Australian Festival of Chamber Music
Encyclopedia
The Australian Festival of Chamber Music (AFCM) is a ten-day international festival focused on chamber music
but also featuring tours of regional and remote Australia, fine food, master class
es for musicians and lecture series by international scientists themed on the Great Barrier Reef
.
20 to 30 chamber musicians from around the world converge on Townsville
, Queensland, each year to perform and teach emerging artists. The festival was founded in July 1991 and has been held annually ever since. It is the largest festival dedicated to chamber music in the southern hemisphere.
During the festival master classes are held for around 30 music students attending the Winterschool by the artists who also have a full schedule of performances. In the lead up to the festival an ensemble of musicians from the festival are sponsored to tour mining communities across North Queensland. Since 2002 the Festival has partnered with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMRA)
and Australian Institute of Marine Science
to present "Reeftalk", a series of free talks over four evenings. In 2006, "Reeftalk"'s special guest was Peter Garrett
and all lectures were held at the Townsville Civic Theatre, Townsville's main theatre. Concerts recorded at the Festival are broadcast nationally on ABC Classic FM
regularly throughout the following year.
The festival focuses on involving Australian composers and musicians going against contemporary trends in symphony orchestra programming.
The AFCM is presented in partnership with all three levels of government as well as several commercial, tourism, regional development, educational, scientific and media organisations. The festival's patron
is Quentin Bryce
, Governor of Queensland.
who continued as the artistic director for the next 16 years until 2006. The festival began conservatively focusing on the more contemporary music of the classical
and romantic periods
, over the first five years Kuchar started inserting works of Bartok
, Bloch
, Martinu
, Shostakovich
, expanding the musical depth for enthusiasts while maintaining the popular appeal.
The festival has tried to avoid a perception that it is only there for cultivated southerners, for example in 2005 for the first time the AFCM had a presence at a Cowboys
football match and in 2006 increased publicity focusing locally.
as the new artistic director, Yvette Braithwaite-Bragg as general manager and Chris Smeed as artistic administrator. Lane is a leading international pianist who is based in London; Braithwaite-Bragg brings qualities and expertise from various roles including State Manager, Sales & Marketing Professional, Special Events Manager and Protocol Officer to her role.
The 2007 programme involved vocalists and more variety than previous years to appeal to a broader audience, taking a "lifestyle approach" and focussing on music, wine and food.
The Outback Tour brought some of the best music in the world to some of the most isolated places in the world. Enthusiastic music lovers, join six musicians (including didgeridoo
player William Barton
) in a five day tour of Outback Australia, visiting Cloncurry
, Ernest Henry Mine, Mount Isa, Normanton
and Karumba
focusing on fine food and music and masterclasses with hands on experience of the Queensland mining industry and communities. Works included; Peter Sculthorpe
– String Quartet No. 9; Philip Glass
– String Quartet No. 2 Company; Hardin (aka Moondog
) – Synchrony No. 2; Lee – Morango – Like a Tango; Barton – Sacred Song and Hindson – Technologic.
The sixth annual Chefs in the North Dinner, held on the lawns of Jupiters Townsville under a spectacular marquee, will feature a tantalising degustation menu prepared by some of Australia's finest chefs. Enjoy an evening that highlights the best local produce accompanied by fine Australian wines.
Special chamber music performances programmed by Piers Lane showcasing Amy Dickson (Saxophone), Jack Liebeck (Violin), Victoria Sayles (Violin) and Piers himself, will also feature between courses.
The Chefs in the North Dinner is designed to tempt food and wine aficionados, Festival participants and corporate clients with an unforgettable night of fine food, wine and music.
A creative and entertaining weekend activity for the whole family - not to be missed!
Five times soloist at the BBC Proms in London's Royal Albert Hall, Piers Lane's wide-ranging concerto repertoire exceeds eighty works and has led to engagements with many of the world's great orchestras including the BBC and ABC orchestras; the Aarhus, American, Bournemouth and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestras; the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Kanazawa Ensemble, Orchestre National de France, City of London Sinfonia, and the Royal Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Warsaw Philharmonic orchestras among others. Leading conductors with whom he has worked include Andrey Boreyko, Sir Andrew Davis, Richard Hickox, Andrew Litton, Sir Charles Mackerras, Jerzy Maxymiuk, Maxim Shostakovich, Vassily Sinaisky, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Antoni Wit. His 2007 performance of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Pietari Inkinen received the Limelight Magazine Award for Best Orchestral Performance in Australia.
