Media Release: Australian Youth Orchestra comes to Hobart for Autumn Season Concert, Turbulent Times, 6 April

 Media Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CALL 

FRIDAY, 5 April 2 pm

Federation Concert Hall



Media Contact 

Samuel Cairnduff samuel.j.cairnduff@gmail.com 

0401 396 755

Australian Youth Orchestra comes to Hobart for Autumn Season Concert, Turbulent Times, 6 April 

Conducted by Alexandre Bloch and featuring Satu Vänskä 


Hobart - Embrace enchanting melodies and captivating performances as the Australian Youth Orchestra (AYO) takes the stage for its highly anticipated Autumn Season Concert, Turbulent Times, on Saturday, 6 April  at Federation Concert Hall,  Hobart at 7.30 pm.

Conducted by Alexandre Bloch, Music Director of Orchestre National de Lille,  the AYO will be joined by renowned soloist Satu Vänskä, principal violinist of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. 

The program for Turbulent Times promises an exhilarating journey through a selection of masterpieces, including compositions by Ravel, Szymanowski, Debussy, and Prokofiev. The AYO said, ‘This concert is a journey through the sounds of these amazing composers, each with their own style, pushing the boundaries of what music can be and capturing the essence of the most turbulent of times - before our own’.

Satu Vänskä said - “I’m looking forward to sharing the stage with AYO in Tasmania with this enticing program of music composed in the first decades of the 20th century. This was a time of the birth of modernism, jazz, touring musicians and globalism; this all in the fragile period of the European history that resulted in everlasting cultural consequences around the world. This is the music that was also brought to our shores by the many European immigrants escaping their impossible situations back home. I can’t wait to work on this unsung masterpiece with the talented musicians of the AYO searching for the sound of the exotic, thrilling and contemplative.”

The AYO, which has a reputation as one of the world’s most prestigious and innovative training organisations for young pre-professional musicians, invites you to ‘step into a musical time machine as its flagship orchestra transports you to an era of great societal upheaval and political uncertainty’ Don't miss the chance to be part of this extraordinary musical journey as the AYO, Alexandre Bloch and Satu Vänskä create an unforgettable evening with Turbulent Times.

AYO Autumn Season Concert

Turbulent Times

Conductor Alexandre Bloch with soloist Satu Vänskä


Saturday 6 April 2024, 7.30 PM

Federation Concert Hall, 

Hotel Grand Chancellor. 

1 Davey St Hobart/Nipaluna, Tasmania


Tickets available from: $25.00| Bookings: https://events.humanitix.com/ayo



PROGRAM

RAVEL La Valse

SZYMANOWSKI Violin Concerto No.2

DEBUSSY Arr. Tognetti La Fille aux Cheveux de lin (Encore)

Interval

PROKOFIEV Symphony No.



Biographies

  • Satu Vänskä images available here

  • Australian Youth Orchestra images available here

  • AYO social videos: ‘Working with musicians’, ‘Favourie place in Tasmania’, ‘What keeps you motivated’, Szymanowski Violin Concerto’ and more available here



Satu Vänskä

Born to a Finnish family in Japan, violinist Satu Vänskä has developed an

international profile through her role as Principal Violin with the Australian

Chamber Orchestra, a position that she has held for the past twenty years. In

that time, Satu has both directed and performed as soloist with the ACO, an

ensemble regarded as one of the greatest chamber orchestras in the world,

hailed for its striking virtuosity and innovative programming.


Satu’s development of solo violin projects is reflective of her desire to

continually evolve as a musician and to courageously embrace new musical

challenges. She has a passion for dynamic programming that explores the link

between old and new music, alongside presenting boundary-blurring cross-

genre collaborations, that resonate with today’s classical music audiences.


