ANZAC Spirit Strong at APO April Concert

MEDIA RELEASE
March 20, 2007

ANZAC Spirit Strong at APO April Concert

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra APN News & Media Premier Series, Concert 4, ‘Architecture of the Soul’, Thurs 19 April, 8pm, Auckland Town Hall, THE EDGE.

Pre-concert talk with Brett Dean, 7pm, Auckland Town Hall stalls.

Baldur Brönnimann – Conductor
Brett Dean – Viola/Composer

An Australian composer performing his own concerto and a work that commemorates the Rainbow Warrior will ensure the ANZAC spirit resonates at the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s third APN News & Media Premier Series concert on Thursday 19 April, the week before Anzac Day.

Acclaimed Australian composer, Brett Dean, will perform his Viola Concerto with the APO at the Auckland Town Hall. Composed in 2004, the concerto was premiered in London the following year with The Guardian newspaper describing it as “a substantial affair, elegantly proportioned and full of colourful musical imagery”.

The APO performance will be the New Zealand premiere of the concerto, the centrepiece of the concert that also includes Oceania by fellow Australian composer, Colin Bright. Oceania is a suite from Bright’s 1997 opera called The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior.

Bright is the current composer taking part in the Trans-Tasman Composer Exchange, a musical exchange programme between the Australian Music Centre and SOUNZ (Centre for New Zealand Music) that sees a composer from one country hosted by a professional performing group in the other. Bright will visit New Zealand three times over the next year and the APO will premiere a new work written especially for it by Bright next year.

“Brett Dean is an accomplished musician, composer and conductor and to have him perform his own Viola Concerto is fantastic,”says APO Chief Executive, Barbara Glaser. “Since its premiere two years ago, this work has received much acclaim with Brett Dean increasingly recognised as one of the world’s most celebrated contemporary composers, as is Colin Bright. It is particularly fitting that this concert celebrates Trans-Tasman musical relationships around Anzac Day.”

The concert called ‘Architecture of the Soul’ will be conducted by UK-based Baldur Brönnimann who is well known for his innovative programming and his mastery of contemporary scores. In addition to Dean’s Viola Concerto and Bright’s Oceania, the concert includes Schumann’s Manfred Overture and will close with Brahms’ Symphony No. 3.

Tickets for the APN News & Media Premier Series, Concert 4, ‘Architecture of the Soul’ are available from Ticketek Ph 09 307 5139, www.ticketek.co.nz.

ENDS

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