Esmé Quartet | April 2024
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<strong>Esmé</strong> <strong>Quartet</strong>
2
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the many lands on which we meet,<br />
work and live, and we pay our respects to Elders past and present – people who<br />
have sung their songs, danced their dances and told their stories on these lands<br />
for thousands of generations, and who continue to do so.<br />
ESMÉ QUARTET<br />
WONHEE BAE<br />
violin I<br />
YUNA HA<br />
violin II<br />
DIMITRI MURRATH<br />
viola<br />
YEEUN HEO<br />
cello<br />
ADELAIDE<br />
ADELAIDE TOWN HALL<br />
Wednesday 1 May, 7.30pm<br />
Recorded for broadcast by ABC Classic<br />
• Pre-concert talk: 6.45pm,<br />
Prince Alfred Room<br />
BRISBANE<br />
CONSERVATORIUM THEATRE,<br />
GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY, SOUTH BANK<br />
Monday 13 May, 7pm<br />
Recorded for broadcast by 4MBS Classic FM<br />
• Pre-concert talk: 6.15pm,<br />
Boardroom, Qld Conservatorium,<br />
Griffith University<br />
• Meet the Artists after the concert<br />
CANBERRA<br />
LLEWELLYN HALL,<br />
ANU SCHOOL OF MUSIC<br />
Friday 10 May, 7pm<br />
• Pre-concert talk: 6.15pm,<br />
Larry Sitsky Room<br />
• Meet the Artists after the concert<br />
MELBOURNE<br />
ELISABETH MURDOCH HALL,<br />
MELBOURNE RECITAL CENTRE<br />
Tuesday 14 May, 7pm<br />
• Pre-concert talk: 6.15pm,<br />
Salzer Suite, Level 2<br />
NEWCASTLE<br />
CITY HALL<br />
Tuesday 7 May, 7.30pm<br />
• Pre-concert talk: 6.45pm,<br />
Mulubinba Room<br />
• Meet the Artists after the concert<br />
PERTH<br />
PERTH CONCERT HALL<br />
Monday 29 <strong>April</strong>, 7.30pm<br />
• Pre-concert talk: 6.45pm,<br />
Corner Stage Riverside, Terrace Level<br />
SYDNEY<br />
CITY RECITAL HALL<br />
Monday 6 May, 7pm<br />
• Pre-concert talk: 6.15pm,<br />
Function Room, Level 1<br />
With special thanks to Bruce & Charmaine Cameron for their support of this tour,<br />
and to the Directors’ Circle and Amadeus Society for their support of the <strong>2024</strong> Concert Season.<br />
3
From the Artistic Director<br />
There are certain works I turn to when checking<br />
out new artists or ensembles. For a pianist<br />
I’ll listen to Chopin’s Nocturne, Op. 48 No. 1.<br />
A violinist has nowhere to hide – and plenty<br />
of opportunity to shine – in the Franck Sonata<br />
or a Bach solo Partita. For string quartets, it’s<br />
Mendelssohn No. 6 or Schubert’s Death and<br />
the Maiden, each a perfect essay in form and<br />
voicing.<br />
© Darren Leigh Roberts<br />
It was therefore a joy some years ago to<br />
stumble across the <strong>Esmé</strong> <strong>Quartet</strong> playing this<br />
Mendelssohn; I didn’t have to go digging to<br />
find these young players in this most exposing<br />
piece. Immediately I was struck by the quartet’s<br />
compelling combination of tenderness and<br />
steeliness, of the infinite care each player took<br />
over phrasing, of the beautiful sound of the<br />
whole.<br />
It’s therefore a delight to welcome the quartet to<br />
Australia for the first time and in such a gorgeous<br />
program including an earlier Mendelssohn<br />
quartet. Webern’s progenitor in Langsamer<br />
Satz was more Brahms than Mendelssohn, but<br />
this exquisite miniature sits happily alongside<br />
both Mendelssohn and Debussy, composed only<br />
twelve years after the latter.<br />
Down a rabbit hole similar to the one in which<br />
I found the <strong>Esmé</strong> <strong>Quartet</strong>, I stumbled across<br />
the music of the young Australian composer<br />
Jack Frerer. His orchestral scores for New York<br />
City Ballet and the Kennedy Center Opera<br />
Orchestra are a riotous exploration of sonority<br />
and virtuosity. It was a real pleasure to introduce<br />
Spiral Sequences to the <strong>Esmé</strong> <strong>Quartet</strong>, which<br />
they took on with alacrity. The piece is the perfect<br />
gateway to a composer we will hear much from<br />
for years to come.<br />
Paul Kildea<br />
Artistic Director<br />
4
Program<br />
Anton WEBERN (1883–1945)<br />
Langsamer Satz (Slow Movement) (1905)<br />
9 min<br />
Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847)<br />
String <strong>Quartet</strong> No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13 (1827)<br />
I<br />
II<br />
III<br />
IV<br />
Adagio (Slow) – Allegro vivace (Fast and lively)<br />
Adagio non lento (Slow but not too slow)<br />
Intermezzo: Allegretto con moto (A little quickly, moving along)<br />
– Allegro di molto (Very fast)<br />
Presto (Quick) – Adagio non lento (Slow but not very slow)<br />
31 min<br />
INTERVAL<br />
Jack FRERER (b 1995)<br />
Spiral Sequences (2018)<br />
I Wildly intense, with pulse and momentum<br />
II Legato (Smooth), tender<br />
14 min<br />
Claude DEBUSSY (1862–1918)<br />
String <strong>Quartet</strong> in G minor, Op. 10 (1893)<br />
I<br />
II<br />
III<br />
IV<br />
Animé et très décidé (Fast and very determined)<br />
Assez vif et bien rythmé (Quite quick and very rhythmic)<br />
Andantino, doucement expressif<br />
(Moving along at an easy walking pace, gently expressive)<br />
Très modéré (At a very moderate pace) – En animant peu à peu<br />
(Gradually getting faster) – Très mouvementé et avec passion<br />
(Very lively and with passion)<br />
25 min<br />
Please ensure that mobile phones are turned to silent and onto flight mode before the performance.<br />
Photography and video recording are not permitted during the performance.<br />
5
2 O24<br />
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musicaviva.com.au 1800 688 482
Masterclasses<br />
Musica Viva Australia creates opportunities<br />
for Australian and internationally acclaimed<br />
artists to share their experience and<br />
expertise with talented early-career artists<br />
and young music students, creating an<br />
enriching learning experience.<br />
The following masterclasses are<br />
presented as part of this tour:<br />
• Tuesday 30 <strong>April</strong>: Perth<br />
The University of Western Australia<br />
— Yeeun Heo<br />
• Monday 6 May: Sydney<br />
Sydney Conservatorium of Music,<br />
The University of Sydney<br />
— <strong>Esmé</strong> <strong>Quartet</strong><br />
• Monday 13 May: Brisbane<br />
The University of Queensland<br />
— Yeeun Heo<br />
Yeeun Heo will give Cello Masterclasses in Perth and Brisbane, and<br />
is joined by her colleagues for a <strong>Quartet</strong> Masterclass in Sydney.<br />
© Jeremy Visuals<br />
Musica Viva Australia’s Masterclass<br />
program is supported by:<br />
Nicholas Callinan AO & Elizabeth Callinan<br />
Caroline & Robert Clemente<br />
Ian Frazer AM & Caroline Frazer<br />
Patricia H Reid Endowment Fund<br />
Andrew Sisson AO & Tracey Sisson<br />
Mick & Margaret Toller<br />
Anonymous (2)<br />
Musica Viva Australia Masterclasses in Western<br />
Australia are supported by Wesfarmers Arts.<br />
—<br />
For further details visit:<br />
