JAMES LIVE
Live music
Sunday 6 June, 3 pm
Ensemble Assorti presents Classical Captive
Ensemble Assorti presents its debut program, ‘Classical Captive’; an art-song degustation menu of the music that took its three members to faraway places while in lockdown during 2020.
The trio features Soprano Chloe Lankshear, and classical guitarists Heathcliffe Auchinachie and Dennis Van Rooyen. Regulars at the James Theatre will remember Dennis Van Rooyen’s previous concert, and we are delighted to have this outstanding Dungog local back in concert, this time with two colleagues.
The concert features the trio’s new arrangement of Benjamin Britten’s song cycle ‘On this island’, as well as art songs by Schubert and Poulenc. Set in their lounge room, guitarists Auchinachie and Van Rooyen will also perform a selection of guitar duets by Yoshimatsu, Tedesco, and Kunda during this one-hour special program.
Join Ensemble Assorti on Sunday 6 June at the James Theatre Dungog. Tickets are $30 adults and $20 under 18 years of age, and can be purchased at this link.
Live music
Sunday 13 June, 4 pm
Australian String Quartet
The Australian String Quartet (ASQ) is delighted to be performing in Dungog at the iconic James Theatre, presented in association with the Friends of the James, on Sunday 13 June at 4pm.
In a concert titled The True History of the Kelly Gang, courage, boldness and revitalisation underpin this Australian String Quartet program.
Australian composer Graeme Koehne’s True History of the Kelly Gang recounts a story attributed to one of the country’s most iconic figures. The afternoon’s inaugural performance by the ASQ will feature a work by Mendelssohn who wrote the Opus 12 string quartet before his twentieth birthday. His young, opera-addicted mind dials up the drama and beauty of this piece, while the popular Canzonetta movement exemplifies the cheeky Puck-like passagework associated with his Octet, and music from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The program will continue with a work by Bartók. As an early ethnomusicologist, Bartók dedicated his life to cataloguing folk music from across central Europe. This research heavily influenced his writing which, mixed with an unmistakable Beethovien zeal, led to a revitalisation of string quartet writing. Bartók’s third string quartet exemplifies this in one continuous movement, brimming with inventive string techniques that create a diversity of colours and emotions.
To conclude the afternoon of exhilarating music, the ASQ will perform a work by Moravian violinist and composer Pavel Fischer. This work was inspired by the courage of Scottish piper Bill Millin who on D-Day, marched on Normandy beach, rallying the troops with his bagpipes. This incredible quartet seamlessly blends traditions of folk music and western art, creating an explosive and exhilarating end to this program.
We welcome you to join us for a special afternoon of music making. Tickets are $60 adults and $40 under 18 years of age, and can be purchased at this link.
