NextSunday 21 April, 3:00pm
Wagner: Siegfried Idyll
Suk: Serenade
Ibert: Divertissement
Conductor: Paul Terracini
Free Sunday Afternoon Chamber Music
Free Concert - donations welcomed
Strings and Woodwind/Brass of the KPO
Autumn Idyll, KPO’s first community concert for 2024 presents three iconic chamber orchestra works featuring strings, woodwind, brass and percussion. The community concert series offer hour-long, free concerts to our local audiences showcasing individual and combined sections of the orchestra . Czech composer Josef Suk wrote Serenade for Strings in E flat Op. 6 in 1892. Under the tutelage of fellow Czech composer Anton Dvorak , Suk was advised to write some music of a lighter, less introspective nature. The final score features all four movements written in major keys. In 1930 French composer Jacques Ibert wrote Divertissement for a theatrical performance of The Italian Straw Hat, a farce by Labich and Marc-Michel. The burlesque style of Ibert’s piece, written in six movements, reflects the absurdity and hilarity of the stage play. Richard Wagner composed Siegfried Idyll in 1869 as a gift to his wife following the birth of their son Siegfried. The piece was originally written for a small chamber group but was later expanded to 35 players.
Paul Terracini
Dr Paul Terracini was born in Sydney and has enjoyed a career in Australia and internationally as an instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He has held permanent positions as Principal Trumpet in the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra; Lecturer in Trumpet, Brass Ensemble and Big Band at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music; and Solo Trumpet in the Danish Chamber Players, Denmark.
As an instrumentalist, he performed as soloist in Australia, Europe, USA, and Asia. Within Australia, his solo performances included concertos with the Melbourne, Queensland, West Australian, and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras.
Paul Terracini has appeared as an opera conductor at the German Rossini Festival in Bad Wilbad, for the Danish Bel Canto Society in Copenhagen, and the Storstroms Symphony Orchestra, also in Denmark. Since assuming the role of artistic director of the Penrith Symphony Orchestra in 2010, he has, apart from programming and conducting the symphonic repertoire, pioneered the performance of chamber opera in western Sydney. For many years he has been invited as a guest conductor/composer to music schools and universities in Europe, USA, China, and Australia. He appears regularly as conductor for the Conservatorium High School, in Sydney. As a choral conductor, he has recorded for ABC Classics with Ars Nova Copenhagen, and the Sydney based choir, Cantillation.
As a composer and arranger, his music has been heard throughout the world in a variety of genres, performed by, amongst others, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass, the Danish Chamber Players, the Australian Brass Quintet, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Brass, and at festivals and conferences on every continent. His music for the two part ABC television series, Hymns of the Forefathers, in which he developed many of the traditional English hymns into symphonic poems, received international acclaim and was released on CD and DVD by ABC Classics. His title music for the television series, Classical Destinations, which was produced for three seasons, was featured on the ‘Number 1 Classical Album of the Year,’ released by Decca.
His CD, Paul Terracini: Music for Brass, was released on the Tall Poppies label in May 2015. On this recording, he conducted his own music with Sydney Brass, featuring members of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Paul Terracini also holds a PhD from the University of Sydney, having earlier completed a Bachelor of Theology and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours). His book, John Stoward Moyes and the Social Gospel, was published in 2015.