musicaviva.com.au/masterclasses<br />
Satsuki Odamura’s Masterclass in Melbourne, 2023.<br />
© Musica Viva Australia<br />
Regional Touring<br />
As part of Musica Viva Australia’s Regional<br />
Touring Program, the <strong>Esmé</strong> <strong>Quartet</strong> will<br />
perform a concert for Musica Viva Tasmania<br />
on Friday 3 May, 7.30pm at Hobart Town<br />
Hall.<br />
—<br />
For further details visit:<br />
musicaviva.com.au/regional<br />
Elisabeth Brauss’ Masterclass in Brisbane, 2023.<br />
© Janet McKay<br />
7
Q<br />
<strong>Esmé</strong><br />
© Jeremy Visuals<br />
8
uartet<br />
9<br />
Praised for its warm sound and powerful<br />
stage presence, the <strong>Esmé</strong> <strong>Quartet</strong> was<br />
formed in 2016 at the Hochschule für Musik<br />
in Cologne, Germany by four musicians<br />
who had been friends since their youth. It<br />
takes its name ‘<strong>Esmé</strong>’ from the old French<br />
word for ‘beloved.’<br />
The <strong>Quartet</strong> has rapidly gained a<br />
worldwide reputation as a chamber<br />
ensemble of exceptional artistry and<br />
achievement. In 2018, the <strong>Quartet</strong> won<br />
First Prize as well as sweeping four special<br />
prizes at the prestigious Wigmore Hall<br />
International String <strong>Quartet</strong> Competition<br />
in London, and in the same year it became<br />
HSBC Laureate of the Académie du Festival<br />
d’Aix. This recognition followed prizes at<br />
the Trondheim International Chamber<br />
Music Competition and the 55th Possehl<br />
Music Prize of the Lübeck College of<br />
Music. In October 2020, the <strong>Quartet</strong> was<br />
awarded the inaugural Hans Gál Prize by<br />
the Academy of Sciences and Literature<br />
Mainz and Villa Musica Rheinland-Pfalz,<br />
and in the 2020–21 season it was Artist<br />
in Residence at the Lotte Concert Hall in<br />
Seoul, South Korea.<br />
Recent performances include appearances<br />
at the Lucerne Festival, Wigmore Hall,<br />
the Flagey Musiq3 Festival in Brussels,<br />
L’Auditori in Barcelona, Opéra de Lille,<br />
McGill International String <strong>Quartet</strong><br />
Academy in Montreal, the Heidelberg<br />
String <strong>Quartet</strong> Festival, Classic Esterházy<br />
in Eisenstadt and as quartet in residence at<br />
the Aix-en-Provence Festival.<br />
In 2022 the <strong>Quartet</strong> made its highly<br />
acclaimed debut tour of the United States<br />
and Canada, followed by its debut tour<br />
of Japan. Recent highlights include a tour<br />
of Italy, and return engagements to the<br />
Musiq3 Festival and Wigmore Hall, along<br />
with concerts in Germany and Portugal.<br />
The <strong>Esmé</strong> <strong>Quartet</strong> performed John<br />
Adams’ Absolute Jest with the Hong Kong<br />
Philharmonic in February 2023, with the<br />
Gyeonggi Philharmonic at the Seoul Arts<br />
Center in <strong>April</strong> 2023, and mostly recently<br />
with the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra,<br />
with the composer conducting, in January<br />
this year. It performed Michel van der Aa’s<br />
The Book of Water with British actor Samuel<br />
West at the Hong Kong Arts Festival in<br />
February 2023, and has recently completed<br />
a US tour with 2017 Van Cliburn gold<br />
medallist Yekwon Sunwoo.<br />
The <strong>Quartet</strong> has released two CDs on the<br />
Alpha Classics label: To Be Loved, featuring<br />
works by Beethoven, Unsuk Chin and Frank<br />
Bridge, and named one of the best classical<br />
CDs of 2020 by WQRX Public Radio in New<br />
York City, and Yessori: Sound from the Past,<br />
with works by Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Soo<br />
Yeon Lyuh.<br />
Belgian-American violist Dimitri Murrath<br />
joined the Esme <strong>Quartet</strong> in <strong>April</strong> 2023.
About the music<br />
The seeds of Modernism were sown in<br />
Enlightenment soil and the fruits they would<br />
eventually bear would be stranger than<br />
anyone could have foreseen. In a letter of 1810<br />
from Bettina von Arnim to Goethe, Beethoven<br />
is reported as saying: ‘Music is a higher<br />
revelation than all wisdom and philosophy,<br />
it is the wine of a new procreation, and I am<br />
Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for<br />
men and makes them drunk with the spirit.’<br />
Brahms and Schoenberg would drink deep<br />
draughts from this brew. However, Anton<br />
Webern would experience his own epiphany<br />
under its intoxicating influence.<br />
with his 16-year-old cousin Wilhelmine Mörtl,<br />
whom he would marry six years later. While<br />
vying with Brahms in its soulful yearning,<br />
it inhabits a graceful space all its own. In<br />
traditional ternary (A–B–A) form and rooted<br />
in E major, this lyrical slow movement features<br />
impressively elegant manipulation of its widely<br />
arching themes, pointing both backward (to<br />
his doctoral thesis on the music of Heinrich<br />
Isaac) and forward (to his later atonal and<br />
serial masterpieces). Although performed<br />
privately at the time, it was not published until<br />
1961, since when it has been much performed<br />
and recorded.<br />
ADAPTED FROM A NOTE<br />
© STEPHEN SCHAFER<br />
‘My object,’ Webern wrote early in his career<br />
to Berg, ‘is the deep, bottomless, inexhaustible<br />
meaning in it all.’ He was describing his<br />
fascination with flowers. ‘I got to know a<br />
tiny plant, a little like a lily-of-the-valley,<br />
homely, humble, hardly noticeable, but<br />
for me it contains all tenderness, emotion,<br />
depth, purity…’ Much the same could be<br />
said of his approach to music. As late as<br />
1927, having written his first entirely twelvetone<br />
composition, the String Trio, Webern<br />
admitted to Schoenberg that he needed ‘time<br />
to understand what I have written’, the effort<br />
of composition ultimately depending upon, to<br />
borrow Dylan Thomas’s words, ‘the force that<br />
through the green fuse drives the flower’.<br />
The Langsamer Satz (Slow Movement) for<br />
string quartet was composed shortly after<br />
the 22-year-old Webern became the first<br />
of Schoenberg’s students. It was apparently<br />
inspired by a five-day walk through the<br />
picturesque southern Austrian countryside<br />
In the year that he composed his first<br />
acknowledged masterpieces, the String Octet<br />
and the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s<br />
Dream, the 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn’s<br />
family moved from the centre of Berlin out onto<br />
the periphery, on the Leipzigerstrasse. Set in<br />
park-like surrounds, the house was palatial,<br />
and Felix’s father Abraham Mendelssohn<br />
enjoyed the privilege of being lord of the<br />
manor, inviting many of Europe’s greatest<br />
minds in literature, science, philosophy and of<br />
course music to come and enjoy the famous<br />
Mendelssohn family hospitality.<br />
