Echoes of the Iron Curtain
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Friday, 2 May 2025
3:00 pm
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High Court of Australia
Parkes Place, Parkes, ACT
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General Admission $65,
Concession $60
Principal Violin of the Australian Chamber Orchestra Satu Vänskä and modern piano maestro Konstantin Shamray unite for an exploration of the enchanting musical landscapes of Soviet Russia.
The cultural freedom of the Soviet era, especially during the time of the Iron Curtain, was deeply influenced by the political climate that governed all aspects of life. The state’s control over artistic expression often operated through strict laws and policies of censorship that shaped the works of composers like Galina Ustvolskaya, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Sergei Prokofiev. Ustvolskaya’s Sonata, with its stark minimalism of tolling bells and chorales, reflects the isolation faced by artists who were often forbidden to voice dissent or diverge from state-approved forms of art. Shostakovich’s Four Preludes exemplify a different kind of struggle: the tension between personal artistic expression, grappling with Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, and the subtle conformity demanded by the legal oversight of the state’s censorship apparatus. Meanwhile, Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata No. 1 took eight years to compose and during this time he transitioned from being popular to experiencing Soviet censorship and travel restrictions. It blends defiance with lyricism, weaving in folk influences while subtly critiquing the bureaucratic and legal pressures of the time.
Who better than Satu and Kostya to lead us through such a program of works touched by suppression of artistic freedom and weight of state-enforced boundaries, performed inside Australia’s High Court.
PROGRAM
Galina Ustvolskaya Sonata for Violin and Piano
Dmitri Shostakovich – Four Preludes for Violin and Piano, Op. 34 (1923) – arr. Dmitri Tsyganov
INTERVAL
Arvo Pärt Fratres for violin and piano (1977/1980)
Sergei Prokofiev – Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80 (1946)
ARTISTS
Satu Vänskä (violin)
Konstantin Shamray (piano)
Image from Radio Free Europe 1968
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
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Friday, 2 May 2025
3:00 pm
-
High Court of Australia
Parkes Place, Parkes, ACT
-
General Admission $65,
Concession $60
ARTIST Learn more about the artist
Artist Victoria Bihun, violin
Victoria Bihun grew up in Benalla, Victoria. She began playing the violin at the age of five and from the age of nine was making the 400km round trip to Melbourne every Saturday morning to participate in Melbourne Youth Music programs.
She completed her Bachelor of Music degree at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, studying with Mark Mogilevski. As a student she won many university prizes and was concertmaster with both the Melbourne Youth Orchestra and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music Symphony Orchestra, as well as appearing as Guest Concertmaster with Victorian Opera.
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 Paavali Jumppanen - piano
In the span of recent seasons, the imaginative and versatile Finnish virtuoso Paavali Jumppanen has established himself as a dynamic musician of seemingly unlimited capability who has already cut a wide swath internationally as an orchestral and recital soloist, recording artist, artistic director, and frequent performer of contemporary and avant-garde music.
Artist Satu Vänskä - violin
Born to a Finnish family in Japan, violinist Satu Vänskä has developed an international profile through her role as Principal Violin with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, a position that she has held for the past twenty years. In that time Satu has both directed and performed as soloist with the ACO, an ensemble regarded as one of the greatest chamber orchestras in the world, hailed for its striking virtuosity and innovative programming.
Satu’s development of solo violin projects is reflective of her desire to continually evolve as a musician and to courageously embrace new musical challenges. She has a passion for dynamic programming that explores the link between old and new music, alongside presenting boundary-blurring cross-genre collaborations, that resonate with today’s classical music audiences.
Artist Tipi Valve - cello
Timo-Veikko Valve, affectionately known by audiences far and wide as “Tipi”, grew up in Finland, surrounded by a family who are “musically oriented normal people”. Music lessons were a natural part of his upbringing, and at six years old, Tipi was encouraged to pick up the cello after a teacher at the local music school declared with considerable conviction that “he looks just like a cellist!”. To this day, Tipi remains somewhat puzzled about what that statement actually meant. Whatever the subtext, the teacher seems to have been correct.
Artist Kevin Hunt, piano
Kevin Hunt is a jazz pianist-composer active in the Sydney jazz scene since 1979. Kevin Hunt currently performs regularly with vocalist Emma Pask, pianist Simon Tedeschi and vocal duo Stiff Gins.
Artist Tim Gruchy - media artist
Tim Gruchy’s extensive career spans the exploration and composition of immersive and interactive multimedia through installation, music and performance, whilst redefining its role and challenging the delineations between cultural sectors. He has exhibited multimedia works, photography, video, music and performance since the early 1980s as well as his larger expressions in the public art arenas. His works are held in private, corporate and museum collections.
Artist Erkki Veltheim - composer/performer
Erkki Veltheim is an Australian/Finnish composer and performer. His practice spans noise, audio-visual installation, improvisation, notated music, electro-acoustic composition, pop arrangements and cross-disciplinary performance. Erkki has been commissioned by the Adelaide Festival, Vivid Festival, Australian Art Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Musica nova Helsink and composed the orchestral works for celebrated Australian indigenous musician Gurrumul’s posthumous album Djarimirri.
Photo by Aaron Chua
Artist Konstantin Shamray - piano
Described as an exhilarating performer with faultless technique and fearless command of the piano, Australian-based pianist Konstantin Shamray enjoys performing on an international level with the world’s leading orchestras and concert presenters.
In 2008, Konstantin burst onto the concert scene when he won First Prize at the Sydney International Piano Competition. He is the first and only competitor to date in the 40 years of the competition to win both First and People’s Choice Prizes, in addition to six other prizes. He then went on to win First Prize at the 2011 Klavier Olympiade in Bad Kissingen, Germany, and he was awarded the festival’s coveted Luitpold Prize for “outstanding musical achievements”.
Artist Flynn & Humphrey
Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey are Australian artists who create unexpected situations for listening. They have a long-term highly awarded collaborative practice. Their work is driven by a curiosity about listening in human and non-human ecologies and seeks to evolve and engage with new processes and audiences through public and participative interventions. They work with emerging technologies, cultural groups, sites, and experts across practice and ensemble-made processes. Their current creative obsessions include acoustics of the dark, the sound of existential risk, and ecological and cultural impacts of practice. Maddie and Tim are based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia.
Maddie and Tim’s works have been presented by major festivals and contemporary art spaces, including Setouchi Triennale and Kinosaki Arts Centre (Japan); Busan Sea Art Biennale, Ansan Arts Festival, and Seoul Street Arts Festival (Republic of Korea); Brighton Festival and Science Gallery London (UK); Sonica Festival ; Edinburgh Festival and Counterflows Festival (Scotland); ANTI Festival and Oulu Capital of Culture (Finland); Prague Quadrennial (Czech Republic); Theatre der Welt (Germany); Ars Electronica (Austria); Melbourne Festival, Perth Festival, Sydney Festival, MONA FOMA, ACCA, ArtsHouse, Melbourne Recital Centre, Substation, Sydney Opera House, Bundanon, and Science Gallery Melbourne (Australia). Their awards include the national Australia Council Experimental Arts Award, APRA-AMCOS awards for Experimental Music, GreenRoom Awards for Sound and Hybrid Arts, Melbourne Festival award and an Honourable Mention Ars Electronica.
Photo credit – Jody Haines