CONCERT TWO 2009

HANDEL  MESSIAH

CONDUCTED BY ALISON STEWART

MANAWATU SINFONIA

Pepe Becker  Ellen Barrett  John Beaglehole  Roger Wilson Roy Tankersley

Regent on Broadway    Saturday 5th of December at 7.30 pm

For notes on the oratorio click on MESSIAH on the menu at the top of the page

FIRST  CONCERT  2009

MENDELSSOHN   ELIJAH

CONDUCTED BY ALISON STEWART

ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH     PALMERSTON NORTH

SUNDAY 28th OF JUNE  2PM

Mendelssohn’s oratorio ELIJAH was last performed by the PNCS

in 1992, prepared by Helen Caskie, conducted by Peter Godfrey

The story of Elijah (Eliyahu) the prophet of Yahweh and his contest with the prophets of Ba`al on Mount Carmel (translated from Hebrew by Brian Colless) is available at
                                                        http://collesseum.googlepages.com/elijah

2008

CONCERT TWO

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN

THE CREATION

REGENT ON BROADWAY

SUNDAY 30 NOVEMBER 3 pm

The Creation

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) wrote over 750 works including concertos, operas, masses, piano trios,

string quartets, and symphonies. He is often referred to as the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet".

Based on the Book of Genesis and Milton’s Paradise Lost, Creation is structured in three parts, the first two dealing with the biblical six days of creation, and the third devoted to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Haydn chose to “think big” for this crowning work of his composing career and his orchestra included trombones, clarinets, comparative new-comers to the orchestra, and apparently for the first time the magnificent contrabassoon. The work features three vocal soloists (soprano, tenor, and bass), and a four-part chorus.

Haydn worked on the Creation (Die Schöpfung) for nearly two years before completing it in April 1798. He devoted more time to this work than he had ever spent on a single composition, working to the point of exhaustion, and collapsed into a period of illness after conducting its premiere performance in Vienna in March 1799. The oratorio was performed nearly forty times in Vienna alone during Haydn’s last decade. Its first London premiere (translated in to English) was at Covent Garden in 1800. The last performance Haydn attended was on March 1808, just a year before he died at the age of 77.

Haydn’s crowning masterpiece is proudly presented to you in all its glory by the combined Renaissance

Singers, Palmerston North Choral Society and Manawatu Sinfonia. The performance is in English and will be conducted by Guy Donaldson.

Morag Atchison, one of New Zealand’s leading young sopranos, studied at the University of Auckland

and the Royal Academy of Music, London. A Kathleen Ferrier finalist, Morag’s operatic roles include First Lady, Magic Flute (NBR NZ Opera); Blumenmädchen, Parsifal (NZ Festival); Donna Elvira, Don Giovanni with Sir Colin Davis (RAM/RCM) and La Ciesca, Gianni Schicchi (Aspen Festival, USA). Concert engagements include Missa Pacifica, Hamilton (World Premier), Carmina Burana, and Haydn’s Nelson Mass (Auckland Choral); Brahms Requiem, Matthew Passion & Easter Oratorio (Bach Musica); Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire (London & Aspen); Vivaldi Gloria with Sir David Willcocks (Royal Albert Hall and Venice); Mater Gloriosa in Mahler’s 8th Symphony (RAH) and the world premier of Peter Scholes’s Requiem (Auckland Chamber Orchestra). This July Morag sang Beethoven’s concert aria Ah! perfido with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra as part of their Splendour of Beethoven series and in February will sing Sandrina in Mozart’s opera La Finta Giardiniera at the Hamilton Gardens Festival for Opera Unleashed.

Born in Cardiff, Richard Phillips began singing as a teenager as a tenor in his school choir, after learning the violin from the age of seven. At Cambridge University he was a member of the King’s College Chapel Choir, the Cambridge University Chamber Choir and many other student orchestras and choirs. He was placed second in the Mobil Song Quest in 1981 and since then has sung with almost every major choral society in New Zealand. Richard was the featured tenor soloist for the City of Oxford (UK) Orchestra’s Baroque Series (1993) and soloist for the Oxford University Press Choir (2003).

Hadleigh Adams was born and raised in Palmerston North. He gained a Bachelor of Music with first class Honours at Auckland University in 2006, and is a PWC Dame Malvina Major Emerging artist for the NBR New Zealand Opera. He has performed as soloist with the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vector Wellington Orchestra, numerous choirs, and has participated in master classes with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Dame Malvina Major, Paul Farrington & Jonathan Papp (Royal College of Music), and Robin Bowman (Guildhall School of Music and Drama).

Guy Donaldson was born and educated in Wanganui, receiving his formative piano instruction from Maurice Collier, and at Canterbury University continued his piano studies with Maurice Till. He was founding Head of Music at Awatapu College and in 1986 studied accompanying in London with Paul Hamburger and Roger Vignoles. He is well known in the Manawatu area as a teacher, adjudicator, piano soloist, accompanist, chamber music player, music coach and conductor. He is the musical director of the Renaissance Singers.

Morag Atchison                          Richard Phillips                                 Hadleigh Adams

CONCERT ONE

2008

AN AFTERNOON AT THE OPERA

SUNDAY 6 JULY 2.30 pm

ST PETER’S CHURCH

Gaye Carrington-Smith (Soprano)   Pauline Rowe (Contralto)    Paul Lyons (Bass)

Alison Stewart (Musical Director)     Guy Donaldson (Piano Accompanist)

Adult $20  Concession $17  Student $10  Child under 10 free

For information about the programme go to PAST

Gaye Carrington-Smith - Soprano

From the Manawatu, Gaye is well known nationally as an opera singer and teacher of singing.

She has sung in leading and minor roles and understudied, and sung in many choruses.

Works include, The Pearl Fishers, Carmen, Rigoletto, La Boheme, Il Trovatore, Il Seraglio, Madam Butterfly, Tosca, Turandot, Eugene Onegin, The Masked Ball, Otello, Aida, Falstaff, Manon.

Gaye has also sung in many oratorio’s, recitals; and performs regularly for charities.

She is pictured singing as soloist with the choir on the CHOIR QUIRE page

Pauline Rowe - Contralto

Pauline has sung and been involved in all aspects of choral music since she was about eight years old,

as a chorister, soloist, conductor and teacher, with many different choirs and groups.

Along with her husband and three children, she has done a great deal of entertaining around the region.

She is a regular performing member of Musica Viva Manawatu.

and currently leads the Foxton-Rongotea Combined Churches Choir.

Paul Lyons - Bass

A bass singer of some age, if not experience or ability, Paul has participated in a wide range of musical and theatrical activities in Palmerston North and farby towns.     He has sung:

    - principal and chorus roles in several operas, including Aeneas in the Palmerston North Choral         Society’s performance of Dido and Aeneas

    - bass in Palmerston North’s late lamented jazz group, Not Just Jazz, in which Alison Stewart, that well-known Palmerston North musician, also participated, playing swinging jazz piano

    - bass solo for the Choral Society (quite recently, really: 1987),

    - principal rôles in a number of musicals (latterly Lord Cavendish in Turpin, the Musical, in Wanganui, and Rev. Shaw Moore in Footloose)

    - in the avant garde blues band, The Anteater’s Dream

Paul has also been involved in scores of plays in the city;

he paints vibrant watercolours (check out www.GalleryArt.co.nz),

designs loudspeakers, designs and makes leadlights;  in his spare time he lectures and undertakes research in Computer Science at Massey University. He does not play rugby