Alumni on Tour
ENSEMBLE Peregrine is a quintet of musicians who are alumni of the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), Australia’s premiere institution for classical music performance training. Featuring pianist Gladys Chua and four wind players from major world orchestras, Ensemble Peregrine has been brought together by the ANAM Artists Program for a national tour, visiting Dubbo next Friday, July 27.
These five musicians have already made their way in the world of music as high-achieving concert artists, and are coming together from their home bases of Melbourne, Perth, Vancouver and Luxembourg exclusively for this tour.
The wind players are Jack Schiller – Principal Bassoon Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Hutchinson – Associate Principal Oboe Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Alex Morris – Assistant Principal Clarinet Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and Andrew Young – French Horn Orchestra Philharmonie Luxembourg.
GLADYS CHUA, the fifth member of the quintet and one of Australia’s busiest freelance pianists, writes about the four chamber works Ensemble Peregrine perform on their tour, and also explains the origins of the group’s name.
THE Latin verb peregrinari has the sense of travelling abroad, or away from home. This seems apt for our ensemble of five friends from different states across Australia and New Zealand, who met in Melbourne and are now based in four cities around the world.
During our years of overlapping study at Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), we all played in a large number of orchestral and chamber music projects. But this is the first time all five of us play together in the one ensemble.
Our concert program for
this tour presents two firmly established favourites of the piano and wind repertoire, and two contemporary pieces. At the centre is Mozart’s Quintet for Piano and Winds, completed and premiered in Vienna in 1784. Mozart wrote to his father, “I myself consider it to be the best thing I have written in my life.” Never before had such a chamber work been written for this combination, resulting in a gracefulness, appeal and versatility equal to that of the much more established piano and string quintet combination.
Commissioned by the Orchestral Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, Jörg Widmann’s Quintet was written in 2006, and is a deliberate tribute to the Mozart quintet. In contrast to Mozart’s classical four movement structure, Widmann’s work comprises 18 short miniatures, of which we will present selections. Both traditional and extended techniques for each instrument are employed, inviting both the performers as interpreters and the listener into a contemporary sound world.
The Trio for oboe, clarinet and piano by French composer Francis Poulenc has a special place in my heart, with fond memories of performing it with another oboist Georgina Roberts and fellow Ensemble Peregrine member, bassoonist Jack Schiller at the 2012 ANAM Chamber Music Competition final. This piece is full of quirkiness, nostalgia and moments of imagining we are promenading down the Champs-élysées in Paris.
One of the qualities instilled in us while studying at ANAM is a strong commitment to music of our time and place. In 2011, then-artistic Director Paul Dean established ‘Australian Voices’, a series at the Melbourne Recital Centre featuring the music of Australian composers. We were able to discuss the music with the composer, and my ears were opened to the diverse musical language of our own country.
Ensemble Peregrine will perform Morning Star II by Sydney-based Paul Stanhope. This piece weaves minimalist textures with influences of Australian Aboriginal music, and led to Stanhope being awarded the 2MBS-FM Young Composer Award in 1993.
For each member of Ensemble Peregrine, chamber music is perhaps the most satisfying music-making of all, where the overall outcome is greater than the sum of its parts. Having plotted some years ago to find a project that draws us together from across the globe, we are thrilled to have this opportunity to perform these works on our tour.
Tickets for the ENSEMBLE PEREGRINE concert on Fri, July 27, 7.30pm are on sale now at Macquarie Conservatorium, or book online at www.123tix.com. Visit www.macqcon.org.au for more info and booking details.