Festival appearances have included, among others, Aldeburgh, Bard, Bergen, Cheltenham, Como Autumn Music, Consonances, La Roque d'Anthéron, Newport, Prague Spring, Ruhr Klavierfestival, Schloss vor Husum and the Chopin festivals in Warsaw, Duszniki-Zdroj, Mallorca and Paris.
In 2007, Piers Lane was appointed Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. He is also Artistic Director of the annual Myra Hess Day at the National Gallery in London. In 2009, he collaborated with actress Patricia Routledge on a theatre piece devised by Nigel Hess, exploring Dame Myra's work throughout World War 11. This performance is being repeated at many festivals and theatres during the next couple of years.
Highlights of 2011 include three performances at the Wigmore Hall, tours throughout the UK, four concert trips to Australia, and to France, Germany, the USA, Korea, Portugal and New Zealand. In 2010, Piers Lane gave several performances of Chopin's complete Nocturnes in London, Manchester's Bridgewater Hall and in Canada. These will continue in 2011 in Sydney's Angel Place Recital Hall and in Melbourne's Recital Hall. On December 11th, he will perform the monumental Piano Concerto by Busoni at Carnegie Hall.
His extensive discography includes, on the Hyperion label, much admired recordings of rare Romantic piano concertos, the complete Preludes and Etudes by Scriabin, transcriptions of Bach and Strauss, along with complete collections of concert etudes by Saint-Saens, Moscheles and Henselt, and transcriptions by Grainger. His recordings of Eugen d'Albert's solo piano music and Delius's violin sonatas with Tasmin Little were both nominated for Gramophone Awards. Recent releases include the Piano Quintets by Bloch, Bridge and Dvorak, all with the Goldner String Quartet. The Piano Quintet and the premieres of four solo salon pieces by Elgar are due for release. 2010 saw releases of d'Albert's transcriptions of Bach organ works and a disc with clarinettist Michael Collins for Chandos. He has also recorded for the ABC Classics, BMG, Classics for Pleasure, Decca, EMI Eminence, Lyrita and Unicorn-Khanchana labels.
Piers Lane is in great demand as a collaborative artist. He continues his longstanding partnership with violinist Tasmin Little and with clarinettist Michael Collins. Tours in recent years have included performances with singers Cheryl Barker, Peter Coleman-Wright, Yvonne Kenny, Markus Schafer and Anne Sofie von Otter with Bengt Forsberg, violist/composer Brett Dean, the Australian, Doric, Goldner, Medici, New Zealand, Prazak and RTE Vanbrugh String Quartets, and pianists Marc-André Hamelin, Hamish Milne, Kathryn Stott and Kathron Sturrock.
Piers Lane has written and presented over 100 programmes for BBC Radio 3, including the popular 54-part series, The Piano. In 2007 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Griffith University in Australia. He was recently presented with the first medal from the Laza Kostic fund for promoting Serbian culture during difficult political times in the late 90s.
In 1994, he was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, where he has been a Professor since 1989. He is Piano Ambassador for the Australian National Academy of Music, Patron of the European Piano Teachers' Association UK, the Old Granary Studio in Norfolk, the Tait Memorial Trust, the Youth Music Foundation of Australia and the Music Teachers' Association and the Accompanists' Guild in Queensland. He is a Trustee of the Hattori Foundation in London; Vice-President of Putney Music Club; Artistic Director of the Myra Hess Day held annually at the National Gallery in London and of various one-off festivals.
Sue worked as a professional musician for many years, principally in Adelaide and in France. In 1988 she moved to arts administration and worked for ten years as Artists' Department Manager for Opera Australia. In 1999 she returned to Europe where she edited publications and managed press for Wexford Festival Opera for three years before moving to Bologna to set up Canvas Management an international agency managing directors and designers working in theatre and opera. In 2007 she returned to Sydney taking up the position of General Manager of Pacific Opera in 2009.
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
but also featuring tours of regional and remote Australia, fine food, master class
Master class
A master class is a class given to students of a particular discipline by an expert of that discipline—usually music, but also painting, drama, or any of the arts....
es for musicians and lecture series by international scientists themed on the Great Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world'slargest reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately...
.
20 to 30 chamber musicians from around the world converge on Townsville
Townsville, Queensland
Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Australia, in the state of Queensland. Adjacent to the central section of the Great Barrier Reef, it is in the dry tropics region of Queensland. Townsville is Australia's largest urban centre north of the Sunshine Coast, with a 2006 census...