As might be expected given that his afterdinner<br />
conversations were not so much<br />
about Goethe and Schiller but in fact with<br />
Goethe and Schiller themselves, young Felix<br />
Mendelssohn was already more than willing<br />
10
to mix it with the masters. And that meant<br />
that in chamber music, his attention turned to<br />
Beethoven, and in particular to the great man’s<br />
at that time brand-new final string quartets.<br />
That in itself was remarkable because the<br />
general attitude at the time to these musical<br />
behemoths was that expressed most succinctly<br />
by Louis Spohr who described them as works<br />
of ‘indecipherable, uncorrected horror’.<br />
But just as with Bach, Mendelssohn simply<br />
‘got’ Beethoven long before any of his<br />
contemporaries did, and so with all the<br />
optimism, self-confidence and naked ambition<br />
of youth, the 18-year-old set out to create a<br />
string quartet of similar gravitas. That was<br />
terrible news for Mendelssohn’s mother, who<br />
kept pleading with her brilliant son to write<br />
bright and breezy piano music that the family’s<br />
guests could appreciate at first hearing. But<br />
encouraged by his sister Fanny, Mendelssohn<br />
was writing fugues of deliberately elaborate<br />
construction and then there emerged what<br />
would eventually become known as his String<br />
<strong>Quartet</strong> No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13, but which in<br />
chronological terms was actually his first such<br />
quartet.<br />
In the introduction, Mendelssohn quotes his<br />
own song ‘Ist es wahr?’ (Is it true?), which could<br />
equally be an echo of Beethoven’s ‘Muss en<br />
sein?’ from the Op. 135 <strong>Quartet</strong>. And from<br />
there the late-Beethoven references proceed<br />
apace, especially to the A minor <strong>Quartet</strong>,<br />
Op. 132 but also the Cavatina of Op. 130, with<br />
passing references to the Choral Symphony<br />
and the Archduke Trio along the way.<br />
While it would perhaps be unrealistic to<br />
expect quartets from a teenager from a<br />
privileged background to match the sheer<br />
transcendence-through-suffering that<br />
permeates Beethoven’s late quartets, there’s<br />
no doubting the intensity of the opening<br />
movement that Mendelssohn created, pausing<br />
only momentarily for breath and leading<br />
to a stormy coda. The slow movement with<br />
its unusual marking of Adagio non lento<br />
[both ‘Adagio’ and ‘Lento’ meaning ‘slow’,<br />
though ‘Lento’ is generally taken to be slower<br />
than ‘Adagio’] is perhaps the most striking<br />
illustration of the young composer aiming for<br />
the profundity of emotion of his Beethoven<br />
model.<br />
But if the late Beethoven had the monopoly on<br />
slow movements, the intermezzo which follows<br />
is pure Mendelssohn, once more on home turf<br />
with a lilting lyricism and a characteristically<br />
elfin middle section. And then, in textbook<br />
structure, the finale revisits themes from the<br />
earlier movements, and in particular the<br />
opening ‘Ist es wahr?’ motif.<br />
© MARTIN BUZACOTT<br />
© Julie Skarratt<br />
Described as ‘exciting … combining boomcrash<br />
orchestration with woozy portamenti and<br />
jazz elegance’ by the New York Times, and ‘a<br />
force to be reckoned with’ by Observer.com,<br />
the music of Australian composer Jack Frerer<br />
has been commissioned and performed by the<br />
New York City Ballet, the Albany, Nashville,<br />
Sarasota and New Jersey Symphony<br />
Orchestras, the Kennedy Center Opera<br />
Orchestra, the Australian Youth Orchestra,<br />
the Tanglewood Music Center, and the wind<br />
ensembles of University of Texas Austin,<br />
University of North Texas, Michigan and<br />
Cornell, among others. Jack is the recipient of<br />
a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American<br />
Academy of Arts and Letters, a Morton Gould<br />
Composers Award from ASCAP, the Suzanne<br />
and Lee Ettelson Composers Award, and the<br />
Brian Israel Prize from the Society for New<br />
Music. He has been a fellow at the Tanglewood<br />
Music Center, and Composer-in-Residence<br />
with the Arapahoe Philharmonic.<br />
11
The composer writes:<br />
Spiral Sequences is a string quartet performed<br />
in two movements. The first, the shorter of<br />
the two, is frantic and pulse-driven, carried<br />
by momentum generated by spiraling<br />
semiquaver patterns and repeated ostinatos. It<br />
presents fragments of a sequence-like pattern,<br />
which is played in its complete form at the<br />
beginning of a longer, introspective second<br />
movement. The first movement presents an<br />
inward spiral, constantly tightening. The<br />
second works to unravel it.<br />
© JACK FRERER 2018<br />
The idea of a string quartet by Claude<br />
Debussy could have a sense of ‘odd couple’<br />
peculiarity about it. We think of Debussy<br />
as a poet of musical colours and perfumes,<br />
who achieved a decisive liberation from<br />
the regulated structural conventions of the<br />
German musical hegemony, a hegemony<br />
that is strongly, proudly represented in the<br />
tradition of string quartets.<br />
Debussy’s String <strong>Quartet</strong> has a significant<br />
place in the composer’s career, and in the<br />
process of his liberation from German musical<br />
domination. Aged 30, Debussy was influenced<br />
at this time by César Franck (a Frenchman<br />
who was an apostle of German music), and<br />
was beginning to shake off his enthusiasm for<br />
Wagner. It is through the mediation of Franck<br />
that the shadow of Beethoven hovers over<br />
Debussy’s String <strong>Quartet</strong> – Beethoven’s late<br />
string quartets represented a musical ideal<br />
for Franck. Indeed, the second performance<br />
of Debussy’s <strong>Quartet</strong> was given in a series<br />
organised by Franck’s supporters, the Société<br />
Nationale de Musique, in programs heavily<br />
featuring Beethoven’s quartets. This second<br />
performance actually did more to raise<br />
Debussy’s stature in Parisian artistic circles than<br />
the premiere had.<br />
The <strong>Quartet</strong> shows Debussy striving to develop<br />
his own take on a ‘Beethovenian’ language<br />
but, as you’d expect, the differences are more<br />
telling than the similarities. Reaching back to<br />
Beethoven via Franck (and Franck’s influential<br />
student Vincent d’Indy), Debussy borrowed the<br />
idea of ‘cyclic form’, which basically required<br />
the repeated development or reinvention of<br />
the same thematic material throughout each<br />
movement of a piece. While the String <strong>Quartet</strong><br />
is, as a result, more integrated in terms of the<br />
structure of its themes than Debussy’s later<br />
work would be, Debussy is highly flexible<br />
and variable in the way he treats his melodic<br />
‘subjects’. There are elements of traditional<br />
