THE RETURN STEEL CITY STRINGS
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Experience the energy
STEEL THE
2020
CITY
STRINGS RETURN
2.00pm Sunday 29 November Berry School of Arts
7.30pm Saturday 5 December Wollongong Town Hall
2.00pm Sunday 6 December Bowral Memorial Hall
Our Patron Andrew Ford OAM
2021 THE CONCERT
RESCHEDULED SUBSCRIPTION SEASON (cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19). Capriol Suite (1926) Peter Warlock
ALL 2020 SUBSCRIBERS CAN USE THEIR 2020 TICKETS
Basse-Danse
STEEL CITY STRINGS 2021 SUBSCRIPTION SEASON – CELEBRATING OUR REGION Pavane
We will be showcasing the wonderful talent in our region that led to us being Tordion
declared the winner of the 2019 APRA/AMCOS Art Music award for excellence in Bransles
a region and commitment to Australian music. Pieds-en-l’air
Mattachins (Sword Dance)
SERIES 1 FEBRUARY-MARCH: ‘The Composer is in the Room’ features the world
premiere of a new composition by Elena Kats-Chernin, voted #1 favourite Australian
composer in the 2019 ABC Countdown. Where possible, Elena and other featured
Australian composers, will be present at performances. Concerto for Two Cellos in G minor, RV 531 (1710) Antonio Vivaldi
Chevalier Performing Arts Centre - 2pm, Sun 28 Feb | Wollongong Town Hall -
Allegro
7.30pm, Sat 6 March | Nowra School of Arts - 2pm, Sun 7 March
Largo
SERIES 2 AUGUST: ‘Earth Connections’, featuring William Barton on didgeridoo,
Allegro
sees Steel City Strings collaborate with other Indigenous composers, musicians and
performers in music to celebrate the talent in our region. Soloists - Karella Mitchell and Rita Woolhouse
Chevalier Performing Arts Centre - 2pm, Sun 22 Aug | Wollongong Town Hall -
7.30pm, Sat 28 Aug | Nowra School of Arts - 2pm, Sun 29 Aug
SERIES 3 NOVEMBER: ‘Seasons’ Featuring brilliant young violinist Emily Sun, 2018 Concerto Grosso for String Orchestra and Piano obbligato (1925)
ABC Australian Young Musician of the Year and multi international prize-winner. Ernest Bloch
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons will be bookended by works by JS Bach and an Australian
composition. Prelude
Chevalier Performing Arts Centre - 2pm, Sun 14 Nov | Wollongong Town Hall - Dirge
7.30pm, Sat 20 Nov | Nowra School of Arts - 2pm, Sun 21 Nov Pastorale and Rustic Dances
Fugue
If you subscribed in 2020 your subscription is good for 2021.
New subscribers: register for our newsletter on www.steelcitystrings.com.au for
updates on when bookings for 2021 subscriptions open.
ADDITIONAL PROGRAM IN 2021
The popular “Celebration of Youth” Program returns in 2021, featuring our young
rising stars as soloists, composers and orchestra members
CELEBRATION OF YOUTH (JUNE):
Chevalier Performing Arts Centre, 2pm Sunday 20 June. Wollongong Town Hall,
7.30pm Saturday 26 June. Nowra School of Arts, 2pm Saturday 27 June.
Register For Our Newsletter on www.steelcitystrings.com.au for updates on when www.steelcitystrings.com.au
bookings for “Celebration of Youth” open. P: 0467 869 478
E: steelcitystrings@gmail.com
2 3ARTISTS
CONDUCTOR: Luke Spicer Kyle is the full-time instrumental ensemble THE ORCHESTRA Violas Adrian Davis*
director and classroom music teacher at Renee Richardson
An acclaimed Violist
Campbelltown High School of Performing Conductor Luke Spicer
and chamber musician, Anna Hewgill
Arts. He was awarded the NSW ACEL Mary
Luke is making his mark
Armstrong Award for educational leadership First violins Kyle Little Rachel Miller
as an operatic and
symphonic conductor.
in 2017. (concertmaster)
Kyle teaches violin at Wollongong Monique Ziegelaar Celli: Karella Mitchell*
He graduated with a
Masters of Conducting from the Sydney Conservatorium and taught the Music Janine Jackson Rita Woolhouse
Conservatorium, and was a participant in the Methods course at Wollongong University in Catherine Barnett
2019. He advocates for the importance of Kate Malone
Symphony Services International Conductor Louisa Lovez
Development Program during 2016. quality music education in schools.