, Queensland, each year to perform and teach emerging artists. The festival was founded in July 1991 and has been held annually ever since. It is the largest festival dedicated to chamber music in the southern hemisphere.
During the festival master classes are held for around 30 music students attending the Winterschool by the artists who also have a full schedule of performances. In the lead up to the festival an ensemble of musicians from the festival are sponsored to tour mining communities across North Queensland. Since 2002 the Festival has partnered with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMRA)
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects a large part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef from damaging activities. Fishing and the removal of artefacts or...
and Australian Institute of Marine Science
Australian Institute of Marine Science
The Australian Institute of Marine Science is a state-of-the-art tropical marine research centre located primarily at Cape Ferguson, 50km by road east of Townsville in North Queensland, Australia. It was established in 1972, by the Commonwealth of Australia...
to present "Reeftalk", a series of free talks over four evenings. In 2006, "Reeftalk"'s special guest was Peter Garrett
Peter Garrett
Peter Robert Garrett, AM, MP , is an Australian musician, environmentalist, activist and politician.Garrett was lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil from 1973 until its disbanding in 2002...
and all lectures were held at the Townsville Civic Theatre, Townsville's main theatre. Concerts recorded at the Festival are broadcast nationally on ABC Classic FM
ABC Classic FM
ABC Classic FM is a classical music radio station available in Australia, and internationally online. It is operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation . It was established in 1976 as "ABC-FM", and later for a short time was known as "ABC Fine Music" , before adopting its current name...
regularly throughout the following year.
The festival focuses on involving Australian composers and musicians going against contemporary trends in symphony orchestra programming.
The AFCM is presented in partnership with all three levels of government as well as several commercial, tourism, regional development, educational, scientific and media organisations. The festival's patron
Patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...
is Quentin Bryce
Quentin Bryce
Quentin Bryce, AC, CVO is the 25th and current Governor-General of Australia and former Governor of Queensland....
, Governor of Queensland.
History
The festival was founded in 1990 for a 1991 premiere by Theodore KucharTheodore Kuchar
Theodore Kuchar is a Ukrainian American conductor of classical music and a violist.-Biography:Kuchar was born in 1960 in New York City. He started to learn to play the violin at ten years of age, later switching to viola...
who continued as the artistic director for the next 16 years until 2006. The festival began conservatively focusing on the more contemporary music of the classical
Classical period (music)
The dates of the Classical Period in Western music are generally accepted as being between about 1750 and 1830. However, the term classical music is used colloquially to describe a variety of Western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, and especially from the sixteenth or...
and romantic periods
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
, over the first five years Kuchar started inserting works of Bartok
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
, Bloch
Ernest Bloch
Ernest Bloch was a Swiss-born American composer.-Life:Bloch was born in Geneva and began playing the violin at age 9. He began composing soon afterwards. He studied music at the conservatory in Brussels, where his teachers included the celebrated Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe...
, Martinu
Bohuslav Martinu
Bohuslav Martinů was a prolific Czech composer of modern classical music. He was of Czech and Rumanian ancestry. Martinů wrote six symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. Martinů became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic...
, Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
, expanding the musical depth for enthusiasts while maintaining the popular appeal.
The festival has tried to avoid a perception that it is only there for cultivated southerners, for example in 2005 for the first time the AFCM had a presence at a Cowboys
North Queensland Cowboys
The North Queensland Cowboys are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, Queensland. They compete in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby League premiership...
football match and in 2006 increased publicity focusing locally.
Audience
At the 2006 festival about 10,000 tickets were issued with five concerts sold out, outperforming all previous years and 2005 by 20%; it had pre-sold 1200 tickets for one concert alone (Symphony Under the Stars at Queens Gardens) and had an average audience size of about 750 people. About 50% of audience numbers were from interstate or international guests to Townsville.New management 2007
In 2007 the AFCM gained a new management and artistic team, with Piers LanePiers Lane
Piers Lane is an Australian classical pianist. His performance career has taken him to more than 40 countries. His concerto repertoire exceeds 75 works.- Early life :...
as the new artistic director, Yvette Braithwaite-Bragg as general manager and Chris Smeed as artistic administrator. Lane is a leading international pianist who is based in London; Braithwaite-Bragg brings qualities and expertise from various roles including State Manager, Sales & Marketing Professional, Special Events Manager and Protocol Officer to her role.
The 2007 programme involved vocalists and more variety than previous years to appeal to a broader audience, taking a "lifestyle approach" and focussing on music, wine and food.