sonata form’s thematic processes in the first<br />
movement, but Debussy plays so liberally with<br />
his themes that the formal aspects become<br />
quite secondary. He applies his notion of<br />
the melodic arabesque (the tendril-like<br />
elaboration of melodic lines) with splendid<br />
originality, making any ‘requirement’ for<br />
thematic cohesion almost irrelevant.<br />
On the harmonic plane, Debussy also<br />
emulates some of the ways in which Beethoven<br />
applied the relationships between keys<br />
as a means to forge an extended musical<br />
argument. But here again, the similarity<br />
becomes elusive: Debussy’s harmony<br />
was already heavily inspired by a modal<br />
conception, which doesn’t lend itself to the<br />
tensions of chromatic key relationships. The<br />
sonorous effect of harmonic movement within<br />
the <strong>Quartet</strong> is more important for Debussy.<br />
The String <strong>Quartet</strong> is one of the last pieces<br />
in which Debussy felt compelled to tangle<br />
with conventional forms. Afterwards, he<br />
pursued a far more liberated and individual<br />
sense of musical architecture, employing<br />
the discoveries made through the process of<br />
composing the String <strong>Quartet</strong>.<br />
© JAMES KOEHNE<br />
12
‘Uncanny delicacy in one<br />
episode and gnashing<br />
power the next’<br />
The New York Times<br />
Kirill<br />
Kirill Gerstein<br />
Gerstein<br />
Discover the art of the impossible when<br />
Kirill Gerstein, poet of the piano, scales new<br />
heights of virtuosity. From delicate nocturnes<br />
to bravura polonaises this philosopher showman<br />
takes us from much-loved landscapes to<br />
mysterious worlds where few dare to go.<br />
11–23 June musicaviva.com.au/gerstein<br />
1800 688 482 (no booking fees)
Interview<br />
BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE<br />
Claude Debussy was only 31 when he<br />
composed his first (and only) string<br />
quartet in 1893. Anton Webern composed<br />
Langsamer Satz for string quartet in 1905<br />
when he was 22. And Mendelssohn was<br />
just 18 years old when he composed his<br />
String <strong>Quartet</strong> No. 2 in A minor. In fact,<br />
every composer in this program was<br />
under 35 years old when they crafted<br />
these beautiful chamber works.<br />
For cellist Yeeun Heo, it’s a rare treat to<br />
perform the music of young composers who<br />
would evolve into the world’s most famous.<br />
‘For me, one of the joys of playing and<br />
listening to a famous composer’s early<br />
works is that I can reminisce about my past,’<br />
Yeeun says. Born in 1992, the virtuoso was in<br />
her early 20s when she embarked upon her<br />
own impressive career venture – the launch<br />
of <strong>Esmé</strong> <strong>Quartet</strong>. Founded in Germany in<br />
2016, the young group would quickly grow<br />
into a world-class chamber ensemble,<br />
marked by a global touring schedule and<br />
multiple competition wins.<br />
Three of <strong>Esmé</strong>’s founding players were<br />
born in Korea – Yeeun Heo, and violinists<br />
Yuna Ha and Wonhee Bae. Noting their<br />
shared backgrounds, Wonhee says they<br />
formed a special bond while studying<br />
together in Germany, before entering the<br />
music industry as a ‘young all-Asian female<br />
group to begin our career together’. In<br />
2018, they would become the first allwoman<br />
group to win the International<br />
String <strong>Quartet</strong> Competition at London’s<br />
Wigmore Hall.<br />
In 2023, the ensemble welcomed Belgian-<br />
American violist Dimitri Murrath, who<br />
recalls ‘From the first note playing together,<br />
it felt as if I had been playing with this<br />
group for many years.’<br />
‘There is really something about how<br />
all four of us can breathe together and<br />
seem to be on the same wavelength,’<br />
Dimitri says.<br />
Yeeun and Wonhee describe their<br />
connection in a similar way, saying<br />
their group feels like a family. And it’s a<br />
family in which meals are cooked and<br />
shared together, arm-wrestling matches<br />
are commonplace (Yeeun loses), and a<br />
good story yields a roaring laugh (even if<br />
Dimitri’s jokes fly under the radar).<br />
To Yuna, this closeness means that each<br />
player knows what the other is trying to<br />
communicate – ‘just by looking at each<br />
other, without having to say anything’.<br />
‘Every moment spent with these people<br />
has been special,’ Yuna says.<br />
These musicians have developed<br />
international reputations in such a short<br />
number of years, much like the composers<br />
on their program. Wonhee says they’ve<br />
always been interested in exploring<br />
composers’ ‘fresh take’ on the string<br />
quartet; their 2020 debut album<br />
To Be Loved featured some of the earliest<br />
music that Beethoven, Unsuk Chin and<br />
Frank Bridge had composed for this<br />
configuration. Now, as they present<br />
© Jeremy Visuals<br />
14
a young Mendelssohn’s string quartet, they<br />
are taken aback by the ‘range of emotions<br />
and the refinement of his craft’, according<br />
to Dimitri.<br />
Langsamer Satz is also ‘youthful in its<br />
romanticism’; Webern was in his early 20s<br />
when he wrote it, two decades before he<br />
would start incorporating the new 12-tone<br />
technique in his works. Dimitri speculates:<br />
‘Perhaps this program brings out different<br />
sides of being young – sometimes being<br />
bold, energised, but also at times unsure<br />
and trying to find yourself, like Webern<br />
was.’<br />
In addition to the Webern and<br />
Mendelssohn, the group performs the<br />
String <strong>Quartet</strong> in G minor by a 31-yearold<br />
Debussy (the only piece he completed<br />
in this form), and Spiral Sequences from<br />
composer Jack Frerer, who was born in<br />
1995.<br />
Jack, who grew up in Sydney, says he’s<br />
‘most excited about having a work featured<br />
by an Australian organisation – something<br />
that’s not a common occurrence for me.’<br />
Jack travelled to the United States close<br />
to a decade ago, pursuing a career that<br />
would see his music performed by the New<br />
York City Ballet among many American<br />
orchestras. With his work programmed in<br />
<strong>Esmé</strong>’s tour, Jack says, ‘It’s incredible to me<br />
that my music is now finding its way back<br />
home to Australia.’<br />
As Jack explains, Spiral Sequences focuses<br />
on ‘a chord progression that follows a<br />
specific pattern – one that eventually circles<br />
back to where it started’. But these patterns<br />
don’t always reach the destination you<br />
might expect. ‘Just as you’re getting into<br />
some sort of predictable pattern, the music<br />
takes a hard left. I really love that feeling as<br />
a listener,’ he says.<br />
Jack says Mendelssohn is a particularly<br />
noticeable influence in his music, which<br />
