs Chopin. 
The second half was all Romance with Schumann’s lengthy piano workout, the Etudes symphoniques, which complete with the five posthumous variations clocks in at 37 minutes. This listener would have preferred the Schubert sonata Gillham performs on his new CD! As if this set of 12 variations wasn’t enough to convince the audience of Gillham’s prowess, the encores were. Liszt’s Paraphrase on Verdi’s Rigoletto quartet is a favourite showstopper, but Gillham had more. The evening started with and ended with Bach, albeit Rachmaninoff’s spectacular transcription of the violin partita No.3. If, like Bach, Gillham wanted to announce “Here I am!”, we all certainly got the message loud and clear.

DETAILS

Steve Moffatt, NewsLocalOctober 25, 2016 8:07am

October 25, 2016 8:07am

●CONCERT: Jayson Gillham in recital

●WHERE: City Recital Hall Angel Place

●WHEN: Monday, October 24

Source: Jayson Gillham shows why he has the world at his fingertips | News Local

Herald Sun Aria winner Panayiota Kalatzis sweeps all before her | Herald Sun

We are thrilled to report that Tait Awardee, Panayiota Kalatzis, won the coveted 2016 Herald Sun Aria in Melbourne’s, Hamer Hall a few days ago. Panayiota was the 2014 recipient of the Australian International Opera Awards which gave her the funds to study at the Wales International Academy of Voice with Dennis O’Neill.

Herald Sun Aria winner Panayiota Kalatzis. Photo: Stuart Walmsley

SCINTILLATING soprano Panayiota Kalatzis swept all before her last night to win the 2016 Herald Sun Aria.The 30-year-old Brisbane vocalist, trailing an elegant train, won the coveted prize in its 92nd year ahead of four other outstanding classical singers.“I never thought it would happen,’’ she said after accepting the prestigious award from Herald Sun editor Damon Johnston. “You work hard and enter competitions and then someone, ‘Yes’. Winning this changes everything.’’Kalatzis, of Greek background, captivated a 1500-strong audience at Hamer Hall with thrilling performances of Massenet and Verdi. A huge ovation greeted her win which carries $15,000 cash and a $22,500 scholarship for overseas tuition.“The plan is to go back to the UK, make some connections there, and then go to America,’’ she said. “Winning this makes all that possible.’’Jessica Harper, a 26-year-old soprano from Sydney, was runner up while the encouragement award went to Douglas Kelly, a Victorian-based tenor.Judges Richard Mills, Margaret Haggart and John Bolton-Wood praised the high standard of competition and Penny Fowler, Chairman of the Herald and Weekly Times, paid special tribute to Richard Divall — the Aria’s long serving maestro and chief adjudicator.

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Source: Herald Sun Aria winner Panayiota Kalatzis sweeps all before her | Herald Sun

Who will be Limelight's Artists of the Year? You decide

Below is the link to vote for Limelight’s Artist of the Year. We are thrilled to see that Tait Awardees;  Amy Dickson, saxophone & Jayson Gillham, piano, have been nominated.

amy-dickson
Amy Dickson

Amy was recently awarded the honour to be the Young Australian of the Year in the UK for 2016, the latest accolade in a quickly growing list of prizes. The UK Australia Day Awards, introduced by the non-profit Australia Day Foundation, recognise those Australians who excel in their fields in the United Kingdom.
Australia Day Foundation Director, Dick Porter said: “Amy is an outstanding young Australian and we are delighted to recognise her success with this award.”
The award was presented by the Australian High Commissioner, the Honourable Alexander Downer AC at Australia House, London.

Jayson is currently enjoying great success in Australia, to date he has played at QPAC in recital for Medici Concerts, Beethoven’s 4th piano concerto with the Sydney Symphony, a recital at Sydney’s Recital Hall and he is to play Beethoven’s 3rd piano concerto with the Adelaide Symphony, his tour ends with a recital in the Melbourne Recital Centre.

Jayson Gillham
Jayson Gillham

Who will be Limelight’s Artists of the Year?

Vote here for who you’d like to see honoured in our Australian and International Artists of the Year Awards.