Outback Tour
The Outback Tour was not held in 2011. However, Australian Festival of Chamber Music hope to revive the special event for 2012.The Outback Tour brought some of the best music in the world to some of the most isolated places in the world. Enthusiastic music lovers, join six musicians (including didgeridoo
Didgeridoo
The didgeridoo is a wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia around 1,500 years ago and still in widespread usage today both in Australia and around the world. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or "drone pipe"...
player William Barton
William Barton (musician)
William Barton is an Australian Aboriginal didgeridoo player. He was born in Mount Isa, Queensland on 4 June 1981. and learned to play from his uncle, an elder of the Wannyi, Lardil and Kalkadunga tribes of Western Queensland...
) in a five day tour of Outback Australia, visiting Cloncurry
Cloncurry, Queensland
-Notable residents:*Writer Alexis Wright grew up in Cloncurry.*Association Footballer Kasey Wehrman was born in Cloncurry . He went on to play domestically and in Scandinavia. His achievements include winning a NSL Championship in 1996-1997 with the Brisbane Strikers and being capped several times...
, Ernest Henry Mine, Mount Isa, Normanton
Normanton, Queensland
-External links:****...
and Karumba
Karumba, Queensland
Karumba is a town in the Gulf Country region of Queensland, Australia, 71 km by road from Normanton and 2159 km from the state capital, Brisbane. The settlement was previously known as Norman Mouth and Kimberely. Karumba was used by the local aborigines to describe the place...
focusing on fine food and music and masterclasses with hands on experience of the Queensland mining industry and communities. Works included; Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Sculthorpe
Peter Joshua Sculthorpe AO OBE is an Australian composer. Much of his music has resulted from an interest in the music of Australia's neighbours as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of native Australian music with that of the heritage of the West...
– String Quartet No. 9; Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
– String Quartet No. 2 Company; Hardin (aka Moondog
Moondog
Moondog, born Louis Thomas Hardin , was a blind American composer, musician, poet and inventor of several musical instruments. Moving to New York as a young man, Moondog made a deliberate decision to make his home on the streets there, where he spent approximately twenty of the thirty years he...
) – Synchrony No. 2; Lee – Morango – Like a Tango; Barton – Sacred Song and Hindson – Technologic.
Chefs in the North 2011
Held annually in July, the night before the opening of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Chefs in the North has become one of the most sought after events in town.The sixth annual Chefs in the North Dinner, held on the lawns of Jupiters Townsville under a spectacular marquee, will feature a tantalising degustation menu prepared by some of Australia's finest chefs. Enjoy an evening that highlights the best local produce accompanied by fine Australian wines.
Special chamber music performances programmed by Piers Lane showcasing Amy Dickson (Saxophone), Jack Liebeck (Violin), Victoria Sayles (Violin) and Piers himself, will also feature between courses.
The Chefs in the North Dinner is designed to tempt food and wine aficionados, Festival participants and corporate clients with an unforgettable night of fine food, wine and music.
Young Families Concert 2011
Join some of our favourite Festival artists as they introduce young listeners to the wonderful world of chamber music! This year the Young Families' Concert will feature Victoria Sayles, Kees Boersma and Michael Collins performing Martin Wesley-Smith's "Pip!" as well as the beautiful voices of the Belgian Gardens State School Choir. Try the "Guessing Game" and look out for "Ferdinand the Bull"!A creative and entertaining weekend activity for the whole family - not to be missed!
Reef Talk 2011
The AFCM Reef Talk is a Festival highlight which showcases world-class scientists and some of our favourite Festival artists. This year, the Reef Talk will feature George Crumb's "Voice of the Whale" performed by Vernon Hill, Daniel de Borah and Julian Smiles. The Reef Talk is an intriguing, entertaining and informative session for all age groupsArtistic Director
London-based Australian pianist Piers Lane has a flourishing international career, which has taken him to more than forty countries. Highlights of the past few years have included a sold-out performance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Alexander Verdernikov at London's Royal Festival Hall, concerto performances at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, a three-recital series entitled Metamorphoses and other performances for the London Pianoforte series at Wigmore Hall and five concerts for the opening of the Recital Centre in Melbourne.Five times soloist at the BBC Proms in London's Royal Albert Hall, Piers Lane's wide-ranging concerto repertoire exceeds eighty works and has led to engagements with many of the world's great orchestras including the BBC and ABC orchestras; the Aarhus, American, Bournemouth and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestras; the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Kanazawa Ensemble, Orchestre National de France, City of London Sinfonia, and the Royal Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Warsaw Philharmonic orchestras among others. Leading conductors with whom he has worked include Andrey Boreyko, Sir Andrew Davis, Richard Hickox, Andrew Litton, Sir Charles Mackerras, Jerzy Maxymiuk, Maxim Shostakovich, Vassily Sinaisky, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Antoni Wit. His 2007 performance of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Pietari Inkinen received the Limelight Magazine Award for Best Orchestral Performance in Australia.