is based on ‘traditional Western classical<br />
idioms’. Yet Spiral Sequences is also<br />
scattered and chaotic, representing the<br />
bustling modern-day life of its composer.<br />
‘This piece evokes the feeling of a big city<br />
for me: patterns of streets and buildings,<br />
jarring juxtapositions, surprises around<br />
every corner.’<br />
Though he composed it for some stringplaying<br />
friends in New York (one of whom<br />
lived on the same floor of his Juilliard<br />
dormitory), Jack has been looking<br />
forward to <strong>Esmé</strong>’s take on his technically<br />
challenging work. ‘I feel a lot of excitement,<br />
and a great deal of trust in their work<br />
and artistry,’ Jack says. ‘This group can<br />
truly play anything, though. They always<br />
find that balance between virtuosity and<br />
emotionality, which is a balance I was<br />
striving for in this piece.’<br />
It’s a piece worthy of <strong>Esmé</strong>’s momentous<br />
Australian debut spanning eight cities.<br />
‘We are particularly grateful to Musica<br />
Viva Australia for organising this tour,’<br />
Wonhee says. ‘Organisations dedicated<br />
to presenting chamber music are rare<br />
and precious in this world.’<br />
15
ENSEMBLE<br />
PATRONS<br />
+<br />
CONCERT<br />
CHAMPIONS<br />
For nearly 80 years Musica Viva Australia has delivered tours of the highest calibre<br />
in concert halls throughout the country. At the heart of our touring program are our<br />
generous Ensemble Patrons and Concert Champions, whose extraordinary vision<br />
of supporting the finest possible Australian and international artists has<br />
enriched the lives of music lovers through live performance and online.<br />
Thank you for everything you do.<br />
For information about our Ensemble Patrons and Concert Champions programs, please contact:<br />
Zoë Cobden-Jewitt, Director of Development<br />
zcobden-jewitt@musicaviva.com.au<br />
0409 340 240
Patrons<br />
CUSTODIANS<br />
ACT Margaret Brennan, Clive & Lynlea Rodger,<br />
Ruth Weaver, Anonymous (3)<br />
NSW Catherine Brown-Watt PSM & Derek Watt,<br />
Jennifer Bott AO, Lloyd & Mary Jo Capps AM, Andrew &<br />
Felicity Corkill, Peter Cudlipp, Liz Gee, Suzanne Gleeson,<br />
David & Christine Hartgill, Annie Hawker, Elaine Lindsay,<br />
Trevor Noffke, Dr David Schwartz, Ruth Spence-Stone,<br />
Mary Vallentine AO, Deirdre Nagle Whitford, Richard<br />
Wilkins, Kim Williams AM, Megan & Bill Williamson,<br />
Ray Wilson OAM, Anonymous (12)<br />
QLD Anonymous (2)<br />
SA Monica Hanusiak-Klavins & Martin Klavins,<br />
Anonymous (4)<br />
TAS<br />
Kim Paterson QC, Anonymous<br />
VIC Elizabeth & Anthony Brookes,<br />
Julian Burnside AO QC, Ms Helen Dick, Robert Gibbs<br />
& Tony Wildman, Helen Vorrath, Anonymous (8)<br />
WA Graham Lovelock, Anonymous (4)<br />
LEGACY DONORS<br />
NSW The late Charles Berg, The late Stephen Center,<br />
The late Janette Hamilton, The late Dr Ralph Hockin in<br />
memory of Mabel Hockin, The late Geraldine Kenway,<br />
The late Kenneth W Tribe AC<br />
QLD<br />
The late Steven Kinston<br />
SA The late Edith Dubsky,<br />
In memory of Helen Godlee, The late Lesley Lynn<br />
VIC In memory of Anita Morawetz, The family of<br />
the late Paul Morawetz, The late Dr G D Watson<br />
WA<br />
Anonymous<br />
EDUCATION<br />
ENSEMBLE PATRONS<br />
To support the work of our 14 teaching ensembles<br />
which deliver childhood music education programs,<br />
Musica Viva Australia would like to acknowledge our<br />
Education Ensemble Patrons.<br />
Music in my Suitcase<br />
Valerie & Michael Wishart<br />
Game Day!<br />
Anonymous<br />
ENSEMBLE PATRONS<br />
Our artistic vision for <strong>2024</strong> is made possible thanks to<br />
the extraordinary generosity of our Ensemble Patrons,<br />
each of whom supports the presentation of an entire national<br />
tour for our <strong>2024</strong> Season.<br />
Long Lost Loves (and Grey Suede Gloves)<br />
Peter Griffin AM & Terry Swann,<br />
Ms Felicity Rourke & Justice François Kunc,<br />
Susie Dickson (supporting Anna Dowsley)<br />
<strong>Esmé</strong> <strong>Quartet</strong><br />
Bruce & Charmaine Cameron<br />
The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge<br />
Ensemble Patrons Ian Dickson AM & Reg Holloway<br />
Other Tour Support Kim Williams AM & Catherine Dovey<br />
Commissioning Donor Richard Wilkins<br />
Organ Scholar Patrons Ian & Cass George<br />
The Choristers’ Circle We thank all members for their<br />
support of each chorister<br />
Pekka Kuusisto & Gabriel Kahane<br />
Australian Music Foundation<br />
Ensemble Q & William Barton<br />
Ian & Caroline Frazer<br />
CONCERT CHAMPIONS<br />
The mainstage concerts of our <strong>2024</strong> Season are brought to life<br />
thanks to the generosity of our Concert Champions around the<br />
country.<br />
Brisbane Andrea & Malcolm Hall-Brown,<br />
Andrew & Kate Lister, Barry & Diana Moore,<br />
The Hon. Anthe Philippides SC, Anonymous (2)<br />
Canberra Andrew Blanckensee & Anonymous,<br />
Dr Ray Edmondson OAM & Sue Edmondson,<br />
Dr Suzanne Packer, Sue Terry & Len Whyte<br />
Melbourne Peter Lovell & Michael Jan, In memory of<br />
Paul Morawetz, Mark & Suzy Suss, The late Dr G D Watson,<br />
Youth Music Foundation Australia, Igor Zambelli<br />
Perth Jan James in memory of her sister Anne Wilding<br />
& Anonymous, Dr Robert Larbalestier AO,<br />
Deborah Lehmann AO & Michael Alpers AO,<br />
For Stephanie Quinlan (2), Valerie & Michael Wishart<br />
Sydney Pam Cudlipp, Jennifer Darin & Dennis Cooper,<br />
Dr Jennifer Donald & Mr Stephen Burford,<br />
Katherine & Reg Grinberg, Alison & Geoff Kerry,<br />
Ray Wilson OAM<br />
Taking Shape<br />
Ray Wilson OAM<br />
Da Vinci’s Apprentice<br />
Kay Vernon<br />
17
DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE<br />
Darin Cooper Foundation, Stephen & Michele Johns<br />
AMADEUS SOCIETY<br />
Tony Berg AM & Carol Berg, Tom Breen & Rachael<br />
Kohn AO, Dr Di Bresciani OAM, Ms Annabella Fletcher,<br />
Dr Annette Gero, Katherine & Reg Grinberg, Jennifer<br />
Hershon, Fred & Claire Hilmer, Penelope Hughes,<br />
Michael & Frédérique Katz, Dr Hadia Mukhtar,<br />
Philip Robinson, Andrew Rosenberg, Ray Wilson OAM<br />
EMERGING ARTISTS<br />
GIVING CIRCLE<br />
The Emerging Artists Giving Cricle is a group of<br />
generous donors whose collective support will enable<br />
the artistic development of the next generation of<br />
Australian chamber musicians.<br />
Nicholas Callinan AO & Elizabeth Callinan,<br />
Caroline & Robert Clemente, Patricia H. Reid Endowment<br />
Fund, Andrew Sisson AO & Tracey Sisson,<br />
Mick & Margaret Toller, Anonymous<br />
COMMISSIONS<br />
Musica Viva Australia is proud to support the creation<br />
of new Australian works through The Ken Tribe Fund<br />
for Australian Composition and The Hildegard Project.<br />
We are grateful to the following individuals and<br />
collectives for their generous support of this work:<br />