Second violins Jacob Antonio*
In 2014 Luke was appointed Principal Liana Bonaccorso Double Bass Ethan Ireland*
Conductor of the Sydney University PIANO: David Vance Siobhan Mewes
Symphony Orchestra, in 2016 he became Piano/Continuo David Vance
David Vance studied
Music Director of Blush Opera in Sydney, Mitra Ahmadi
piano with Nan Price
and has been the Associate Conductor of Pirshahid
and Greville Rothon * denotes principal
the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra for
(assistant to Claudio
several years.
Arrau). He holds
In 2017 Luke joined Opera Australia as Music honours degrees in
Director of the NSW schools tour, and made English literature (UNSW) and in music
his conducting debuts with the Tasmanian performance (Sydney University) and
and Canberra Symphony Orchestras. In pursued further musical studies as an Soloists
2018 he conducted Willoughby Symphony accompanist and conductor in Italy, Austria
Orchestra in their subscription series. He and England. He taught at the University Karella Mitchell Rita Woolhouse
is now a conductor with Opera Australia as of Sydney and the NSW Conservatorium of Karella started learning cello when Rita Woolhouse studied cello at the NSW
part of their Young Artist Program and has Music before his appointment in 1982 by she was 7 years old after hearing Conservatorium of Music, with Colleen
been assistant conductor to Simone Young. the University of Wollongong with a brief to Jacqueline du Pré playing on the radio. McMeekin and David Pereira, graduating
This is Luke’s fourth year as resident develop musical activities on campus. When She completed a Bachelor of Music at with a DSCM in performance. She then
conductor of Steel City Strings. he retired in 2012 as an Associate Professor, the Sydney Conservatorium studying undertook further studies in the UK with
his contribution to the musical life of the with Georg Pedersen and went on to Joan Dickson and Christopher Bunting.
university was recognised in the award of an graduate with Honours from the Newcastle
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND Conservatorium where she was the cellist for Rita has performed as a freelance musician
Honorary Fellowship. with various chamber and orchestral
CONCERTMASTER: Kyle Little David has performed with some of
the Conservatorium String quartet.
ensembles including the John Gould String
Kyle Little is founding Karella holds a post-graduate Diploma
Australia’s leading artists over many years, Quartet and the Majorian Ensemble and
Artistic Director and in Music Performance from the Sydney
and has broadcast and recorded chamber has appeared as a soloist with a number of
Concert Master of Conservatorium of Music. Having studied
music for the ABC. He remains active as regional orchestras. She and the composer
Steel City Strings. with esteemed teachers as George
an accompanist with a particular interest in Pedersen, Anthea Scott-Mitchell, Dorothy Judith Stubbs have often collaborated in
He completed his vocal repertoire. David regularly contributes a wide range of musical genres, including
Bachelor of Music in Sumner and Tim Blomfield she appreciated,
program annotations for Steel City Strings. assimilated and developed both as a cellist performing together in Mumbai and at the
violin performance from the University of Adelaide and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals.
and teacher from each experience.
Dalhousie, Canada in 2006. He graduated
Rita currently performs and teaches in NSW.
from the University of Wollongong in 2010
with a Graduate Diploma in Education and in
2013 with a Masters in Education - Research.
4 5PROGRAM NOTES
Capriol Suite for String The Basse-Danse, already obsolete in 1589 In this concerto, Vivaldi confronts the The work adopts various characteristics
but included in the hope it would be revived challenge of writing for two cellos, of its baroque ancestry including a four
Orchestra
by ‘modest matrons’, was so called because instruments that are normally entrusted with movement structure that provides ample
Peter Warlock (1894 - 1930) supplying a harmonic foundation rather than opportunity for the concertino group – solo
the feet were meant to glide over the
Basse-Danse the tune. From the very outset, Vivaldi is instruments drawn from each string section
floor rather than be raised over it. Warlock
Pavane alternates successive statements of the careful to keep the orchestra at a distance so – to demonstrate individual and collective
Tordion melody between first and second violins, that the listeners’ attention is focussed on the artistry. Where formerly a harpsichord would
Bransles gradually thickening the texture and volume soloists. In fact the central Largo movement is have supplied a continuo part, here the piano
Pieds-en-l’air over the dance’s stately progression. The scored entirely for the soloists accompanied plays an occasional virtuosic role or acts as
Mattachins (Sword Dance) Pavane maintains a constant rhythm - a long only by the continuo – another cello, and an accompaniment to solos from within the
beat followed by two short ones - throughout harpsichord. Vivaldi allows his soloists space concertino ensemble. Elsewhere it doubles
The British composer Philip Heseltine, better
its gentle course. The lively Tordion achieves to relish the rich sonorities of their natural the orchestral tutti, adding a percussive
known by his pseudonym Peter Warlock,
humour in its deft string writing, often relying acoustic habitat, and, one suspects, for element to idiomatic string writing or
quickly discovered that a career as a concert
on pizzicatos for its souffléd lightness. Even the moment at least, to enjoy being in the enriching the lush, impressionistic sonorities
pianist was not for him. Instead he satisfied
faster, and then accelerating, is the rustic spotlight. of the second and third movements.