Festival appearances have included, among others, Aldeburgh, Bard, Bergen, Cheltenham, Como Autumn Music, Consonances, La Roque d'Anthéron, Newport, Prague Spring, Ruhr Klavierfestival, Schloss vor Husum and the Chopin festivals in Warsaw, Duszniki-Zdroj, Mallorca and Paris.
In 2007, Piers Lane was appointed Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. He is also Artistic Director of the annual Myra Hess Day at the National Gallery in London. In 2009, he collaborated with actress Patricia Routledge on a theatre piece devised by Nigel Hess, exploring Dame Myra's work throughout World War 11. This performance is being repeated at many festivals and theatres during the next couple of years.
Highlights of 2011 include three performances at the Wigmore Hall, tours throughout the UK, four concert trips to Australia, and to France, Germany, the USA, Korea, Portugal and New Zealand. In 2010, Piers Lane gave several performances of Chopin's complete Nocturnes in London, Manchester's Bridgewater Hall and in Canada. These will continue in 2011 in Sydney's Angel Place Recital Hall and in Melbourne's Recital Hall. On December 11th, he will perform the monumental Piano Concerto by Busoni at Carnegie Hall.
His extensive discography includes, on the Hyperion label, much admired recordings of rare Romantic piano concertos, the complete Preludes and Etudes by Scriabin, transcriptions of Bach and Strauss, along with complete collections of concert etudes by Saint-Saens, Moscheles and Henselt, and transcriptions by Grainger. His recordings of Eugen d'Albert's solo piano music and Delius's violin sonatas with Tasmin Little were both nominated for Gramophone Awards. Recent releases include the Piano Quintets by Bloch, Bridge and Dvorak, all with the Goldner String Quartet. The Piano Quintet and the premieres of four solo salon pieces by Elgar are due for release. 2010 saw releases of d'Albert's transcriptions of Bach organ works and a disc with clarinettist Michael Collins for Chandos. He has also recorded for the ABC Classics, BMG, Classics for Pleasure, Decca, EMI Eminence, Lyrita and Unicorn-Khanchana labels.
Piers Lane is in great demand as a collaborative artist. He continues his longstanding partnership with violinist Tasmin Little and with clarinettist Michael Collins. Tours in recent years have included performances with singers Cheryl Barker, Peter Coleman-Wright, Yvonne Kenny, Markus Schafer and Anne Sofie von Otter with Bengt Forsberg, violist/composer Brett Dean, the Australian, Doric, Goldner, Medici, New Zealand, Prazak and RTE Vanbrugh String Quartets, and pianists Marc-André Hamelin, Hamish Milne, Kathryn Stott and Kathron Sturrock.
Piers Lane has written and presented over 100 programmes for BBC Radio 3, including the popular 54-part series, The Piano. In 2007 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Griffith University in Australia. He was recently presented with the first medal from the Laza Kostic fund for promoting Serbian culture during difficult political times in the late 90s.
In 1994, he was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, where he has been a Professor since 1989. He is Piano Ambassador for the Australian National Academy of Music, Patron of the European Piano Teachers' Association UK, the Old Granary Studio in Norfolk, the Tait Memorial Trust, the Youth Music Foundation of Australia and the Music Teachers' Association and the Accompanists' Guild in Queensland. He is a Trustee of the Hattori Foundation in London; Vice-President of Putney Music Club; Artistic Director of the Myra Hess Day held annually at the National Gallery in London and of various one-off festivals.
General Manager
Sue Hackett - General Manager Sue joins the Australian Festival of Chamber Music as General Manager.Sue worked as a professional musician for many years, principally in Adelaide and in France. In 1988 she moved to arts administration and worked for ten years as Artists' Department Manager for Opera Australia. In 1999 she returned to Europe where she edited publications and managed press for Wexford Festival Opera for three years before moving to Bologna to set up Canvas Management an international agency managing directors and designers working in theatre and opera. In 2007 she returned to Sydney taking up the position of General Manager of Pacific Opera in 2009.