C22 The Last Mile
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Sunday, 8 May 2022
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Fitters' Workshop
Printers Way, Kingston ACT 2604
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In Association with
Presented by the European Union Delegation to Australia
Always ready to lend a hand, Beethoven’s friends sought to bring him new audiences by transcribing his pieces. In Hummel’s case, he should not have bothered. But the result became a delightfully frolicking ride into the Austrian fields led by Skye McIntosh’s happy band of the Australian Haydn Ensemble. A final Polish salute precedes the frivolity of Saint-Saëns’ ever-popular animal fantasy, when a parade of Festival artists join Jonathan Biggins for a zany finish.
Program
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony no. 6, Pastoral, arr. Hummel
–Interval–
Witold Lutoslawski: Paganini Variations
Camille Saint-Saëns: Carnival of the Animals
Artists
Australian Haydn Ensemble
Sally Walker, flute
Jason Noble, clarinet
Naoto Segawa, percussion
Ben Ward, double bass
New Zealand String Quartet
Edward and Stephanie Neeman, piano
With Jonathan Biggins, actor
This concert is supported by the Hume Conservatorium in Goulburn. The Yamaha CFX piano on loan was recently secured through the Create NSW Creative Capital Fund and is proudly home at the Hume Conservatorium and available for community use.
ARTIST Learn more about the artist
Artist Jason Noble, clarinet
Jason Noble is one of Australia’s most versatile clarinettists – experimental to classical – a soloist and core member of Ensemble Offspring. Jason has performed at festivals locally and internationally, from Warsaw to London, Shanghai to Kabul, and all major cities across Australia. “His expertise and virtuosic playing give new insights into the versatility of the bass clarinet” (Sounds Like Sydney)
Artist Oliver Shermacher
Australian born clarinettist Oliver Shermacher completed his Bachelors at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music under Francesco Celata, and his Masters at the Freiburg Hochschule für Musik with Kilian Herold and Anton Hollich. He is currently living between Germany and Australia, performing as soloist, chamber musician and orchestral clarinettist. He was recently awarded the highly prestigious recognition of the 1st Prize and Audience Choice at the 2022 Aeolus Competition in Düsseldorf, one of the world’s most significant competitions for wind instrumentalists. Oliver won the Freedman Fellowship in 2018 and reached the Grand Finals of the 2018 ABC Young Performers Award, also receiving the Audience Choice award. Oliver has performed as soloist with the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Apex Ensemble and was the Artist in Residence with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra for their 2021/2022 Season, having premiered the Alice Chance Clarinet Concerto with the orchestra in 2022. Oliver has played as Principal Clarinet with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Opera Australia Orchestra, Freiburg Philharmonisches Orchester and with the Australian World Orchestra on Bass Clarinet. Oliver is a passionate composer, theatre maker and new music enthusiast with a focus on the intersection between theatre and solo performance.
Artist Ben Ward, double bass
Ben Ward is a musician, working predominantly on the lands of the Gadigal and Bidjigal, whose practice has recently focussed on altered tunings, texture and improvisation. Outside his work on the double bass with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra he is inspired by the wonderful community of musicians in Sydney. Place and history are currently important foundations of his artistic thought. A recent highlight is an ongoing collaboration with cellist Freya Schack-Arnott which has produced an album “in landscape” (2020) and which has a set of upcoming releases for nyckleharpe, synthesised sounds, double bass and cello.
Artist Stephanie Neeman
Dr. Stephanie Neeman is an active international performer and educator. She has taught masterclasses and performed in various venues throughout the world. Dr. Neeman has appeared as a soloist with the Jakarta Chamber Orchestra, Canberra Youth Orchestra, National Capital Orchestra (AUS) and has performed to critical acclaim across the United States, Asia, and Australia.
Artist New Zealand String Quartet
Celebrating its 35th season, the New Zealand String Quartet has established an international reputation for its insightful interpretations, compelling communication, and dynamic performing style. The Quartet is known for its imaginative programming and for its powerful connection with audiences of all kinds.
The group’s extensive discography includes the complete quartets of Mendelssohn, Bartok, Berg, Brahms, Janacek and Lilburn on the Naxos label, works by Ravel, Debussy, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Dvorak, Wolf, Tan Dun, Takemitsu, Gao Ping, and Zoltan Szekely as well as many NZ compositions.
The Quartet tours regularly in the UK, Europe and North America as well as to Mexico, Curaçao, Japan, Korea, and China, and made many visits to Australia, including the festivals in Townsville and Canberra.
As Quartet-in-Residence and teachers at the New Zealand School of Music Te Kōkī at Victoria University of Wellington since 1991, as well as running two intensive chamber music courses annually, the Quartet has had a profound effect on generations of New Zealand’s string players and composers.
