Bernadette Harvey Launches The Sonata Project

Renowned Australian pianist Bernadette Harvey launches the Sonata Project performing new works for the piano that she has commissioned by gifted Australian composers – three of them women. Her performance reaches back to the sensuous Romantic age to forge a whole new way for contemporary audiences to enjoy classical piano music.

For the inaugural concert, three sonatas have been composed by rising Australian stars: Aristea Mellos, Jane Stanley and Melody Eötvös. The fourth work is by internationally renowned and much-loved composer Ross Edwards. The first Sonata Project CD will also be launched on the evening of the concert.

Bernadette will showcase these compositions in a series of twilight concerts, breaking established conventions of the piano recital. The opulence of the romantic music salons will be captured by the design of Lynne Bradley Interiors with compelling floral arrangements by Myra Perez of My Violet framing the paintings of artist Lara Merrett. This will be no formal piano recital.

“Audiences of that time went to concerts expecting to be entertained,” Bernadette maintains. “They swooned over the clothes Liszt wore; the ambience of the luxurious salon surroundings of the rich and famous – these were all as important to European music lovers as the exciting “new music” which Liszt and his contemporaries were bringing them!”

A multi-award winner, including Young Performer of the Year, the Australian Centenary Medal, international piano competitions – and with numerous CD recordings to her name – Bernadette Harvey is also a master teacher based at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Tickets: $50, $35 conc, $15 students.

Bookings and info www.bernadetteharvey.com