Alison & Geoff Kerry, D R & K M Magarey,<br />
The Hon. Anthe Philippides SC, Playking Foundation,<br />
Richard Wilkins<br />
Musica Viva Australia also thanks the Adelaide<br />
Commissioning Circle, the WA Commissioning Circle,<br />
and the Silo Collective for their support in bringing<br />
new Australian works to life.<br />
MAJOR GIFTS<br />
$100,000+<br />
NSW The Berg Family Foundation,<br />
Patricia H. Reid Endowment Fund, Anonymous<br />
QLD<br />
$50,000+<br />
ACT<br />
Ian & Caroline Frazer<br />
Marion & Michael Newman<br />
NSW Ian Dickson AM & Reg Holloway,<br />
J A Donald Family, Katherine & Reg Grinberg,<br />
Elisabeth Hodson & the late Dr Thomas Karplus<br />
$20,000+<br />
NSW Gardos Family, Michael & Frédérique Katz,<br />
Vicki Olsson, Kim Williams AM & Catherine Dovey<br />
QLD<br />
Andrea & Malcolm Hall-Brown<br />
VIC Mercer Family Foundation, The Morawetz Family<br />
in memory of Paul Morawetz, The Morawetz Family in<br />
memory of Anita Morawetz, Marjorie Nicholas OAM,<br />
Anonymous<br />
$10,000+<br />
ACT<br />
Craig Reynolds, Mick & Margaret Toller, Anonymous<br />
NSW Gresham Partners, Mrs W G Keighley,<br />
Anthony Strachan, Jo Strutt, Ray Wilson OAM in memory of<br />
James Agapitos OAM<br />
QLD<br />
SA<br />
Anonymous<br />
Jennifer & John Henshall<br />
VIC Dr Di Bresciani OAM & Lino Bresciani, Peter Lovell,<br />
In memory of Dr Ian Marks, Joy Selby Smith,<br />
Mark & Anna Yates<br />
WA Legacy Unit Trust, Deborah Lehmann AO<br />
& Michael Alpers AO, Prichard Panizza Family<br />
$5,000+<br />
ACT Goodwin Crace Concertgoers,<br />
Sue Terry & Len Whyte<br />
NSW Christine Bishop, Tom Breen & Rachael Kohn AO,<br />
Sarah & Tony Falzarano, Robert & Lindy Henderson,<br />
Robert & Lindy Henderson, David & Carole Singer,<br />
Diane Sturrock, Richard Wilkins<br />
QLD<br />
Anonymous<br />
SA Aldridge Family Endowment,<br />
Fiona MacLachlan OAM<br />
VIC Julian Burnside AO KC & Kate Durham,<br />
William J Forrest AM, Leanne Menegazzo, Bruce Missen,<br />
Greg Shalit & Miriam Faine, Youth Music Foundation<br />
Australia, Anonymous<br />
18<br />
WA<br />
David Wallace & Jamelia Gubgub
ANNUAL GIFTS<br />
$2,500+<br />
ACT Andrew Blanckensee, Kristin van Brunschot<br />
& John Holliday, Dr Andrew Singer, Anonymous<br />
NSW ADFAS Newcastle, Judith Allen, Maia Ambegaokar<br />
& Joshua Bishop, Susan Burns, Hon J C Campbell KC &<br />
Mrs Campbell, Thomas Dent, Dr Robyn Smiles,<br />
Hon. Professor Ross Steele AM, Dr Elizabeth Watson<br />
QLD<br />
SA<br />
Jocelyn Luck, Barry & Diana Moore<br />
DJ & EM Bleby<br />
VIC Jan Begg, Alastair & Sue Campbell, Dhar Family,<br />
Roger Druce & Jane Bentley, Anne Frankenberg &<br />
Adrian McEniery, Sing Off – Genazzano & surrounding<br />
schools, Lyndsey & Peter Hawkins, Angela &<br />
Richard Kirsner, Michael Nossal & Jo Porter, Ralph &<br />
Ruth Renard, Barry Robbins, Murray Sandland,<br />
Maria Sola, Wendy R Taylor, Helen Vorrath<br />
WA Dr Bennie Ng & Olivier David, Zoe Lenard<br />
& Hamish Milne, Mrs Morrell, Robyn Tamke<br />
$1,000+<br />
ACT The Breen/Dullo Family, Odin Bohr & Anna Smet,<br />
Liz & Alex Furman, Kingsley Herbert, Margaret &<br />
Peter Janssens, S Packer, Clive & Lynlea Rodger,<br />
Ruth Weaver, Anonymous (3)<br />
NSW Judith Allen, David & Rae Allen, Dr Warwick<br />
Anderson, Vicki Brooke, Hugh & Hilary Cairns,<br />
Richard Cobden SC, Trish & John Curotta, Thomas Dent,<br />
Nancy Fox AM & Bruce Arnold, John & Irene Garran,<br />
Charles & Wallis Graham, Kate Girdwood, Annie Hawker,<br />
Lybus Hillman, Dr Ailsa Hocking & Dr Bernard Williams,<br />
Dorothy Hoddinott AO, Mathilde Kearny-Kibble,<br />
Catharine & Robert Kench, Kevin & Deidre McCann,<br />
Professor Craig Moritz, Michael & Janet Neustein,<br />
Laurie Orchard, In memory of Katherine Robertson,<br />
Geoff Stearn, Graham & Judy Tribe, Kate Tribe, John<br />
& Flora Weickhardt, Anonymous (5)<br />
QLD Prof. Paul & Ann Crook, Stephen Emmerson,<br />
Robin Harvey, Lynn & John Kelly, Andrew & Kate Lister,<br />
Keith Moore, Barbara Williams & Jankees van der Have<br />
SA Ivan & Joan Blanchard, Richard Blomfield,<br />
Peter Clifton, Elizabeth Ho OAM in honour of the late<br />
Tom Steel, Dr Leo Mahar, Ruth Marshall & Tim Muecke,<br />
Geoff & Sorayya Martin, Ann & David Matison,<br />
Diane Myers, Leon Pitchon, Jennie Shaw, Anne Sutcliffe,<br />
Robert & Glenys Woolcock, Anonymous (2)<br />
Resonance Fund – Michael Cowen & Sharon Nathani,<br />
Ms Thea Sartori, Darren Taylor & Kent Stringer,<br />
Lyn Williams, Anonymous (2)<br />
WA Dr S Cherian, Michael & Wendy Davis, In memory<br />
of Raymond Dudley, Anne Last & Steve Scudamore,<br />
Hugh & Margaret Lydon, Marian Magee & David Castillo,<br />
Prof. Robyn Owens AM, Margaret & Roger Seares,<br />
Ruth Stratton, Christopher Tyler, Anonymous (4)<br />
$500+<br />
ACT Margaret Brennan, Christine Bollen,<br />
Christopher Clarke, Peter Cumines, Lesley Fisk, Jill Fleming,<br />
Robert Hefner, R & V Hillman, Margaret Lovell &<br />
Grant Webeck, Margaret Oates, Helen Rankin,<br />
Diana Shogren & Anne Buttsworth, Dr Paul &<br />
Dr Lel Whitbread, Anonymous<br />
NSW Alexandra Bune AM, Christopher & Margaret<br />
Burrell, Neil Burns, Robert Cahill & Anne Cahill OAM,<br />
Lloyd & Mary Jo Capps AM, Lucia Cascone, Robin &<br />
Wendy Cumming, Howard Dick, Dr Arno Enno &<br />
Dr Anna Enno, Bronwyn Evans, Anthony Gregg,<br />
The Harvey Family, David & Sarah Howell, Bruce Lane,<br />
Olive Lawson, Dr Colin MacArthur, D R & K M Magarey,<br />
Paul O’Donnell, Professors Robin & Tina Offler, Kim &<br />
Margie Ostinga, Trish Richardson in memory of<br />
Andy Lloyd James, Dr John Rogers, Penny Rogers,<br />
Peter & Heather Roland, Christopher Sullivan & Jim Lennon,<br />
Kathie & Reg Grinberg – In honour of Dalia Stanley’s<br />
birthday, Kay Vernon, Andrew Wells AM,<br />
Margaret Wright OAM, Anonymous (6)<br />
QLD Geoffrey Beames, Noela Billington, George Booker<br />
& Denise Bond, Janet Franklin, Prof. Robert G Gilbert,<br />
Timothy Matthies & Chris Bonnily, Anonymous (2)<br />
SA Max & Ionie Brennan, Zoë Cobden-Jewitt &<br />
Peter Jewitt, Elizabeth Hawkins, Dr Iwan Jensen,<br />
The Hon. Christopher Legoe AO QC & Mrs Jenny Legoe,<br />
Helga Linnert & Douglas Ransom, Trish Ryan &<br />
Richard Ryan AO, Tony Seymour, Anonymous (5)<br />
VIC David Bernshaw & Caroline Isakow,<br />
Coll & Roger Buckle, Pam Caldwell, Mary-Jane Gething,<br />
Dr Anthea Hyslop, Eda Ritchie AM, Maureen Turner,<br />
Anonymous (6)<br />
WA David & Minnette Ambrose, Jennifer Butement,<br />
Fred & Angela Chaney, Rachel & Bruce Craven,<br />
Russell Hobbs & Sue Harrington, Dr Penny Herbert<br />
in memory of Dunstan Herbert, Paula Nathan AO &<br />
Yvonne Patterson, John Overton, Lindsay & Suzanne Silbert,<br />
Anonymous (2)<br />
VIC Joanna Baevski, Russ & Jacqui Bate, Jan Begg,<br />
the late Marc Besen AC & the late Eva Besen AO,<br />
Jannie Brown, Alison & John Cameron, Mrs Maggie Cash,<br />
Alex & Elizabeth Chernov, Lord Ebury, Dr Glenys &<br />