As a soloist, Satu has performed with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, at the

Sydney Opera House, at the Melbourne Recital Centre (opening their Great

Performers Series in 2019) and as part of Tasmania’s Mona Foma festival. Further

afield, Satu has performed with London’s Aurora Orchestra in the 2018 London

season of Weimar Cabaret with the late Barry Humphries, the Arctic Chamber

Orchestra, Sinfonia Lahti and at the Festival Maribor in Slovenia.


Satu is the founder, curator, front-woman, violinist and vocalist of the critically

acclaimed ACO Underground, the ACO’s electro-infused, experimental spin-off

project. With ACO Underground, Satu has performed collaborations with artists

including Midnight Oil’s Jim Moginie and the Violent Femmes’ Brian Ritchie in

venues ranging from New York’s Le Poisson Rouge to Sydney’s Phoenix Central

Park, and has appeared as part of the Vivid Festival. In 2022 she formed Satu In

The Beyond with Richard Tognetti and producer Paul Beard. This is a band that

has evolved from ACO Underground over the years with the aim to present

audiences with originally written music.


Satu took her first violin lessons at the age of three in Japan before her family relocated to Finland when she was ten, where she continued her studies with

Pertti Sutinen at the Lahti Conservatorium and the Sibelius Academy. She later

studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich as a pupil of Ana Chumachenco.

Satu performs on the 1728/29 Stradivarius violin on loan from the ACO

Instrument Fund.

.



Alexandre Bloch

French-born Alexandre Bloch is Music Director of Orchestre National de Lille, a position he has held since 2016/17. Highlights of Alexandre’s final season as Music Director in Lille include a full Sibelius symphony cycle, concert performances of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin and collaborations with internationally acclaimed soloists, including Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Alice Sara Ott. He will conclude his tenure with a performance in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. From 2015 – 2021, Alexandre was also Principal Guest Conductor of Düsseldorfer Symphoniker. Highlights of the 23/24 season includes debuts with City of Birmingham Symphony, Deutsche Oper Berlin, European Union Youth Orchestra, George Enescu International Festival, Rotterdam Philharmonic & Hamburger Philharmoniker. He returns to Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and Dresdner Philharmonie, with whom he enjoys a regular relationship. Last season saw his return to Opera de Lyon with Le Nozze di Figaro, and next season he returns to Bayerische Staatsoper to conduct Carmen. Alexandre works with a wide range of soloists, including Nemanja Radulovic, Boris Giltburg, Alice-Sara Ott, Isabelle Faust, Pierre-Laurent Aimard & Alexander Gavrylyuk.


The Australian Youth Orchestra

​​Ed Le Brocq (ABC Classic FM) recently described The Australian Youth Orchestra (AYO) as ‘one of Australia’s best orchestras’. In fact, AYO is one of the world’s most prestigious and innovative training organisations for young musicians. It holds a vital and unique place in Australia’s musical landscape, bringing together exceptional artists, tutors and young musicians from every corner of the country and beyond. AYO concerts are high-energy, edge of your chair experiences and are perfect for newcomers as well as seasoned audiences.


Our training pathway has been created to nurture the musical development of Australia’s finest young instrumentalists across metropolitan and regional Australia: from the emerging, gifted, school-aged student to those on the verge of a professional career. AYO presents tailored training and performance programs each year for aspiring musicians, composers, arts administrators and music journalists aged 12 to 30.


When Professor John Bishop OBE and Ruth Alexander convened the first National Music Camp in 1948, they created an institution that would fire the imaginations of over 12,000 young Australian musicians, see its orchestras tour the globe and instil in its participants a love of music and a dedication to the highest standards of performance.


AYO occupies a special place in the musical culture of Australia, where one generation of brilliant musicians inspires the next, where aspiring musicians get a taste of life as professional musicians, and where like-minded individuals from all over the country gather for intense periods to learn from each other, study and perform. On the world stage, AYO has established itself as a cultural ambassador for Australia on twenty-three international tours since its first in 1970.


Today, countless AYO alumni are members of some of the finest professional orchestras worldwide. ayo.com.au





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