IT’S A HANDY WAY TO JOIN FORCES

FINGERS

will fly at tomorrow’s Piano in Stereo concert at the Conservatorium of Music in Hobart.

Concert organiser Shan Deng said the concert would include a wide variety of performers, ranging from schoolchildren to conservatorium students and staff, and community members of all ages.

“It enables young and old to come together to share great music,” she said. “I’m excited so many people are involved.”

Deng said the 12 performances would each feature at least two pianists, while two of the works will involve six hands playing on the one keyboard: Jack Connell and Reily and Leo Wang performing Alexander Peskanov’s Chinatown Dragons; and Hobart College students Lexi Fox-Hughes, Katrina Wong and Moira Black playing an arrangement of Gershwin’s I’ve Got Rhythm.

“It’s jazzy and makes you want to dance,” Deng said. “It’s very busy and they have to jostle for position.”

Jack Barnes and Gergana Manoilova will perform former Conservatorium student Thomas Misson’s Dear Jon Kabat-Zinn, which was commissioned by Deng for last year’s concert.

“Thomas was inspired by the practice of mindfulness meditation, as well as composers like Morton Fieldman, who use finite musical materials with subtle changes that create a sound world,” Deng said.

The concert will begin with Karen Smithies and Amanda Hodder playing an arrangement of Mozart’s for two pianos and four hands, and will conclude with Deng and Smithies performing an arrangement of RimskyKorsakoff’s Flight of the Bumblebee.

The Piano in Stereo concert will be held in the Conservatorium Recital Hall on Sandy Bay Rd from 1pm tomorrow. Tickets are $10, available from www.utas.edu.au/music

— PENNY THOW musical evenings featuring works by Ignace Pleyel, Francois Devienne and Anton Hoffmeister.

“Gordon Kerry was a flute player and understands the instrument very well,” Mitchell said. “While this piece has its difficulties, it lies very well on the instrument. It flows very nicely and there are some great colours in the orchestra.

“The wind writing is fantastic. Towards the end there is a lovely duo between the orchestra flute and the solo flute. There is also some great dialogue between the flute and the orchestra.

“He really evokes the Australian countryside with bird calls, the idea of travel and a sense of the sea.

“There are snippets of the Baroque music Flinders might have played on Mauritius to bring back memories of home and his wife.”

The TSO’s The Calming Sea concert — which will also feature Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, and Schumann’s Symphony No.1 — will be held at the Federation Concert Hall from 2.30pm on Saturday. Tickets start at $32, go to www.tso.com.au or phone 1800 001 190 for bookings.

— PENNY THOW