Composed in less than four days, Mozart’s "Linz" Symphony is both noble and festive, while his Piano Concerto No 23 in A major is renowned especially for its deeply expressive slow movement. Our soloist Michelle Cheung is a versatile and highly talented musician who has enjoyed a long association with the KPO. In this program you will also experience the transparent textures and catchy rhythms of Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks, and a newly commissioned work by young Sydney composer Naomi Dodd, Deep Calls to Deep.
Michelle Cheung
Michelle has been a member of KPO for a number of years and plays piano, violin and other keyboard instruments in the orchestra. Her association with KPO dates back to high school, having won the Multiples Section of the 2001 NSW Secondary Schools Concerto Competition and performed as a soloist in Sarasate's Navarra for Two Violins with KPO at the Concerto Competition Finals Concert.
Michelle’s KPO highlights include performing the piano solo in Ross Edwards' Emerald Crossing for piano and orchestra at The Concourse, the celeste solos in the Sugar Plum Fairy movement from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and the Harry Potter orchestral suite at a Kids Proms concert (both of which were also featured on ABC's Play School), and orchestral piano parts in large works including Saint-Saens' Organ Symphony, Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, Marquez' Danzon No 2, Kabalevsky’s The Comedians Suite and Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.
Outside of KPO, Michelle has competed in many competitions and eisteddfods. She won the Open Age Piano Solo and was short-listed twice for the Theme & Variations Piano Scholarship at Ryde Eisteddfod, was named a NSW State Finalist in the senior category of the Yamaha National Youth Piano Competition, and won numerous prizes at other eisteddfods (including the Sydney Eisteddfod). Michelle has also accompanied school and university choirs, large congregations and soloists on piano since the age of 11, and led the Ravenswood senior and chamber orchestras on violin (including in numerous musicals).
Michelle studied the piano with Associate Professor Jeanell Carrigan AM and subsequently with Neta Maughan AM, obtaining her AMusA with Distinction at 14 and her LMusA at 15. She also completed 8th grade on violin with Honours at 13, and studied diploma level repertoire on violin for a number of years after. Michelle completed both the HSC Music 2 and Music Extension courses as an accelerated Year 11 student and received an ENCORE performance nomination for outstanding HSC music candidates.
Michelle attended Ravenswood School on a full Academic and Music Scholarship (Years 7-12) and then completed a combined Bachelor of Medical Science/ Bachelor of Law degree at UTS. She is now a senior lawyer at a large financial institution and considers herself extremely lucky to still be performing with KPO.
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 new 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.