Dr Alan French, Naomi & George Golvan KC, John &<br />
Margaret Harrison, Virginia Henry, Doug Hooley,<br />
Helen Imber, The Hon. Dr Barry Jones AC & Ms Rachel<br />
Faggetter, Angela Kayser, Angela Li, Janet McDonald,<br />
Ruth McNair AM & Rhonda Brown in memory of<br />
Patricia Begg & David McNair, June K Marks,<br />
Christopher Menz & Peter Rose, D & F Nassau,<br />
19
Concert Partners<br />
Perth Concert Series Sydney Morning Masters Series Musica Viva Australia at The Edge Series<br />
Major Project Partner<br />
Legal<br />
Chartered Accountants<br />
Piano & Tuning<br />
Media Partners<br />
Print Partner<br />
Wine Partner (act, nsw, qld, vic) Wine Partner (sa) Wine Partner (wa)<br />
Hotel Partner<br />
Hotel Partner<br />
Government Partners<br />
Musica Viva Australia is assisted by the<br />
Australian Government through Creative Australia,<br />
its principal arts investment and advisory body.<br />
Musica Viva Australia is supported<br />
by the NSW Government through<br />
Create NSW.<br />
Musica Viva Australia is a Not-for-profit Organisation<br />
endorsed by the Australian Taxation Office as a<br />
Deductible Gift Recipient and registered with the<br />
Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission<br />
(ACNC).<br />
Emerging Artists Partners<br />
Competitions<br />
Principal Partner<br />
Strategic Partner<br />
University Partner<br />
FutureMakers Lead Partner<br />
Key Philanthropic Partner<br />
Key Philanthropic Partner<br />
FutureMakers Residency Partner<br />
20
Education Partners<br />
Government Partnerships & Support<br />
National Education Supporters<br />
Anthony & Sharon Lee Foundation<br />
J A Donald Family<br />
Marion & Mike Newman<br />
In Schools Performance, Education & Professional Development<br />
• Aldridge Family Endowment • Godfrey Turner Memorial Music Trust<br />
• In memory of Anita Morawetz • Margaret Henderson Music Trust • Marsden Szwarcbord Foundation<br />
• Perpetual Foundation – Alan (AGL) Shaw Endowment • Grieve Family Fund<br />
National Music Residency Program<br />
The<br />
Benjamin<br />
Fund<br />
The Marian &<br />
E.H. Flack Trust<br />
Day Family<br />
Foundation<br />
• Aldridge Family Endowment • Carthew Foundation • Foskett Foundation<br />
• FWH Foundation • John & Rosemary MacLeod • Joy Selby Smith • Legacy Unit Trust<br />
• Lipman Karas • Seeley International • Anonymous Donors (3)<br />
21
Tributes<br />
Kenneth W Tribe<br />
(1914–2010)<br />
Kenneth Wilberforce Tribe was born<br />
in Sydney in 1914, the second of three<br />
children born to Cecil and Elizabeth<br />
Tribe. Having attended St Andrew’s<br />
Cathedral Choir School, Ken won<br />
scholarships to Sydney Church of<br />
England Grammar School (Shore), then<br />
to the University of Sydney to study Law,<br />
graduating in 1937 (music not being<br />
regarded as a viable occupation during<br />
that time of the Great Depression).<br />
Despite family responsibilities and an<br />
extremely demanding professional life,<br />
Ken soon began a pattern of engaging<br />
in activities outside of his profession; the<br />
most significant and long-standing of<br />
these associations was with Musica Viva<br />
Australia. In 1949 Ken joined Musica Viva<br />
Australia as Chairman of the executive<br />
and in 1966 took on the role of Artistic<br />
Director, which amalgamated with that<br />
of President in 1973. It was Ken’s initiative<br />
that created Musica Viva Australia’s<br />
National Board in 1980–81.<br />
Through the 1970s and 1980s Ken’s<br />
influence in Australian cultural life was<br />
far-reaching. He served on boards<br />
and committees for organisations<br />
including the Australia Council for<br />
the Arts, Canberra School of Music,<br />
Sydney College of the Arts, the NSW<br />
Arts Advisory Council, the Australian<br />
Opera and the Australian Broadcasting<br />
Commission, as it was then known.<br />
With apparently endless energy Ken<br />
also worked on the boards of a number<br />
of trusts, funds and in different capacities<br />
with a large number of arts bodies. Much<br />
of Ken’s value to the community over the<br />
years was ‘behind the scenes’ support,<br />
always pro bono.<br />
Ken retired from the Presidency of<br />
Musica Viva Australia in 1986 and was<br />
Patron until his death in July 2010. He<br />
maintained a visionary commitment<br />
to commissioning new music from<br />
Australian composers and his support<br />
has enabled new works by luminary<br />
composers including the late Richard<br />
Meale, the late Peter Sculthorpe, Ross<br />
Edwards, Carl Vine and Nigel Westlake.<br />
This commitment will continue to be<br />
honoured by Musica Viva Australia<br />
through the Ken Tribe Commemorative<br />
Fund for Australian Composers.<br />
It would be impossible to overstate Ken’s<br />
impact on the arts in Australia and on<br />
music especially. Our lives have been<br />
enriched because of his unique capacity<br />
to combine plain hard work with a vision<br />
of what things might be. As part of<br />
Musica Viva Australia for more than<br />
60 years, Ken’s influence was enormous.<br />
© GWEN BENNETT &<br />
MUSICA VIVA AUSTRALIA<br />
The concert on Monday 6 May in Sydney<br />
celebrates Ken Tribe’s contribution to Musica Viva Australia.<br />
22
Dr Graeme D Watson<br />
(1936–2004)<br />
Graeme Douglas Watson was born in<br />
England on 25 January 1936, the only<br />
child of Australian parents, Douglas and<br />
Jean Watson. He grew up in Adelaide,<br />
where he attended Scotch College<br />
and demonstrated outstanding ability,<br />
becoming dux of his school in humanities<br />
subjects, and topping the State in French<br />
at both Leaving and Leaving Honours<br />
levels.<br />
From 1953 to 1956 Graeme was a student<br />
at the University of Adelaide, graduating<br />
with first-class honours in French and<br />
German, and winning a PhD scholarship<br />
to the University of Paris. At the Sorbonne<br />
from 1957 to 1960, supervised by Pierre<br />
Moreau, he worked on the novels of<br />
Romain Rolland, and his defence of<br />
his thesis earned him a mention très<br />
honorable.<br />
Upon graduation, Graeme joined the<br />
French Department of Britain’s University<br />
of Birmingham and was soon promoted<br />
to lecturer. Then in 1964 he returned to<br />
Australia, to take up a lectureship in the<br />
Department of French at the University<br />
of Melbourne. There he became a senior<br />
lecturer in 1967, and there spent the rest<br />
of his academic career, until ill health<br />
curtailed it in 1989, ending it some years<br />
later.<br />
A brilliant scholar and gifted linguist,<br />
with Italian as well as French and<br />
German, Graeme Watson served for<br />
some years on the editorial board of the<br />
Australian Journal of French Studies.<br />
His own publications, though not many,<br />
conveyed acute insights. Graeme also<br />
had a wry sense of humour and a sharp<br />
