Media Release: Australian Youth Orchestra to Premiere Iain Grandage's 'Overt' with Pre-Concert Talk with Clare Bowditch at Hamer Hall
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Samuel Cairnduff: samuel.j.cairnduff@gmail.com | 0401 396 755
Australian Youth Orchestra to Premiere Iain Grandage's 'Overt' with Pre-Concert Talk with Clare Bowditch at Hamer Hall
New work will feature in Mood: Mahler and Wagner Concerts, July 13-14, Geelong & Melbourne.
Melbourne - The Australian Youth Orchestra (AYO), Australia's most prestigious youth ensemble, is set to premiere Iain Grandage's highly anticipated new work, Overt, as part of their Mood: Mahler and Wagner concerts on Saturday, 13 July at Costa Hall, Geelong/Djilang and Sunday, 14 July at Hamer Hall, Melbourne/Naarm. Under the baton of internationally acclaimed conductor Nicholas Carter, the AYO will showcase the virtuosity of Australia's finest young musicians in this powerful program., the AYO will showcase the virtuosity of Australia's finest young musicians in this powerful program.
Prior to the Melbourne concert, acclaimed musician, broadcaster, and author Clare Bowditch will host a special pre-concert talk with composer Iain Grandage at 4:15 pm at Hamer Hall.
Clare Bowdich said: Jeff Buckley unlocked this music for me. This concert can do the same for you.
Bowditch will engage Grandage in a conversation about the inspiration and creative process behind the new work, Overt. The program also includes Wagner's transcendent Prelude und Liebestod and Mahler's Symphony No. 5, bold works that explore the depths of human emotion.
Overt, commissioned in honour of Colin Cornish AM, who led AYO from 2005 to 2023, showcases the virtuosity of each young musician in this concerto for orchestra. Grandage, who grew up playing in youth orchestras, drew inspiration from a memorable AYO performance he witnessed in 1988, stating, "This piece is about those internal processes being made outwardly evident - a piece that is filled with ebullience, joy and the miracle of orchestral organism."
Join the Australian Youth Orchestra for an unforgettable afternoon of drama and the world premiere of Iain Grandage's Overt in Mood: Mahler and Wagner.
Quotes
Nicholas Carter expressed his excitement about working with the AYO, saying, The ambition, dedication and passion that these wonderful young musicians display is truly inspiring to me. To bring the music of Mahler, Grandage and Wagner to life with the AYO will certainly be a highlight of my year!
Iain Grandage said - I grew up inside youth orchestras, being in the WA Youth Orchestra across my secondary schooling, and then AYO through much of my tertiary education. I loved it. It felt like home. Surrounded by like-minded people who felt the same rush of excitement and joy at being part of an organism that was so much more than the sum of its individual parts.
This work stems from the first moment I spied true orchestral virtuosity. It was January 1988 and fresh out of school, I was attending my first National Music Camp. There I saw Carlo Felice Cillario conduct the most electric AYO performance of the Ruslan & Ludmilla overture - ebullient virtuosity streamed off that stage. They were euphoric. I was too. And the memory of that moment has never left me.
This piece Overt is about those internal processes being made outwardly evident - a piece that is filled with ebullience, joy and the miracle of orchestral organism. Its central section is gentler, quieter and features solo and tutti viola solos. These are there for Colin Cornish, for whom the work was commissioned after he led the organisation with such skill over so many years, in order to honour his own earlier history as a viola player.
Clare Bowdich said: Jeff Buckley unlocked this music for me. This concert can do the same for you.
Full release, including biographies, available here.
Media opportunities with the Australian Youth Orchestra will be available in Geelong and Melbourne during the week of Monday, July 8th. Stay tuned for more information on specific dates, times, and locations.
Media Contact
Samuel Cairnduff
0401 396 755
LISTINGS INFORMATION
The Australian Youth Orchestra
Mood: Mahler and Wagner
Music by Wagner and Mahler
Saturday, 13 July
Costa Hall
Geelong/Djilang
3.00 pm
Sunday, 14 July
Hamer Hall
Melbourne/Naarm
5.00 pm.
