Music that Moves - Dancing Through The Seasons

Music that Moves
Media Release

DANCING THROUGH THE SEASONS

Footnote Dance will join the Vector Wellington Orchestra to continue its dance theme this year in Music That Moves.

The programme will open with the entrancing ballet music, Pulcinella. Inspired by the great music of the Baroque era, Stravinsky composed this delightful work which was first performed by the legendary Ballet Russes in Paris in 1920, choreographed by Massine. It offers the charm of 18th- century dance music with a 20th- century accent.

Rarely performed in its entirety, Pulcinella will feature leading New Zealand singers Jenny Wollerman, Richard Greager and Roger Wilson. The Orchestra will be conducted by its Music Director, Marc Taddei.

The dazzling scene painting of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, with its vivid portrayals of dozing goatherds, a summer storm, harvest celebration and the crackling of winter, are all linked by the most bravura of violin solos performed by Matthew Ross. Footnote Dance provides mystical enchantment, choreographed by Deirdre Tarrant, the artistic director of the company.

“Dance is music made visible and in this exciting concert, I am delighted to work with Footnote Dance - New Zealand's première contemporary dance group,” said Taddei.

“This is a programme filled with charm, wit, humour and some of the most illustrative music ever written. The addition of this vibrant dance company is sure to add a tremendous amount of joy and excitement to the concert! Please join us!” urged Taddei.

Music that Moves will tour to Masterton, Wanganui and Wellington on 6,7,8 July respectively.

Earlybird tickets are available at concession prices until 18 June.
Special buses are available from the Kapiti region to the concert in Wellington.
To book, contact the VWO office on (04) 801 3882.

ENDS

Music That Moves - Vivaldi

- celebrating music and dance

Vector Wellington Orchestra with Footnote Dance

Programme:
Stravinsky – Pulcinella (complete)

Vivaldi – The Four Seasons

Conductor:
Marc Taddei

Soloists:
Jenny Wollerman - soprano
Richard Greager - bass
Roger Wilson - tenor

Matthew Ross – violin

Concert Tour -

Venues, Dates & Tickets:
Masterton Town Hall Friday 6 July 7.30pm
Tickets from Regent Theatre $20 to $28 phone 06 377 5479

Wanganui - Royal Wanganui Opera House Saturday 7 July 7.30pm
Tickets available from Royal Wanganui Opera House, TicketDirect Wanganui, $15 to $25 phone bookings 06 3490511 or 0800 4 Tickets, online www.ticketdirect.co.nz
Service fee will apply

Wellington Town Hall Sunday 8 July 3.00pm
Tickets from Ticketek $30 to $45 phone 04 384 3840
Service fee will apply

- Earlybird tickets are available at concession prices in Masterton and Wellington until 29 June

- Special Buses available from the Kapiti region phone 04 801 3882

- Special Child/Student rates available at all centres

- Senior & Student Rush Tickets available on the day

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MUSIC THAT MOVES SOLOISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

JENNY WOLLERMAN - soprano

New Zealander Jenny Wollerman completed her vocal studies with four years at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. After graduating in 1991 with a Master of Music in Opera, she undertook further studies at the Banff Centre in Canada and the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, England, before returning to pursue her career in Australia and New Zealand.

Engagements since have included Léïla in Les Pêcheurs de Perles for the State Opera of South Australia, Lutoslawski’s Chantefleurs et Chantefables with the Tasmanian Symphony, Carmina Burana and John Psathas’ Orpheus in Rarohenga with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Ravel’s Shéhérazade song cycle with the West Australian and Adelaide Symphony orchestras.

She has performed with all the opera companies in NZ, appearing as Micaëla in Carmen, Xenia in Boris Godunov, Léïla, Mimì, Fiordiligi, Pamina, Eurydice in Orphée et Eurydice, Catherine in Bitter Calm and Johanna in Sweeney Todd. She has been a concert soloist in six NZ International Arts Festivals, performing in such diverse works as Stravinsky’s Les Noces, Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, Handel’s L’Allegro with the Mark Morris Dance Company and Rachmaninov’s The Bells.

The soprano soloist for the 2003 world première of The Lord of the Rings Symphony with the NZSO, conducted in Wellington by the composer, she was invited to repeat the performance in Taiwan two weeks later, this time under the baton of the eminent conductor John Mauceri. She has also recorded the Mendelssohn Midsummer Night’s Dream music with the NZSO, for future release on the Naxos label.

Jenny has a special interest in the French and Russian song repertoire and is noted for her recital work as well as her concert and opera performances. She and Bruce Greenfield have performed their ‘Water of Life’ recital in the 2004 International Festival in Wellington, and the Christchurch and Taranaki Arts Festivals in 2005.

