‘Blossom and Grow’ with Selby and Friends
In their opening Sydney concert for 2013, Blosson and Grow, Selby and Friends showcase the piano in a trio, a quartet and a quintet, performing music drawn from the last 250 years. Mozart’s Classical approach in the Piano Trio in G major, KV 564, is followed by Fauré’s impressionistic Piano Quartet No.1 in C minor, Op.15. The concert ends with a Romantic era chamber work, Dvořák’s Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81, one of the most popular piano quintets of all time.
British violinist, Elizabeth Layton and US cellist Clancy Newman make welcome return appearances, joining founder and Artistic Director of Selby and Friends, pianist Kathryn Selby. They’re joined by newcomers Tobias Breider (Principal Viola with the Sydney Symphony) and special guest violinist 14 year old Grace Clifford, the first Selby and Friends Development Artist.
Selby and Friends Development Artist programme is an initiative that provides young musicians with the unique opportunity of being mentored by professional ensemble performers. “I am very excited by how much I am going to learn from the experience of touring with Selby & Friends. I am looking forward to working with incredible professional musicians and challenging myself to measure up to them” says Grace.
Describing Selby and Friends’ seventh year, Kathryn Selby says “The 2013 season is a celebration of many favourite masterworks.”
Kathryn Selby began her piano studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and moved on to the Curtis Institute of Music and Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia. She obtained her Master’s degree from New York’s Juilliard School. She has toured widely both in Australia and overseas performing with the American Chamber Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra Chamber Group. She has made several recordings and is the recipient of both the Churchill and Australia Council Fellowships.
London born violinist Elizabeth Layton studied at the Yehudi Menuhin and Juilliard Schools. She has toured and recorded extensively with the Nash Ensemble, giving concerts around the world. In 1997 Elizabeth was appointed Associate Leader of the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and in 1999, became concertmaster of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Elizabeth now lives in Adelaide, where she is Guest Leader of a number of state symphony orchestras and also teaches at the Elder Conservatorium of Music.
Cellist Clancy Newman won the first prize of the Walter W. Naumburg International Competition in 2001 and was presented by Naumburg in recital at the Lincoln Centre. He was also named the recipient of a 2004 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Born in Albany, New York, Clancy began playing the cello at the age of six. At twelve he received his first significant public recognition when he won the Gold Medal for Strings at the Dandenong Youth Festival in Australia, competing against instrumentalists twice his age. In the years that followed, he won numerous other competitions, including the Juilliard School Cello Competition.
Violist Tobias Breider was born in Münster, Germany, and studied violin and piano from the age of six. He studied chamber music with the Alban Berg Quartet and the Juilliard String Quartet among others. He has performed at festivals in Ravinia, Schleswig-Holstein, OCM Cornwall, Music at Plush (Dorset), Sarasota and Muzik3 (California). Currently Principal Violist with the Sydney Symphony, Tobias was a full-time member of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra for seven years and has held positions in the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Grace Clifford commenced lessons aged 4 1/2 years with Katie Betts. By the of age 10 she had completed the final level of the Suzuki method. In 2009 she was accepted into the Rising Stars program at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where she began studying with Robin Wilson. Grace is the recipient of the Robert Pikler Scholarship awarded to a promising string student at the Sydney Conservatorium, and of the 4th prize in the Junior Section of the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition held in 2012 in Beijing. Grace is in Year 8 at Abbotsleigh Girls School in Sydney, where she holds a music scholarship
Tickets: Full price adult $58/Seniors $53/Student/pensioner $42/Under 30 $34
Season subscription $232/Senior subscription $212/Under 30 subscription $136
Tickets call phone 1300 511 099 or click here to book.
PROGRAM
W A Mozart Piano Trio in G major, KV 564
Gabriel Fauré Piano Quartet No.1 in C minor, Op.15
Antonin Dvořák Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81, B. 155
Can’t catch Blossom and Grow in Sydney? You can hear the concert in Canberra at the Fairfax Theatre, National Gallery of Australia on Monday 18 February, 7:30pm and in the Southern Highlands at the Performing Arts Centre, Chevalier College on Saturday 23 February at 5:00pm
