Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra opens 2019 with a program of keyboard virtuosity.
Up and coming piano soloist, Robbin Reza, a 2018 Young Performers Award finalist and senior section winner in KPO’s 2007 Concerto Competition, performs George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, a work weaving distinctly jazz influenced idioms, including elements of Charleston, blues and ragtime, into the classical piano concerto form. Although the classical music world initially gave this jazz inspired work a lukewarm reception, it has come to be treasured for its innovative rhythms and sound colours and vibrant orchestration. Gershwin regarded his Piano Concerto - which he initially dubbed the New York Concerto - as a “spontaneous expression of the nervous energy of modern American life”.
Saint-Saëns’ blockbuster Symphony No 3 in C minor, his Organ Symphony, is beloved by players and audience alike. Writing at the height of his career, Saint-Saëns extended the romantic symphony with the inclusion of virtuosic piano passages and dramatic parts for the organ, which in this performance will be played on an Allen organ, provided by Jim Clinch of All Organs Australia Pty Ltd. The symphony was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society in England, and dedicated to the composer’s friend Franz Liszt. A gloriously tuneful work, it has remained popular since its premiere and known more widely in recent decades through use in film, notably in the Babe movies.
The program also includes Copland’s El Salon Mexico, inspired by Mexican folk and dance music and excerpts from Richard Meale’s Mer de Glace, which intertwines ideas from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, with the interactions of Mary Shelley with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron.
Robbin Reza
Australian Pianist Robbin Reza (23 Years) completed his Bachelor of Music in 2016 with First Class Honours at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, studying with Daniel Herscovitch.
From 2017, Robbin commenced a Masters Degree with Claudio Martinez-Mehner at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in Germany. Robbin gave his first public recital at the age of 11 for the launch of the 9th Sydney International Piano Competition and has been awarded prizes in the Ku-Ring-Gai Philharmonic Orchestra’s Secondary Schools Concerto Competition, Sydney Conservatorium Concerto Competition, Allison and Henderson Scholarship Sydney Eisteddfod and the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers Awards.
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.
