I love how diverse the music scene is in Perth. It is a wild ride of extremes this month, starting with Alexandre da Costa and Violin Xtremes on October 1st at Government House Ballroom. The week following there will be concerts every night at the WA Academy of Performing Arts featuring the next generation of composers, improvisers and sound artists. Sound Spectrum runs from 2-6th and concerts include the WA Laptop Orchestra, Shock of the New and Ecuatorial 2 and 4.
Also on the 4th is the Australian Chamber Orchestra who are touring with Emmanuel Pahud, principal flute at the Berlin Philharmonic. I will be doing the pre-concert talk so come early for some fascinating musical morsels and say hi afterwards!
The Perth Symphony Orchestra is always pushing the boundaries and their Nirvana Unplugged on the 7th has sold out! 100 tickets will be released in the next week so keep an eye on their website.
The WA Symphony Orchestra will perform Rodrigo with guitarist Karin Schaupp and Christopher Dragon conducting on the 6/7th and a concert of French Connections on the 12/13/14 featuring Li-Wei Qin performing Saint-Saens’ Cello Concerto.
On the 15th the Darlington Ensemble will expand to include trumpeter Brent Grapes performing Bozza’s Rustiques for trumpet and piano and Saint-Saens’s Septet in their final concert for the year.
The University of Western Australia host several concerts this month. Pianist Konstantin Shamray will give a recital on the 11th. Legendary American percussionist Jan Williams joins forces with UWA’s Piñata Percussion and percussionists from the Australian National Academy of Music on the 12th for American Legends, a concert of contemporary American masterworks. On the 16th the UWA Symphonic Chorus, Vocal Consort, Wind Orchestra, Brass Ensemble will combine with organist Dominic Perissinotto at St Patrick’s Basilica for an evening of exquisite music including Bruckner’s Mass in E minor.
Meanwhile over at WAAPA vocal students will perform an operatic double bill: Mozart’s comic singspiel The Impresario and Poulenc’s Les Marmelles de Tiresias. Directed by Thomas de Mallet Burgess and conducted by Jessica Gethin this show opens on the 16th and could well be the highlight of the month.
More good news for opera fans: WA Opera Lovers are hosting the young artists from WA Opera on the 18th. Join with other opera fans to hear from Fleuranne Brockway (winner of Liederfest 2017 and heading to the Franz Schubert Institut), Rebecca Bunn, (co-recipient of the Bendat Scholarship who will be singing in Lucia di Lammermoor) and Paull-Anthony Keightley (winner of the Deutsche Oper Berlin Award and leaving shortly for Berlin).
From the 19th-29th is the Totally Huge New Music Festival. New music fans have to wait two years for this biennial feast. The highlights include US composer/performer Anne le Baron and Japanese computer musician Kohei Harada as artists in residence, a piece featuring 100 percussionists, a conference, a two-city networked sound installation between Perth and New Orleans, sound art films and an experimental nightclub venue.
Opening night of WA Opera’s last opera of the year Lucia di Lammermoor is the 26th. Emma Pearson will star as Lucia in the role which made Dame Joan Sutherland famous. In fact it is the same John Copley production in which Sutherland sang back in the eighties. Big shoes to fill but I suspect this could be a role that Pearson makes her own.
Also on the 26th the Government House Foundation is hosting Music of the Night, a cabaret-style concert featuring Sara Macliver and Andrew Foote. On the 27th WASO is splitting itself between a concert with Megan Washington and the world’s premiere tribute group the Bootleg Beatles.
Enjoy the variety and I hope to see you out one evening!
Noted 