Latitude 37. The members of this new Australian baroque trio are all recent top graduates of the Royal Conservatory in the Hague, Holland. Julia Fredersdorff (baroque violin), Donald Nicolson (harpsichord) and Laura Vaughan (viola da gamba) have a passion for the music of the 17th and 18th centuries. This trio has “technique to burn, fire in their bellies and a belief in music performance as the living art it’s meant to be”. In their view, historically informed performance means breaking the rules to create exciting music, just as those baroque composers did!
The New Zealand String Quartet is New Zealand’s foremost chamber music ensemble. They have toured extensively in North America and in 2006 and 2007 added Korea and Mexico to their concert itinerary. In 2007 they presented their superb Bach-Mendelssohn “Divine Obsession” concerts and began a three-year project to record all of the Mendelssohn quartets for Naxos. As well as being celebrated performers, the members are teachers as Quartet-in-Residence on the Faculty of the NZ School of Music, Wellington. In this concert they premiere the work by the young Auckland composer, Victoria Kelly.
The Tudor Consort has been at the forefront of early choral performance in New Zealand for over 20 years and comprises the finest choral singers of the Wellington region. In 2003 it gained silver and bronze awards at the 35th International Choral Competition in Tolosa, Spain, against some of the world’s best choirs. Successive directors have brought a deep knowledge of both early music and vocal production to create “A beautifully unified group…superbly sonorous…a world-class ensemble”. The repertoire includes both sacred and secular works, always with an eye on authentic performance and vocal excellence.
Cook Strait Trio takes its name from the link between Nelson and Wellington, which were both influential places in the musical education of the members. Blythe Press (violin) was co-concert master of the NZ Youth Orchestra and is now studying at the University of Graz, Austria. Amber Rainey (piano) has been designated an “emerging young artist” at the University of Auckland where she studied with Rae de Lisle and Sarah Watkins. Paul van Houtte was principal cello in the NZ Youth Orchestra and is now continuing his studies in Zurich, Switzerland.
Jack Liebeck (violin) and Stephen de Pledge (piano). Described as “one of the most accomplished violinists of his generation” Jack Liebeck performs with many of the world’s orchestras. His debut disc in 2004 was greeted with great critical acclaim and named “Strad Selection” by Strad Magazine. Stephen de Pledge is a New Zealand pianist who won the National Piano Competition and went on to win all the major prizes and the Gold Medal at London’s Guildhall School of Music in 1996. He now performs around the world and returns regularly for very popular tours in his home country.