Each year, Limelight’s experienced team of reviewers painstakingly selects a group of winning recordings in each of five categories for our annual Recording of the Year Awards. In addition, this year our critics have created a shortlist of 40 outstanding musicians and ensembles – 20 Australian and 20 International artists – for our annual Limelight Artists of the Year Awards.

Some are established artists and some are relative newcomers. Several of the international artists have thrilled Australian audiences in performance while others have released stunning recordings or have achieved accomplishments of note in their field. The nominees include performers, composers, ensembles and conductors, all of whom are in the running to win one of two inaugural Limelight Artist of the Year Awards.

Now it’s your chance to be involved. We’d like you, Limelight readers, to vote for the Australian and international artist that you would most like to see honoured. The public vote will then be combined with the votes of our critical panel, and the announcement of the lucky winners will be made in our special holiday issue of Limelight, out January 5, 2017. And please note, for the purposes of these awards, a non-Australian with a post at an Australian orchestra has been counted as an Australian artist rather than as an International.

Voting closes at midnight on Sunday November 6

Australian Artists

Australian Haydn Ensemble
Australian World Orchestra
Nicole Car
Brett Dean
Amy Dickson
Ross Edwards
Asher Fisch
Jayson Gillham
Richard Gill
Erin Helyard
Elena Kats-Chernin
Piers Lane
Latitude 37
Emma Matthews
Joseph Nolan
Dene Olding
Alondra de la Parra
Seraphim Trio
Stuart Skelton
Richard Tognetti

International Artists

Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Choir of Trinity College Cambridge
Joyce DiDonato
Christoph von Dohnányi
Mahan Esfahani
Franco Fagioli
Susan Graham
Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Stephen Hough
Jerusalem Quartet
Lang Lang
Paul Lewis
Felicity Lott
Pumeza Matshikiza
Andris Nelsons
Jordi Savall
Takacs Quartet
Daniil Trifonov
Yuja Wang
John Wilson


Please note: By entering this poll you agree to receive Limelight’s Weekly Newsletter. If you already receive our Weekly Newsletter you still need to fill out the form; this will update your information with your vote. If you have any trouble accessing the voting button above, please click here.

by Limelight Magazine on October 14, 2016 (October 14, 2016) filed under Classical Music | Orchestral | Chamber | Instrumental | Vocal & Choral | Opera | Comment Now

Source: Who will be Limelight’s Artists of the Year? You decide

Elena Xanthoudakis to take on the Queen

The Australian soprano reflects on the challenges of singing Donizetti’s tragic Anna Bolena.

Elena Xanthoudakis as Anna Bolena for Melbourne Opera
Elena Xanthoudakis as Anna Bolena

While Anna Bolena is definitely on the larger end of the bel canto roles, it still requires great flexibility, as well as heft and drama where required. It is a great thrill to sing and while it is perhaps ‘heavier’ than some other bel canto roles – mostly due to the intense dramatic situation Anna finds herself in – one must remember to maintain a lilt and ease so that the voice remains flexible. There are also a number of lower notes: the bottom register is well applied by Donizetti to add drama and colour, and I absolutely love using a wide range of colours to characterise her journey. The challenges of the role lie in matching the tessitura and the weight or volume.

Sally Anne-Russell, Jane Seymour & Elena Xanthoudakis, Anna Bolena
Sally Anne-Russell, Jane Seymour & Elena Xanthoudakis, Anna Bolena

