C18 A Candle for Ukraine
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Saturday, 6 May 2023
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Fitters' Workshop
Printers Way, Kingston, ACT 2604
A candle-lit performance of Ukraine’s greatest song cycle starring tenor Andrew Goodwin.
The composer Valentin Silvestrov was forced to flee his home in Kyiv in early 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. From his new base in Berlin, he continues to represent his country’s cultural identity with quiet determination. Silent Songs is his most famous work, a song cycle set to timeless poetry by the likes of Pushkin, Shelley, Mandelstam and Keats. Sung by Australia’s most mellifluous tenor Andrew Goodwin with Roland Peelman at the piano, this performance will be an intimate statement about the power of poetry.
“I felt the need to bow to poetry, to wait for the poem to sing itself.” Valentin Silvestrov
Program
Valentin Silvestrov, Silent Songs (1974-1977)
The performance is in Russian with English surtitles.
Artists
Andrew Goodwin, tenor
Roland Peelman, piano
This concert is supported by Peronelle and Jim Windeyer
ARTIST Learn more about the artist
Artist Roland Peelman AM
“His encyclopaedic understanding of performing and visual arts and his theatrical instinct place him in constant demand as a musician of flair and imagination.” – Antony Jeffrey, Many Faces of Inspiration.
Born in Belgium, Roland Peelman has been active in Australia over 30 years as a conductor, pianist, artistic director and mentor to composers, singers and musicians alike. He has established a reputation as one of Australia’s most innovative musical directors, awarded with numerous accolades. On the sidelines, Roland remained active as a pianist, putting his fingers in the service of social activism, in particular Human Rights.
Artist Andrew Goodwin
Andrew Goodwin has appeared with opera companies and orchestras in Europe, Asia and Australia including the Bolshoi Opera, Gran Theatre Liceu Barcelona, Teatro Real Madrid, La Scala Milan, Opera Australia, Pinchgut Opera, Sydney Chamber Opera, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Auckland Philharmonia, New Zealand, Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland, Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, Moscow and Melbourne Chamber Orchestras, and in recital with pianist Daniel de Borah at Wigmore Hall, the Oxford Lieder, Port Fairy and Canberra International Music Festivals.
In 2022, Andrew returned to the Canberra International Music Festival and Australian Haydn Ensemble in Haydn’s The Creation, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra for Mozart’s Requiem, and the Canberra Symphony Orchestra for Messiah. Still to come this year, Andrew will perform Messiah with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, feature at the Tyalgum, Albury Chamber Music and Sanguine Estate festivals, and tour with the new vocal ensemble, AVÉ.
Recent engagements include Lysander, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Adelaide Festival); Jacquino, Fidelio (West Australian Symphony Orchestra); Nadir, The Pearlfishers (State Opera South Australia); Diary of one who disappeared and Rape of Lucretia (Sydney Chamber Opera); Artaxerxes title role (Pinchgut Opera); Mozart Requiem (MSO); Brett Dean’s The Last Days of Socrates (SSO); Messiah (NZSO, QSO and MSO); and performances at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Townsville.
Andrew Goodwin is supported by Peronelle and Jim Windeyer