With a sense of renewed hope, the Australia Ensemble UNSW returns to the stage in 2022 for their 43rd annual subscription season with a sumptuous feast of music, ranging from the very new through to the highest pinnacles of established repertoire.
The season features the world premiere of Slipstream, by Western Sydney’s bright young talent Holly Harrison, commissioned by the Australia Ensemble UNSW in 2020 which has sadly been delayed twice.
The Ensemble’s focus on recent work continues with the return of Stuart Greenbaum’s environmentally-themed piece, Easter Island, commissioned in 2009; and a new piece entitled Speak by a former Greenbaum student, Harry Sdraulig, developed through the Layton Emerging Composer Fellowship, established by the late Emeritus Professor Roger Layton who sadly passed in 2021.
The inclusion of works by other composing women Jennifer Higdon, Peggy Glanville-Hicks and Amy Beach continues to tell an updated story of musical history through a focus on diversity.
Anniversaries abound in 2022 with birthday celebrations for César Franck (200), Claude Debussy (160), Ralph Vaughan Williams (150) and the inventive Greek composer, Iannis Xenakis (100). As a counterbalance to these anniversaries, the season also celebrates youthful compositions of Rimsky-Korsakov, Schubert, and Dohnányi.
As always, the Australia Ensemble UNSW’s 2022 season features master composers, Mozart and Brahms, in two concerts; the former with his glorious String Quintet in E flat and the Piano Trio in B flat, followed by Brahms’ opulent Piano Quartet in C minor and the B flat Clarinet Sonata. Music by Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Schubert similarly finds its rightful place in the season.
The Ensemble welcomes regular guest artists to the stage: Andrew Barnes, bassoon; Tobias Breider, viola; Lerida Delbridge, violin; Robert Johnson, horn; and Shefali Prior, oboe; and for the first time: Tim Nankervis, cello; and David Elton, trumpet.
Australia Ensemble UNSW 2022 Season
March 12, 8pm – Time is a River
April 9, 8pm – An Anniversary Bouquet
May 21, 8pm – Cycles
August 27, 8pm – The Roaring Twenties
September 24, 8pm – The Spirit of Youth
October 22, 8pm – Delicioso
Subscriptions go on sale on Wednesday 24 November 2021
Single tickets on sale on Monday 14 February 2022
Australia Ensemble UNSW
The Australia Ensemble is a professional chamber music ensemble which adds significantly to the cultural life of UNSW and the community, through an annual subscription series based in the Sir John Clancy Auditorium. Comprising some of Australia’s foremost instrumentalists and an Artistic Chair, the Australia Ensemble has a demonstrated commitment to the development of new Australian music, having been involved in commissioning a body of over forty-five works by leading composers. This commitment to new work is an important legacy to chamber music, as is the Ensemble’s quality which sets a benchmark for performance in Australia.
The Australia Ensemble was founded in 1980 following a proposal put to the University by Roger Covell and Murray Khouri, and toured nationally and internationally over many years. The Ensemble regularly engages prominent guest artists to work with the core musicians, enabling it to present unusual and varied instrumental groupings as well as the standard chamber music repertoire, for which it has become known.
ARTISTS
David Griffiths (clarinet)
Dimity Hall (violin)
Irina Morozova (viola)
Ian Munro (piano)
Dene Olding (violin)
Julian Smiles (cello)
Paul Stanhope (Artistic Chair)
Emeritus artist Geoffrey Collins (flute)
