At the annual Sidney Myer Free Concerts presented by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in association with the University of Melbourne, you’ll experience great artists from Australia and around the world in relaxed events in February that define summertime in this wonderful city. 774 ABC Melbourne and ABC Classic FM presenters will host two concerts each at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.
Opening the 2008 Bowl season, acclaimed Australian conductor Brad Cohen teams with up with magnificent Melbourne-based pianist Elyane Laussade for an all-Spanish program featuring music by Ravel, Falla and Bizet. She performs Manuel de Falla’s delightful Nights in the Gardens of Spain, a work inspired by the music and rhythms of Andalusia.
Still only in his mid-twenties, rising young English maestro and first prize winner in the 2005 Leeds Conductors Competition, Alexander Shelley conducts the second and third Bowl concerts. Acclaimed by the York Press as ‘a star in the making’, Shelley regularly works with the UK orchestras and was founder of the Schumann Camerata chamber orchestra, with whom he conducted over 80 concerts throughout Europe.
Under the baton of Shelley, German cellist, Nicolas Altstaedt features as soloist in the second concert performing Elgar’s popular and evocative cello concerto. He sprang to international attention in 2006 as First Prize winner of the Adam International Cello Competition, receiving a recording contract with Naxos and a tour with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
Since winning the 2006 Paganini Competition and the 2005 Michael Hill International Competition, violinist Feng Ning is in heavy demand the world over, receiving invitations to perform in Boston, New York, Tokyo, Rome, Berlin, Bejing and Moscow. He performs Brahms’ masterly Violin Concerto in the third concert.
Two of Australia’s greatest music icons – conductor Richard Bonynge and soprano Yvonne Kenny – share the stage in the final concert performing a selection of delightful operetta arias from The Merry Widow, Gypsy Love, Giuditta and Die Fledermaus amongst others. One of the most distinguished sopranos of her generation, Kenny is also known as one of the judges in ABC TV’s popular series Operatunity Oz. These fine artists will also record this selection of operetta arias with the MSO for future release on ABC Classics.
Since the 1920s, the MSO has performed open-air concerts and in 1929 through the generosity of well-known philanthropist Sidney Myer, a special trust was established to ensure these free concerts endured as an annual event for the people of Victoria. In 1959 the Sidney Myer Music Bowl was established and became the permanent home for these performances. -- www.mso.com.au
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