Australia’s most comprehensive conservatoire has launched their 2015 Concert Season- marking the start of a stellar season for the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University.
This season is set to be a year quite unlike any which have gone before it, according to Director Professor Scott Harrison.
“This year we will present more premieres and more Australian works than ever before,” he says.
“We also have the privilege and honour of welcoming esteemed international conductor Johannes Fritzsch to our stage for a series of symphonic concerts and for our annual opera production where he will take the helm alongside playwright and director Michael Gow.”
“This season is a reflection of our extraordinary talent — both past and present — our dedication to artistic collaboration on a local and international scale, and our continuing role in the State’s cultural fabric,” he says.
A host of new series will be introduced during the 2015 season, such as Amazing Women to celebrate exceptional female composers and performers; and Alumni in Focus to bring back to Brisbane star-studded performers such as Grammy award-winner Tim Munro; London-based tenor Dominic Walsh, internationally renowned drummer/percussionist Joe Marchisella, and the award-wining Lyrebird Trio.
In line with this season of “firsts”, the Musical Theatre department will also take Working,the 1978 Broadway musical, as a fully staged production on tour to Melbourne and Sydney. The triple-threat talents will also present almost 100 other performances locally, includingA Chorus Line, Blood Brothers, Rent, and Con2theCabaret.
The famed jazz department led by Steve Newcomb also features prominently throughout the season with four Music Gallery events; collaborations with Young Conservatorium; and guest performers such as music culture icons the Band of Frequencies for the Standing Waves concert in September.
The program also welcomes back one of Australia’s most diverse and intriguing groups Clocked Out (Vanessa Tomlinson and Erik Griswold), and sees the return of perennial favourite the Conservatorium Gala in November, bringing together the finest standout performances from throughout the year in a true celebration of musical excellence.
It’s this incredible diversity that Professor Harrison says is a hallmark of the latest program and of the Conservatorium.
“With classical voice and instrumental, opera, the symphony orchestra, musical theatre, jazz, world music, new music, the Con Big Band, popular music and everything in between, we invite Brisbane to join with us in a year-long celebration of exuberant music-making,” he says.
This year’s program is curated by QCGU Deputy Director and Queensland Symphony Orchestra Associate Principal French Horn, Mr Peter Luff.
2015 Season Highlights:
29 May
An Alpine Symphony with Johannes Fritzsch and the Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra, 7.30pm in the Conservatorium Theatre
Maestro Johannes Fritzsch conducts the Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra in a program featuring Strauss’ An Alpine Symphony and Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor with soloist Georgia Ostenfeld.
16 — 21 August
Hansel and Gretel: Conservatorium Opera School
Be lured by the famous fairy-tale adventure of Hansel and Gretel as opera students bring this musical treasure to life on the Conservatorium Theatre stage. This masterpiece will showcase our outstanding opera school and orchestral instrumentalists under the direction of international conductor Johannes Fritzsch and playwright and director Michael Gow.
3 September
Alumni in Focus: Sila with Tim Munro, 5.00pm in the Foyer (free event)
Pulitzer Prize winning composer John Luther Adams’ new work Sila will be given its Australian premiere in this special performance directed by Grammy award winner Tim Munro. Inhabiting the hallways, courtyards and open spaces over three levels of the Conservatorium building, this seventy minute work, scored for eighty singers and orchestral musicians, will be a different sonic adventure for each audience member.
For more information on theConcert Calendar, visit www.conevents.com.au
