World-class trio of concerts at NZSM

World-class trio of concerts at NZSM

2012 is shaping up to be a ‘Year of the Keyboard’ at Te Kōkī, New Zealand School of Music. Following four outstanding concerts already held, over the next few weeks Wellington audiences have the opportunity to witness , performances from three world-class masters: Russian pianist Sofya Gulyak, Bart van Oort from the Netherlands and our own Michael Houstoun.

Sofya Gulyak is the only woman to have won the prestigious Leeds Piano competition. She has given concerts all over the world and is in New Zealand at the invitation of the New Zealand International Piano Festival who have generously made the Wellington performance possible. She will present music from her homeland, an ‘all-Russian’ programme of music by Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Shostakovich and Prokofiev. Sofya performs on Saturday 28 April at 7:30pm .

Bart van Oort is regarded as one of the world’s foremost historical performance scholars, specialising in pianoforte, the keyboard predecessor to the modern piano. His concert entitled ‘Mozart’s World’, will feature pieces by Mozart and his contemporaries: J C Bach, Haydn, and Clementi – but performed on the NZSM’s fortepiano in a historically accurate style, giving insight into the sound world that surrounded one of history’s most famous musical prodigies. The concert will take place at 8:00pm on Wednesday 9 May, but van Oort will also give a public Music Forum lecture on Monday 7 May at 8:00pm called ‘To Speak or to Sing: Translating Early Music’.

Arts Laureate Michael Houstoun will need little introduction as one of this country’s most accomplished and acclaimed musicians. He has, at his own admission, ‘fallen in love’ with the JS Bach Goldberg Variations, and he will perform this superlative and profound work in a very special Sunday afternoon concert in the Adam Concert Room on Sunday 13 May from 4:00pm.

All three concerts will be held in the Adam Concert Room at NZSM’s Kelburn Campus, and bookings are highly recommended. These can be made online through www.eventfinder.co.nz.

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