G.F.Handel: Songs OF LOVE AND LONGING
Georg Frideric Handel (1685-1759) is the baroque era’s theatre composer extraordinaire, whose 42 operas and two-dozen oratorios refined the art of bringing human emotion alive in music. He brought Italian musical fashions to a London audience. Writing to the strengths of the greatest singers of his era, he composed arias in which dazzling vocal fireworks sat cheek by jowl with moments of heart-stopping beauty.
The wonderful Soprano Gaynor Morgan with Tenor Geof Webb present a bouquet of selected Arias and Duets from the composers Oratorios and Operas. Accompanied by Margaret Connolly (Violin), Daniel Curro (Baroque Cello) and Peter Roennfeldt (Harpsichord) the ensemble presents an authentic performance of Baroque Music.
A Suite for Violin and Continuo and a Suite for Harpsichord complement an exquisite afternoon of G.F.Handel live in Ballina.
GAYNOR MORGAN, SOPRANO, GEOF WEBB, TENOR, BAROQUE ENSEMBLE, BRISBANE
DATE & TIME
SUNDAY, 1 September
3:00 – 4:30 PM
TICKETS
GENERAL $25
CONCESSION $20
GEOF WEBB, Tenor
Growing up in Melbourne and Adelaide, Geof can’t remember a time he wasn’t singing. His teachers and mentors include David Ashton Smith (Melbourne), Jenny Morgan (London) and Gaynor Morgan (Gold Coast).
He has performed with Melbourne Chamber Choir, Coro Innominata (Sydney) and Vox Caldera (Lismore) and in NORPA’s Railway Wonderland (2012 & 2015) and The Events (2018). In 2016 he joined Opera Queensland Community chorus for The Barber of Seville (2016) and played Gherardo in Gianni Schicchi for Opera Gold Coast (2019).
He has also featured as a soloist with Byron Music Society, Amatori, the Coolamon Singers and in various recitals and concerts in Southeast Queensland and Northern NSW.
Gaynor Morgan, SOPRANO
Gaynor Morgan studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, and at the European Opera Centre in Belgium.
She made her UK debut for Glyndebourne Touring Opera, under the direction of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and was then invited to make her Glyndebourne Festival Opera under Sir Andrew Davis.
Gaynor performed roles throughout the UK with English Touring Opera, for the Cheltenham Festival, the Music Theatre London. She also made her debut with Kammerspieltheater in Hamburg and in France with Jean-Claude Malgloire and the Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing.
As a concert solist Gaynor has performed at major concert venues throughout the UK and was a soprano soloist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra.
In 2005, Gaynor made her Australian Operatic debut with Opera Queensland and has since covered roles for Opera Australia in Melbourne and Sydney.
MARGARET CONNOLLY, VIOLIN
Margaret studied with Jan Sedivka in Hobart at the Tasmanian Conservatorium and Günther Pichler in Vienna. After playing with the Wiener Volksoper, and with other ensembles throughout Europe and in Japan, Margaret returned Australia to join the New England String Quartet, ensemble-in-residence at the University of New England, Armidale. After moving to Brisbane, she was a member of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra for 25 years, during which time she made many guest appearances with other ensembles and toured with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. She then ceased full-time orchestral work to pursue various teaching, chamber music and early music activities. Margaret is a core member with the Badinerie Players and in various chamber music configurations at Queensland Conservatorium, where for many years she held part-time teaching and tutoring roles. With the Merlin Ensemble she has also tutored and performed regularly at the Mt Buller Summer School. She also has a successful private teaching studio and since 2015 has been regularly invited to play with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
DANIEL CURRO, BAROQUE CELLO
Daniel studied with Helen Holt, Matthew Farrell, Rosanne Hunt and Howard Penny. As principal cellist for four years of the Queensland Youth Symphony, Dan toured Japan, Korea, Austria, Germany and Italy. He has also played baroque cello with Brisbane’s Badinerie Players and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra based in Sydney. Dan has worked extensively with the former Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra and during 2007 was full-time with The Queensland Orchestra, including a period as principal cellist. As a very active freelance musician he has been engaged by organisations such as the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne, and as concerto soloist with the Queensland Youth Symphony. His primary focus as a chamber musician is the historically informed performance of 19th-century music. Since 2006, Dan and his sisters Monica and Sarah, with various violists, have performed as the Veltheim Quartet. He also plays much experimental and contemporary music, appearing as cellist with artists such as Katie Noonan, as bass guitarist with Oxford Parker, or as vocalist with his own group, Plub.
PETER ROENNFELDT, HARPSICHORD
Peter performs regularly with period instrument and vocal ensembles, performing a wide range of chamber music repertoire. In the past has also directed choirs including the Brisbane Chorale, Cantilena Singers and Queensland Conservatorium groups. In addition to preparing much symphonic repertoire as chorusmaster, Peter has directed many baroque works including several local or Australian premieres of lesser known works. He is also founder-director of Soirées Musicales Quintette which performs mostly romantic- era vocal chamber music in heritage venues. A graduate of Queensland and Adelaide universities, Peter studied in the USA in Boston and Cincinnati, gaining a Doctor of Musical Arts. His doctoral studies included advanced harpsichord studies with Eiji Hashimoto, a former student of the Scarlatti scholar Ralph Kirkpatrick. For over thirty years Peter lectured at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, where he served as Director for seven years and currently as Emeritus Professor. Peter’s research specialty is Queensland’s musical heritage, with six books and numerous articles published in recent decades. He regularly presents specially themed programs for 4MBS Classic FM, including the ‘Baroque Hotspots’ which ran to fifty individual programs over six series.
Harpsichord PLAYED IN THIS CONCERT
French double harpsichord built by Alastair McAllister in 1975. It is a copy of a harpsichord built in 1756 by Johann Heinrich Hemsch (1700 – 1769) It has 8, 8, 4 registers, buff, manual coupler and transposes X 2 notes. Although the 1756 original is painted, this solid timber case is veneered in Afrormosia (dark) and Sycamore (light) which is reversed in the keywell. The stand is solid Afrormosia. The soundboard is Spruce. The jacks and plectra are Delron. The instrument was said by harpsichord maker Bill Bright to be much admired by Gustav Leonhardt, an internationally famous harpsichordist.