Jenny is a vocal tutor for the School of Music at Victoria University in Wellington. Earlier this year two of her university singing students won the First and Second prizes in the Lexus Song Quest. As well as her Master of Music, she holds a BSc in Chemistry from Victoria University and LTCL in piano performance.

RICHARD GREAGER - tenor

New Zealand-born tenor, Richard Greager, received his early training in Christchurch. After winning three major Australian competitions, including the Sydney and Melbourne Sun-Aria contests, he moved to London in 1972. Subsequently he became a junior principal at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, principal lyric tenor with the Scottish Opera and the Hanover State Opera and later, a principal artist with The Australian Opera.

More recent international appearances have included the roles of King Arthur in the world première of Sir Harrison Birtwistle's Gawain and Monostatos in The Magic Flute for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Pong in Turandot in Taiwan; Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw for Cologne Opera; Rodolfo in La Bohème for the Scottish Opera; Roger in Love in the Age of Therapy, a new work by Paul Grabowsky and Joanna Murray-Smith for OzOpera and the 2002 Melbourne Festival; the title role in Oedipus Rex for the Lyric Opera of Queensland; and the Captain in Barrie Kosky's acclaimed production of Wozzeck for Opera Australia in Sydney and Melbourne. For this role he won the 2001 Australian Green Room Award for Best Supporting Male Singer.

In New Zealand, Richard Greager has sung various roles for the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, Wellington City Opera, Canterbury Opera and NBR New Zealand Opera.

Throughout his career, Richard has also been a popular guest artist for symphony orchestras in New Zealand and Australia. He has sung Rachmaninov's The Bells with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Froh in Das Rheingold with Sydney Symphony. Concerts in New Zealand include Britten's War Requiem and Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with Auckland Philharmonia, and Froh in Das Rheingold, Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet and Stravinsky's Pulcinella with NZSO, a Three Tenors Concert in Lombardi Amphitheatre at Hawkes Bay, Schubert's Schwanengesang and Messiah in Wellington, Britten's Les Illuminations with Dunedin Sinfonia and Verdi Requiem and The Tower Concerts for Opera New Zealand. Additional concerts include Beethoven Symphony No 9 with Sydney Symphony, Vaughan Williams’ Serenade To Music with Wellington Sinfonia, Opera in the Paddock and The Bells for Royal Melbourne Philharmonic.

More recent engagements include those with OzOpera at the Sydney Festival, New Zealand Opera, the Sydney Winter and Melbourne Spring seasons for Opera Australia and Mime in State Opera of South Australia’s 2004 production of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. In 2006 he sang in a semi-staged concert of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide for Perth Festival, in concert performances of Salome under the baton of Simone Young for Brisbane Festival and Der Schauspieldirektor with Auckland Philharmonia. Forthcoming engagements include The Creation for Royal Melbourne Philharmonic, Pulcinella for Vector Wellington Orchestra and Valzacchi in Der Rosenkavalier in concert with Hong Kong Philharmonic.

Richard Greager has appeared in many video recordings, and has also recorded the Berlioz Requiem and Schubert - 6 Masses.

ROGER WILSON - baritone

Roger Wilson is one of New Zealand's most experienced and versatile resident singers. Born in Dunedin, New Zealand, he studied and began his professional career in Switzerland and Germany in the 1970s. Roger has a comprehensive concert repertoire and has been engaged many times as a soloist by the NZSO nationwide. He is also an experienced recitalist, broadcaster and recording artist. Roger Wilson has played major roles all over New Zealand, and also many supporting ones.

Although a baritone, Roger’s range is an unusually wide and he has, on occasion, been asked to take bass roles suited to his stature and character (e.g. Colline, Raimundo, Bartolo). However his strength is more in the top of his voice, and vocally in his prime, he is increasingly playing older men in this vocal category.

He studied at the University of Zurich, Switzerland 1970–72; the Nordwestdeutsche Musikakademie Detmold, Germany 1972–74; and the Staatliche Musikhochschule f¨r Musik Rheinland, Cologne, Germany 1974–75. During this time he had concert engagements throughout Germany, as well as France and Switzerland. As a consequence of his time and study in Europe, he speaks fluent German and sings it with particular ease, as well as French and Italian (and English!).

In recent times he has performed in Gianni Schicchi and smaller pieces like Chabrier's Une Éducation manqué. Roger is known to be trustworthy in demanding scores of newer music and has performed in the premières of several operas by New Zealand composers: Gillian Whitehead's Tristan and Iseult, Dorothy Buchanan's The Woman at the Store, Helen Fisher's Taku Wana, the re-created Ribbands/Don musical — Marama.. In addition to his career as an opera and concert singer, Roger keeps himself busy as a teacher, broadcaster and music journalist.

