BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Are you under 30?
The Australian Festival of Chamber Music wants to give you cheaper tickets so you can go to a tropical wonderland and listen to the world’s best musicians play stuff you love.
Sweet deal.
AFCM will occupy sunny North Queensland this winter, presenting a line-up of 35 artists (21 of whom are performing at the festival for the very first time). You’ll get to see the youngest ever musician to play at the fest – Grace Clifford (violin) – alongside leading talents ranging from Guy Johnston (cello) to Julian Bliss (clarinet).
And it’s going to get hot.
Think bawu and flute on Orpheus Island. Bandoneon and violin on Magnetic Island. Guitar and percussion in Townsville. The list goes on. (You can see it here, if you like.)
The festival will feature six world and 16 Australian premieres, under the curation of artistic director Kathryn Stott. One of the leading festivals of chamber music in the nation, AFCM boasts a series of 30 concerts from daybreak to sunset. And if you’re under 30, you’ll score tickets to any of them for $30.
Some other featured young artists that we’re looking forward to include Karen Gomyo (violin), Istvan Vardai (cello), and Tine Thing Helseth (trumpet).
Karen, 36, has performed more orchestras than you could imagine, ranging from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to Vienna Chamber Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (just a small handful, I know). In the chamber music world, she’s collaborated with AFCM artistic director Kathryn Stott herself, as well as artists including Alisa Weilerstein, Antoine Tamestit, and the late Heinrich Schiff. Her AFCM performances include works by Bach, Piazzolla, Boulanger and more. Oh, and she plays on a 1703 Stradivarius, too.
Istvan Vardai, 32, will join her on stage among a series of AFCM events. The Hungarian-born cellist was admitted to the Franz Liszt University of Music when he was just 12 (talk about a child prodigy). He has won loads of comps – the International Johannes Brahms Competition, International Tchaikovsky Competition, Geneva International Music Competition…go see him play across seven days and nights of the festival.
Tine Thing Helseth, 30, plays trumpet very well. She made her 2013 BBC Proms debut with the BBC Scottish Symphony. The Norwegian performer has since worked with the Danish Radio Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Australian Chamber Orchestra, and Hong Kong Sinfonietta among others. She’s also put together a 10-piece female brass ensemble called tenThing, having performed in festivals with the group since its establishment in 2007. (Not to mention her bi-annual festival, Tine@Munch, celebrating the fine artist Edvard Munch.) Tine won the second prize in the 2006 Eurovision Young Musicians Competition and was a juror in the comp a decade later. In 2007, she was the first ever classical musician nominated for a Norwegian Grammy Award.
Grab your Under 30 for $30 tickets now before they book out. The heat is on.
We’ll be teaming up with AFCM to bring you interviews with emerging performers – stay tuned to learn about chamber music!
Images supplied.