his musical interests by turning to the study
of early music, transcribing and editing some round dance, Bransles, an exhilarating fling While written in G minor throughout, the Grandiose chords announce the Prelude with
six hundred published works over his brief that is counterbalanced by the following minor key does not condemn the work to a sense of portent. These massive chords
and tempestuous lifetime, while his close Pieds-en-l’air with its intimate and graceful darkness or perpetual melancholy. The frame several tumultuous sections that are
friendship with Delius no doubt nourished gait. The vigorous finale to the suite is Allegro first movement maintains a vigorous propelled by vigorous sequences, rising
his aspirations as a composer. These two Mattachins, a sword dance in whose latter energy that contrasts with the introspective in chromatic tension and couched in the
endeavours come together not only in many part the harmony departs alarmingly from the Largo that follows, while the final movement motoric energy typical of baroque allegro
of his song settings, particularly those of established modality, bringing to the antique is an extroverted and syncopated romp, full movements. The Dirge begins with a limpid
the Elizabethan poets, but also in what is a dissonant modernity. of playful vitality. phrase for strings high in their register. As
possibly his best known work, the Capriol © David Vance, 2005 © David Vance, 2020 the pitch descends, the harmonies darken to
Suite for string orchestra, written in 1925. The create a bleak atmosphere. A lyrical central
suite springs from thematic material found in section for solo strings and piano offers a
one of the earliest French treatises on dance Concerto for two cellos in G Concerto Grosso No 1 in G sense of consolation before the elegiac mood
music, Orchésographie, written in 1588 by minor for String Orchestra and returns, with the final cadence suggesting
minor, PV 411
the French cleric, Thoinot Arbeau (itself a hard-won resignation. Solo violin, viola
an anagrammatic non de plume for Jehan
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) Piano obbligato and cello introduce the Pastorale with a
Tabourot). The text appeared in English
Allegro Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) languid serenity, only to be interrupted by an
translation in 1925, and immediately found Largo Prelude energetic theme that is clearly an invitation
an avid reader in Warlock. Dirge to a series of lively Rustic Dances. The
Allegro
concluding Fugue is a rigorous exploration
The treatise provides melodies for some fifty The solo concerto, although it developed Pastorale and Rustic Dances
of contrapuntal technique, one no doubt
dances, together with detailed descriptions alongside the concerto grosso, aims to Fugue specifically designed to engage Bloch’s
of instrumental performance of these dances display the virtuosity of a solo instrument,
The Swiss-born composer Ernest Bloch students. But it is more than a pedagogical
and their steps, along with a philosophic rather than the talents of a small instrumental
composed the Concerto Grosso for String exercise: it is also a powerful essay that
discussion of the importance of dancing ensemble. Its primary architect was the
Orchestra and Piano obbligato (1924) as an integrates past and present musical thinking
for health and pleasurable courtship. The Venetian composer Antonio Vivaldi whose
exemplar for his students at the Cleveland in a rewarding exposition of compositional
treatise is constructed in the form of a output in this form alone was astoundingly
Institute of Music to demonstrate how an mastery.
dialogue between the author and a lawyer prolific. He wrote over 500 concertos,
antiquated form, the baroque concerto © David Vance, 2020
named Capriol, hence Warlock’s title for the including 230 for solo violin. Then there are
suite which comprises six dances found in grosso, might be sustained within the more
around forty concertos for two instruments,
Arbeau’s catalogue. dissonant harmonic practices of the early
and about thirty for three or more soloists.
twentieth century.
6 7OUR WONDERFUL SUPPORTERS
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