MATTHEW ROSS – Violin & Concert Master

Matthew studied violin at Canterbury University (New Zealand), the Rotterdam Conservatorium (Netherlands) and the Royal College of Music in Stockholm (Sweden), with teachers including Jan Tawroszewicz, Jean Jaques Kantorow and Karl-Ove Mannberg.

As concertmaster with the Vector Wellington Orchestra, Matthew has performed many of the major violin solos including Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Coppelia, Dracula, Madame Butterfly, Capriccio Espagnol, Capriccio Italien, Danse Macabre as well as concerto works including Saint Saens Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso. In 2005 he was soloist in Vivaldi's Four Seasons and will perform this work again in 2007.

Matthew played with the Jeunesses Musicales World Youth Orchestra from 1993 to 1995, and has performed in many of the major concert halls in Europe including in Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Liege, Vienna, Zurich, Oslo and Stockholm. He joined the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra as a first violinist, aged 24, where he played for 9 years.

In 2002, Matthew Ross was appointed concertmaster of the Vector Wellington Orchestra.. Matthew has conducted the Vector Wellington Orchestra including for the North American DVD entitled Live from New Zealand for Hayley Westenra and a season of the Disney musical Beauty and the Beast at the beginning of 2006. In 2006 he participated in conducting masterclasses in Vienna, Stockholm and Moscow.

FOOTNOTE DANCE

Footnote Dance was the brainchild of Deirdre Tarrant. Her vision was to create a force for encouraging young people to participate and develop their confidence and life skills through the medium of dance. Her unique education choreographies have formed the base of the Footnote Dance repertoire.

Since 1985, the company has toured New Zealand each year, visiting large cities and small rural towns, performing and holding workshops in schools, and presenting professional performances of contemporary New Zealand dance. Footnote Dance has the most extensive New Zealand repertoire of any dance company. It has served as a platform for the expression of choreographers such as Jeremy Nelson, Raewyn Hill, Michael Parmenter and Shona McCullagh. It has represented New Zealand in festivals in Australia and Korea.

A full-time contemporary dance company offering security and sustainable professional career development and opportunities in dance, Footnote is dedicated to bringing an appreciation and enthusiasm for the art of movement to the widest possible audience. Its dancers have become role models for students all over the country. They delight them with performances combining athleticism and grace. In workshops Footnote Dance lead students to refine and develop skills and focus on excellent performance experiences.

MARC TADDEI – Music Director

Charismatic and inspiring young American conductor Marc Taddei is enjoying a surge in popularity as the passion and attitude he brings to performances becomes ever more widely known. He is sought after by every professional orchestra in New Zealand - both in live concerts and in the studio - making him by far the busiest conductor in the country, and his expanding list of international debuts speaks to the increasing recognition he is garnering as a major conducting talent overseas. After many years as Music Director of the Christchurch Symphony, he has taken up his new position in 2007 as Music Director of the Vector Wellington Orchestra in New Zealand's capital city.

For this orchestra he has already conducted An Afternoon in Vienna, Baby Proms, The Ring and View from Olympus which included John Psathas’ work of that name.

Marc won critical praise from every quarter for Christchurch Symphony's extraordinary artistic gains over the past six years, and he was singled out repeatedly for his innovative programming that captured the imagination and support of the Christchurch public.

Marc's recent activities include engagements in Hong Kong, Oregon and New Orleans, as well as with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, which he took on tour in 2004. 2005 saw his first major tour with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, which led to an immediate invitation back to both premiere and tour a newly commissioned ballet and score last year, and the Swan Lake tour this year. In 2006 he made debuts with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria in Australia, and with the Southwest Florida and New Haven Symphony Orchestras in the US.

Marc's impressive discography includes recordings on the Sony, BMG, Koch, Columbia, Trust, and ASV labels. His August 2006 release of viola concertos with Helen Callus and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra received rave reviews in Gramophone, Classic FM, and Strad magazines and the CD was listed as recording of the month by Music Web International and Classic FM. His September 2006 release of View From Olympus by John Psathas, conducting the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra with soloists Michael Houstoun, Pedro Carneiro and Joshua Redman, hailed as exceptional, was specially featured by Jim Svejda on major public radio station KUSC in the United States. Marc also conducted the soundtrack to Britain's Channel 4 film based on Wagner's Ring Cycle, which won the prestigious Prix de Basle Special Jury Award for the "most outstanding contribution to European culture in television". In 2003 his Sony recording with Bic Runga and the Christchurch Symphony went double platinum. Two new recording projects underway include symphonies of New Zealand composer Antony Ritchie, and Popular Classical Works for Orchestra (Christchurch Symphony).

Marc is a graduate of the Julliard School in Manhattan, where he received both bachelors and masters degrees before moving to New Zealand.

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