There are also a number of added cadenzas and high notes, so finding the balance between the elements is crucial. Anna is extremely fun to sing, as well as technically challenging – but again therein lies the fun too! Donizetti’s Anna Bolena departs from the historical details in a number of ways, done for dramatic licence. However, there is much that corresponds with the historical Anne Boleyn’s journey. In my opinion, her trial itself was a complete set-up, and the nature of it is made very clear in the opera.As for Anna’s mad scene, I would say it is less ‘mad’ than many! She begins the mad scene in a state of delusion, drifting in and out of awareness of her real situation. It begins in some respects like the Lucia di Lammermoor mad scene, in both concept – Anna is imagining a wedding – and orchestral colour. However, it soon shifts to much more dramatic colours and intense melodic shapes. It is perhaps less florid than roles like Elvira or Lucia, but is no less impressive. The role of Anna Bolena has been performed by a great number of sopranos, including Callas, Sutherland, and Netrebko. In an ideal world we would all love the dramatic intensity of La Callas, as well as the beauty of tone and flexibility of La Stupenda. Of the other major exponents of the role, I admire Beverly Sills for her recordings, which are extremely ornamented – perhaps too much? I would like to be at least as inventive where required. And though no recordings of Giuditta Pasta exist, one would hope to have a voice as strong and flexible as hers at the top, with the same depth and colour in the middle and bottom. Pasta, the original Anna, was a mezzo-like soprano, who was both the first Norma and Amina, the latter of which is substantially lighter and requires more limpid flexibility. Given the original Anna’s voice, and contemporary audience expectation for extemporised top notes, balance and care must be taken in order to maintain ease at both ends of the registers, to give the widest range of possible colour. Knowing the repertoire of Donizetti’s Tudor Queens, it would be a joy to one day have the opportunity to sing Queen Elizabeth in Roberto Devereux.

Elena’s performance of Mozart’s, Ch’io mi scordi di te? K 505, with Jayson Gillham and the Tait Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Kelly Lovelady, at the 2014 Tait Winter Prom at St John’s Smith Square.

Elena Xanthoudakis appears in the Australian premiere of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena for Melbourne Opera November 2, 5 and 9. Buy tickets here

Melbourne Opera stages the Australian premiere of Roberto Deveraux in 2017.

Win an A-Reserve double pass to opening night

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Following the sold out triumph of Maria Stuarda last year, Melbourne Opera continues the great Donizetti trilogy bringing the bel canto masterpiece Anna Bolena to The Athenaeum for the first time this November.

Starring Elena Xanthoudakis (Anne Boleyn), Sally-Anne Russell (Jane Seymour), Eddie Muliaumaseali’i (Henry VIII), Boyd Owen (Richard Percy), Dimity Shepherd (Mark Smeaton) and Phillip Calcagno (Lord Rochefort).

Source: Elena Xanthoudakis to take on the Queen from Limelight Magazine

Jessica Cottis to conduct, Borodin's 'Prince Igor' for Chelsea Opera Group

Australian conductor, Jessica Cottis is to conduct Chelsea Opera Groups concert performance of Borodin’s masterpiece, ‘Prince Igor’ at London’s, Cadogan Hall on the 22nd of October. Famous for its soaring melodies and dances the opera is sadly rarely performed. The cast includes Australian baritone, Joshua Bloom.

Saturday 22nd October 2016
at 6.30pm

Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin (1834-1887)

Concert performance sung in English.

Jessica is to conduct our Tait Winter Prom at St John’s Smith Square on Wednesday 30th November.

Jessica’s website

Opera in 4 acts* by Alexander Borodin (1833 – 1887)

Book here for Prince Igor

Libretto adapted by the composer from the Ancient Russian epic The Lay of Igor’s Host., which recounts the campaign of Rus prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Cuman (“Polovtsian”) tribes in 1185. He also incorporated material drawn from two medieval Kievan chronicles. The opera was left unfinished upon the composer’s death in 1887 and was edited and completed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov.

First performed in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1890.

* Act 3 will be omitted in this performance.

Russian opera’s most melodious epic was many years in the making. Like his colleagues in the Nationalist circle of composers known as the ‘mighty little handful’ (‘moguchaya kuchka’), Alexander Borodin had extra-musical fish to fry. His ‘other’ career, in fact, was the most distinguished of all; as Professor of Chemistry, he was responsible for a discovery still known to science as ‘the Borodin reaction’.

The reaction he won in music was to his strong sensual vein and his knack of pouring forth good tunes (as the kitsch oriental musical Kismet acknowledged in the 20th century). Like most Russians, he was fascinated by the lure of the east, and the scenes in which Prince Igor of ancient Russia is detained in the camp of the hospitable enemy, Khan Konchak of the Polovtsian tribe, are among the most dazzling and brilliantly orchestrated in music: as well as the famous dances the genius quotient in the arias and duet is extremely high, even if his colleagues Rimsky-Korsakov and the younger Alexander Glazunov had a hand in completing many of the numbers during his lifetime and piecing together the whole opera following his death.

