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C18 A Candle for Ukraine

  • May 6, 2023

    9.00pm - 10.10pm

  • 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 - Festival Artistic Director

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“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. At the helm of the Festival since 2015 is Artistic Director Roland Peelman, an acclaimed musician of great versatility who has established a reputation as one of Australia’s most innovative musical directors. 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. For his commitment to the creative arts in Australia, he has received numerous accolades, including the NSW Award for “the most outstanding contribution to Australian Music by an individual’ in 2005. In 2006 he was named ‘musician of the year’ by the Sydney Morning Herald and he has since featured regularly as one of the most influential people in the Australian arts scene. In 2023 he won the APRA AMCOS Art Music Award "National Luminary - Individual." Over a period of 25 years, he transformed The Song Company into one of Australia’s most outstanding and innovative ensembles. In addition, he instigated and directed an impressive list of new work, orchestral, vocal, and operatic. Roland worked with Opera Australia for seven years (1984-91) before becoming The Song Company’s Artistic Director (1990-2015). During this time, he was also the Music Director of Sydney Metropolitan Opera (1989-94) and the Hunter Orchestra in Newcastle (1990-97).   Roland Peelman is supported by Anna and Bob Prosser

Artist Andrew Goodwin

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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