wit; but the opportunities for others to<br />
relish these were rare, for throughout<br />
his life he was always extremely shy<br />
and self-effacing, and in his latter years<br />
became almost a recluse.<br />
Graeme Watson’s attachment to France<br />
and its culture embraced the works of<br />
French composers. His love of music<br />
had begun early, with piano study that<br />
made him an able pianist, and regular<br />
attendance at Musica Viva Australia<br />
concerts in Adelaide. His quiet support of<br />
Musica Viva Australia continued during<br />
his years in Melbourne and, at his death<br />
on 8 November 2004, his will bestowed<br />
upon Musica Viva Australia a munificent<br />
bequest for its lasting benefit.<br />
DR ANTHEA HYSLOP &<br />
PROF COLIN NETTELBECK<br />
The concert on Tuesday 14 May in Melbourne<br />
is dedicated to the memory of Dr Graeme Douglas Watson.<br />
23
Stories to inspire<br />
BY JESSICA NEGUS<br />
Strike A Chord <strong>2024</strong><br />
It is with great delight that Musica Viva<br />
Australia presents Strike A Chord for its<br />
fourth iteration in <strong>2024</strong>. Returning after<br />
a year’s hiatus following the Melbourne<br />
International Chamber Music Competition,<br />
the national chamber music competition<br />
forms an integral part of Musica Viva<br />
Australia’s education and emerging artist<br />
pipelines.<br />
Strike A Chord encourages school-aged<br />
musicians to discover and develop the<br />
joy of playing in small ensembles, with all<br />
levels of experience welcomed. Interested<br />
groups of 3 to 8 musicians from far corners of<br />
Australia can submit their entries online, with<br />
applicants also able to apply for a free onehour<br />
coaching session with one of Musica<br />
Viva Australia’s expert chamber musicians.<br />
Many past participants and prize winners<br />
of Strike A Chord continue to delight and<br />
wow audiences around the nation, using<br />
the competition as a springboard for<br />
their emerging artistic careers. Beatrice<br />
Colombis, part of the winning ensemble for<br />
the inaugural 2020 Competition, along with<br />
her brother and cousins, is currently studying<br />
violin at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music<br />
under Professor Goetz Richter. After winning<br />
the Sydney Conservatorium String Concerto<br />
Competition in 2022, Beatrice performed<br />
the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the<br />
Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra last<br />
year and will be joining the Australian<br />
Chamber Orchestra as an Emerging Artist<br />
for a second time in <strong>2024</strong>.<br />
Beatrice reflected on the impact Strike A Chord<br />
had on her musical aspirations:<br />
‘I grew up playing with Dylan, Hanna and<br />
Jamie. Coming together [as Cousin <strong>Quartet</strong>]<br />
for Strike A Chord was the first time we played<br />
together as a quartet, and my first serious<br />
quartet experience. Preparing for Strike A<br />
Chord and all the opportunities that emerged<br />
afterwards have absolutely fuelled my love<br />
of chamber music – I’ve since played in many<br />
string quartets with various groups, and I<br />
would say that it is my favourite thing to do as<br />
a violinist, and has developed my musicianship<br />
more than anything else.’<br />
To any budding participants for this year’s<br />
competition, Beatrice has the following words<br />
of wisdom: ‘Performance opportunities are<br />
so valuable to young musicians and chamber<br />
music competitions are not a common<br />
occurrence in Australia, so I would encourage<br />
people to make the most of it! Even the process<br />
of putting together an audition is a really great<br />
experience. More than anything, remember<br />
that chamber music at its heart is fun and a<br />
wonderful chance to make music with your<br />
friends!’<br />
—<br />
It is through the generosity of our benefactors<br />
that Musica Viva Australia can continue to<br />
inspire and reward excellence, enthusiasm<br />
and engagement in the chamber music space<br />
for school students in Australia. If you are<br />
interested in supporting Strike A Chord, or<br />
making a more general gift toward our work,<br />
we would be delighted to hear from you.<br />
Please contact Strike A Chord Competitions<br />
Lead Irene Ryder at iryder@musicaviva.com.au<br />
for more information.<br />
Your support makes this work possible.<br />
Thank you.<br />
24
‘It’s so heartening to see our Strike A Chord<br />
alumni going on to other exciting musical<br />
achievements like specialist tertiary studies,<br />
success in competitions, and development<br />
programs like Australian Youth Orchestra,<br />
Australian Chamber Orchestra and others.<br />
We are thrilled that Musica Viva Australia’s<br />
Strike A Chord has played a part in so many<br />
students’ musical journeys, and hope that<br />
this inspires future participants to reach for<br />
the (musical) stars!’<br />
WILMA SMITH, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF COMPETITIONS,<br />
MUSICA VIVA AUSTRALIA<br />
The Cousin <strong>Quartet</strong> with Beatrice Colombis, second from right.<br />
© Keith Saunders<br />
25
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26<br />
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Joyful, anxious, excited, melancholy… we present<br />
music to tens of thousands of people, of every age<br />
and walk of life, each year. Each performance<br />
produces an emotion, a feeling. And these feelings<br />
can spark memories to last a lifetime.<br />
From Brisbane to Broken Hill, Geelong to Geraldton,<br />
Riverina to Riverland, we want people everywhere<br />
to feel the music and benefit from its healing<br />
properties. Together, we can build a vibrant cultural<br />
future, where outstanding music performances<br />
profoundly enrich lives in so many ways.<br />
Your support ensures audiences, artists,<br />
children and teachers feel the music<br />
for generations to come.<br />
MAKE A GIFT<br />
musicaviva.com.au/support-us
The Choir of<br />
King’s College,<br />
Cambridge<br />
The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge<br />
returns to put the glorious sound of the<br />
British choral tradition in dialogue with<br />
one of the oldest cultures on earth.<br />
Hear soaring hymns and mighty anthems<br />
alongside a new work from Australian<br />
composer Damian Barbeler inspired by the<br />
questing writings of Judith Nangala Crispin.<br />
Sun 21 July<br />
Tue 23 July<br />
Thu 25 July<br />
Sun 28 July<br />
Mon 29 July<br />
Wed 31 July + Thu 1 Aug<br />
Sat 3 August<br />
Mon 5 August<br />
Melbourne, Hamer Hall<br />
Melbourne Recital Centre<br />
Brisbane, QPAC<br />
Sydney, City Recital Hall<br />
Sydney Opera House<br />
Adelaide Town Hall<br />
Canberra, Llewellyn Hall<br />
Perth Concert Hall<br />
musicaviva.com.au/kings<br />
1800 688 482 (no booking fees)