The lyric soprano role belongs to Yaroslavna, the wife he leaves behind in his home town of Putivl – a foil to the siren song of the mezzo playing Konchak’s daughter, with whom Igor’s son Vladimir falls in love. So there are laments, celebrations, vigorous dance sequences and splendid choruses: the very essence of Russian opera.

© 2016 David Nice

Tickets for the concert can be obtained from Cadogan Hall.

Sally Law, violin – Tait Scholar 2016

We are delighted to announce that, Sally Law, a young violinist from Queensland, has been selected as the 2016 Tait Scholar at the Royal College of Music. The Tait Scholar Award is funded by the family of Julian Baring, and is one of our flagship scholarships for young Australians.

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The adopt a performer scheme allows a donor to directly support a young Australian performer for a three year commitment. Please click here to learn how to actively involve yourself in the career development of a young performer.

Sally is playing in the Tait Chamber Orchestra in our Tait Winter Prom on the 30th November at St John’s Smith Square, conducted by Jessica Cottis. More information here

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Sally Law, Tait Scholar

SALLY LAW

Violinist Sally Law is currently a Tait Trust Scholar supported by a Big Give Award at the Royal College of Music, studying violin with Jan Repko. She began playing violin at the age of eight in Brisbane, Australia. In 2015, Sally held a solo performance for HRH Princess Alexandra at Queen Alexandra House.  Over this past summer, Sally played in the Macao Orchestra for their 2016-2017 opening concert; the Roman River Music Festival with her clarinet trio; as well as the 24-hour music marathon at St John’s Smith Square, London. Sally also recently performed in masterclasses with Alexander Markov and Professor Alexander Bonduryansky.

Sally has won prizes in numerous competitions, including First Prize in the Queensland Young Instrumentalist Competition in 2012, resulting in her debut as soloist with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. She also received First Prize in the Strings Open Somerville House Solo Instrumental and Vocal Competition in 2011, and the Australia National Youth Concerto Competition Recitalist Award consecutively 2010-2012, amongst others.

Following her debut as soloist with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Sally has performed solo recitals in the UK and Australia, including St Mary Abbots Church and the Claremont Centre in London, and the Brisbane Museum Concert Hall and Somerville House Valmai Pidgeon Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane. In 2013 Sally performed in a showcase performance, raising funds for the Queensland Flood Relief at the Brisbane Albert St Uniting Church.

Sally works regularly as a chamber musician, and has formed the Mellanie Trio with musicians at the Royal College of Music. The trio have received coaching from Alina Ibragimova and Trio Apaches. Recent engagements include a performance at the Austrian Cultural Forum. Mellanie Trio have also performed recitals at St Botolph Without Aldgate Church, the RCM Parry Rooms, RCM Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall, Austrian Cultural Forum, St James’ Church Piccadilly, and St Paul’s Church Covent Garden. She was also part of a string trio of Australian musicians who performed at numerous events including representing Australia in the Delegates Lounge of the International Maritime Organisation.

Sally performs as an orchestral musician, leading orchestras such as the RCM Chamber Orchestra, and orchestras of the Brisbane Grammar Senior String Festival 2008-2012, and Somerville House Choral Festival 2008 – 2012. She was also first violinist with the Queensland Youth Symphony in 2009 and the Australian Youth Orchestra in 2011, and has performed in venues including St Paul’s Cathedral, St James’s Church Piccadilly, Sydney Opera House and Sydney Town Hall.

Aside from performing, Sally is passionate about creating cross-art productions and artistic workshops. In 2015, she directed her first exhibition at the Royal College of Music in collaboration with a dancer, animation artist and other musicians, as part of the Great Exhibitionists Series, Butterfly Lovers – Unite Through Dimensions.  Albeit not professional, Sally is also an avid videographer and enjoys uploading films onto her YouTube channel ‘Musicado FM’.

Sally Law’s website

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