Pre-concert talk with Clare Bowditch: 4.15pm
https://www.artscentremelbourne.com.au/whats-on/2024/classical-music/mood
Media Contact
Samuel Cairnduff
0401 396 75Media
Biographies
Iain Grandage
Iain Grandage - Iain Grandage is one of Australia’s most highly regarded collaborative artists, having won Helpmann Awards for his compositions for Theatre (Cloudstreet, Secret River), for Dance (When Time Stops), for Opera – with Kate Miller-Heidke (The Rabbits), for silent film – with Rahayu Suppangah (Satan Jawa) and as a music director for Meow Meow’s Little Match Girl and Secret River. He has received Victorian Green Room Awards, the prestigious Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award for an Individual, and the APRA/AMC award for Vocal Work of the Year for his opera based on Tim Winton’s novel The Riders. He has curated the chamber music program for the Adelaide Festival, and been the Artistic Director of the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival since 2016. He has been composer-in-Residence with the WA Symphony Orchestra, and has an extensive track record of collaboration with indigenous artists across the country. He is a UWA graduate, and the proud recipient of an honorary Doctorate from that institution.
The Australian Youth Orchestra (AYO)
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.
Words about the AYO
‘For more than 50 years, the Australian Youth Orchestra has delivered some of the nation’s most memorable concerts…’
The Australian
‘brilliantly accomplished’
Sydney Morning Herald
‘The cream of Australia’s emerging orchestral talent is a joy to behold…’
Limelight
‘The AYO players are simply the best of the best. They show how being a musician means you listen to others, how you are a part of something greater than yourself.
ABC Classic
Nicholas Carter
Nicholas Carter - acclaimed for his recent conducting of Brett Dean's Hamlet and Britten's Peter Grimes at the Metropolitan Opera, stands as a prominent opera conductor among the younger generation.
Currently serving as Chief Conductor and Co-Operndirektor of Bühnen Bern since 2021, Carter has held key roles at Staatsoper Hamburg, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Stadttheater Klagenfurt, and the Kärntner Sinfonieorchester. Highlights of Carter’s 2023/24 season include Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen at Bühnen Bern and Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles at both the Oper Zürich and the Oper Köln, and his debut at Staatsoper Stuttgart with Rheingold. Carter's extensive operatic repertoire spans Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Strauss, and contemporary composers such as Brett Dean, with whom he has a close artistic relationship.
He served as Principal Conductor of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra from 2016 to 2019 and has since been in international demand in the symphonic field. As a guest conductor, he has appeared with major orchestras worldwide, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, the Dallas and Oregon Symphony Orchestras, Orchestre National de Lille, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Bochumer Symphoniker, Seoul Philharmonic and Hong Kong Philharmonic.
Clare Bowditch
Clare Bowditch is a versatile and acclaimed Australian artist who has made significant contributions across music, broadcasting, writing, and entrepreneurship. Described as a "slashie," Bowditch's multifaceted talents have earned her widespread recognition.
In music, Bowditch has won the coveted ARIA Award for Best Female and the Rolling Stone Woman of the Year Award for her artistic impact. She has toured extensively, performing at festivals, venues, and even truck stops across the country, and has shared the stage with acclaimed artists like Leonard Cohen, Paul Kelly, and Gotye.
Bowditch's skills as a broadcaster were showcased during her two-year stint hosting a popular program on ABC, where she spoke with millions of Victorians and interviewed an array of public figures. She is also an accomplished speaker, MC, and choir leader, using these platforms to champion the importance of creativity and courage.
Bowditch's literary achievements include her bestselling memoir "Your Own Kind of Girl," which was a top-7 Nielsen Book Chart seller and won the ABIA Award for New Writer of the Year. She has also found success with her Audible Original "Tame Your Inner Critic," which has remained at the top of the Audible charts.
A true renaissance woman, Bowditch's diverse talents and impressive body of work cement her status as a multifaceted cultural force in Australia.
Media Contact
Samuel Cairnduff
0401 396 755
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