Artist Australian Haydn Ensemble
Under the direction of Artistic Director Skye McIntosh, the Australian Haydn Ensemble are one of Australia’s leading historically informed orchestras and chamber music groups. The ensemble brings together world-class musicians who excel in both modern and period instrument performance and who are committed to both historical research and performance.
The ensemble’s name pays tribute to the great Joseph Haydn, known as ‘Papa Haydn’, who was a central figure of the late 18th century.
The Australian Haydn Ensemble plays on period instruments, meaning instruments that are from the time the music was composed by Haydn, Beethoven and Mozart. Or it can also mean an instrument that is made by a master instrument maker of more modern times, based on older instruments (perhaps now unplayable) as well as scholarship and research.
Formed in 2012, the group burst onto the Australian music scene with passion, ideas and energy and in 2022 they reached the significant milestone of their ten year anniversary. They bring that same unflagging spirit to everything they undertake as they step forward into their second decade in 2023.
Artist Sally Walker
Sally Walker is Lecturer in Classical Woodwind at the Australian National University, regular Guest Principal with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Principal Flautist with the Omega Ensemble. She performs on modern flutes and piccolo as well as historical flutes and recorders and has appeared in the London Proms, Salzburg, Lucerne, Tanglewood and Edinburgh Festivals.
She was Grand-finalist in the Leonardo de Lorenzo International Flute Competition (Italy), won 2nd Prize in the Friedrich Kuhlau International Flute Competition (Germany) and was awarded scholarships from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange for postgraduate study in Germany), Ian Potter Cultural Fund and the Queen’s Trust.
She has toured and recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestras, is a former Principal Flute of the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss, was a member of Kölner Kammerorchester and has performed as Guest Principal Flute with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, NDR Radio Philharmonie Hannover, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Manchester Camerata, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra.
Sally devotes herself to both Early and Contemporary Music, having performed with Early Music ensembles such as Das Neue Orchester Köln, Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum and the Leipziger Kammerorchester as well as Contemporary Music ensembles such as Halcyon. She is deeply committed to chamber music and has collaborated with colleagues across various art forms and styles, including Tamara Anna-Cislowska, Aiko Goto, David Greco, Steven Isserlis, Afro Moses, Ian Munro, Simon Tedeschi, Dénes Várjon, Shanghai and Acacia string quartets. She has recorded three CDs with Pianist Philip Mayers, was featured on Sally Whitwell’s Aria-nominated CD, “I was Flying”, Cyrus Meurant’s CD “Monday to Friday” and on recordings with Halycon, Australian Chamber Orchestra and other orchestras.
Artist Jonathan Biggins
Jonathan Biggins is an actor, writer and director, perhaps best known as one of the creators of the long-running political satire The Wharf Revue.
His other writing credits include seven years as a columnist for Fairfax’s Good Weekend Magazine and the books As it Were, The 700 Habits of Highly Ineffective People, The 700 Habits of Highly Ineffective Parents and iKevin. His plays and musicals include Australia Day, Talk, The Republic of Myopia, Living in the ’70s, The State of the Tasmanian Economy, Three Men and a Baby Grand and his one-man show The Gospel According to Paul. He also co-wrote an adaptation of the libretto Orpheus in the Underworld for Opera Australia.
Directing credits include Talk, Australia Day, Noises Off, Josephine Wants to Dance, Orpheus in the Underworld and Avenue Q, for which he won a Helpmann Award.
Acting credits include Travesties, Essington Lewis: I am Work, The White Guard, Summer Rain, The Importance of Being Ernest, Ying Tong, The Venetian Twins and the film A Few Best Men.
Jonathan was awarded an OAM for his services to theatre in 2021.
Artist Naoto Segawa
Born in Japan, Naoto Segawa picked up marimba as his instrument and embarked on his undying pursuit of discovering new marimba repertoires. He is dedicated to bring the marimba into chamber music scene, and his passion led him to found Ensemble Go which aims to bridge sound worlds of the traditional and the contemporary.
Naoto actively seeks to perform the works of up-and-coming composers, premiering many new compositions, including pieces by Joshua Pangilinan, David Taylor, Tsu-Chin Hsu, Kongmeng Liew and Simon Eastwood.
He has won numerous awards in competitions including the 14th KOBE International Music Competition, 6th Romania International Music Competition and JILA Music Competition and has appeared in various chamber music programmes and festivals including Adam Chamber Music Festival, Hong Kong new music academy and Asian Composer’s League Festival. Upcoming projects include a national tour throughout New Zealand presented by Chamber Music New Zealand, featuring a new work written by Linda Dallimore.