Australian Art Song comes home

Art Song NSW presents the very newest in Art Song repertoire this weekend in the Australian Connection which will feature soprano Merlyn Quaife, outstanding in her role as Betty in Opera Australia’s 2009 production of Bliss. Performing with her is pianist Andrea Katz. 

Quaife’s extraordinary talents have taken her to traditional roles like Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, the Queen of the Night, the Flower Maiden 1 in Parsifal. However her niche lies in the interpretation of contemporary music, having performed roles like the minimalist Chiang Ch’ing in  Adams’ Nixon in China and Medea in Gordon Kerry’s opera of the same name, along with other contemporary music credits which include Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine, Shostakovitch’s Symphony No 14 with the Sydney Symphony, Britten’s War Requiem with the Berliner Capella, Schoenberg’s  String Quartet No 2 with the Arditti String Quartet for the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts and the Goldner Quartet for the Adelaide Festival, Sibelius’ Luonnotar and Rachmaninof’s The Bell. 

In her Sydney, art song recital The Australian Connection, Merlyn Quaife will perform the songs of Percy Grainger, Roger Heagney, Keith Humble and Stuart Greenbaum, and a new song cycle written for her by Gordon Kerry, .

 This is Art Song NSW’s final concert for the year and in a sense, it is a coming home after several years of  exciting travels in Art Song around the world. It also represents the growing body of mature, Australian Art Song of recital calibre. 

Tickets: $30  ($20 conc) including program and refreshments.  To book call 0431 892 508  or purchase at the door. 

The winner of the raffle for the framed portrait of Dame Joan Sutherland accompanied by a framed autograph (“Best wishes, Joan Sutherland”) will be drawn.

Raffle tickets ($10) still available and on sale at the concert or if you can’t attend the concert call 0431 892 508 to be in the draw. 

Also a Dinner Voucher to the wonderful Alfredo Italian Restaurant  to the value of $150. Tickets on sale at the door or by ringing 0431 892 508