Enrolments are now open for the 2018 South Coast Music Camp: Monday 1 October to Friday 5 October at Mumbulla School in Bega; Directed by Geoffrey Badger.

All orchestral instrument players of all ages and abilities are welcome to enrol for five days of music making in a relaxed and social setting.

Geoffrey Badger will be joined by professional musicians from around the country including; the Acacia Quartet, the Arcadia Winds, The Ad Lib Collective, and students from the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) and Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Click here for more information and to enrol. Enrolments close 31 August 2018.

Free Concert: This Sunday 15 July 2018, 4pm – 5pm
Windsong Pavilion, Four Winds Rd, Barragga Bay

The Canberra Recorder and Early Music Society are hosting an early music weekend workshop at Four Winds this coming weekend. Over 35 musicians are gathering to explore music and tunes from the 16th Century – the Renaissance Period. The highly energised and inspirational Barbara Jergen – a celebrated music teacher and performer will lead the weekend. Barbara will be joined by Alexandra Bailliet-Joly, who is also a wonderful recorder player, conductor and educator.

The workshop culminates in a free concert at 4pm this Sunday 15 July, which will showcase the pieces the musicians have explored during the weekend, as well as some smaller ensemble pieces; including a work for eight voices (performed by the The Friday Choir) and eight recorders.

Like the ‘Spring Sing’, which brings together local choirs in September, this is a wonderful example of how different communities come together at Four Winds to participate in and share their passion for music making.

The theme of early music continues for our next Windsong Series Concert on Sunday 19th August 2018 at 1pm during which former Four Winds Festival Artistic Director Genevieve Lacey (recorder) will perform music from the Renaissance Period, along with harpsichord and bassoon – more about that concert in future emails but tickets are selling fast….you can

The workshop culminates in a free concert at 4pm this Sunday 15 July, which will showcase the pieces the musicians have explored during the weekend, as well as some smaller ensemble pieces; including a work for eight voices (performed by the The Friday Choir) and eight recorders.

Like the ‘Spring Sing’, which brings together local choirs in September, this is a wonderful example of how different communities come together at Four Winds to participate in and share their passion for music making.

The theme of early music continues for our next Windsong Series Concert on Sunday 19th August 2018 at 1pm during which former Four Winds Festival Artistic Director Genevieve Lacey (recorder) will perform music from the Renaissance Period, along with harpsichord and bassoon – more about that concert in future emails but tickets are selling fast….you can click here to book your ticket.

Four Winds in partnership with Musica Viva presented a recital by Joyce Yang last weekend. In short, it was stunning. Here are some audience responses:

“I felt uplifted by the beauty of the music and the feeling that Joyce put into her playing. She connected deeply not only with the music but also with the audience which made the experience so much warmer and inclusive then many other concerts I have attended.”

“It was regenerative, restorative…a moment in time that offered beauty and hope.”

“I wasn’t the only person in the audience who became quite emotional at the brilliance of what I was privileged to be looking at and listening to.”

“It was a truly memorable occasion. As a lover of Chopin her performance resonated. Loved the way she introduced the individual pieces. I think the audience reaction said it all….she will be a hard act to follow, however, I’ll be back for Genevieve Lacey”

For more details go to fourwinds.com.au or call 6493 3366.

Joyce is an incredibly generous artist and we were so lucky that she was prepared to give a masterclass to three local young pianists following her recital. Joyce was incredibly insightful, and like all great teachers found a golden nugget of advice to leave with each of the students. Eden Brennan, Hunter Bailey-Watts and Luca Ziino all played wonderfully and brilliantly represented the talent that exists among our young people here on the South Coast.

If we had to share just one piece of advice Joyce gave during the masterclass, it was “Be clear on what you want the audience to hear”. Anyone attending her performance could be in no doubt that she applies this to her own playing which was truly captivating.

2018 Windsong Series #2 | Joyce Yang (piano)
Saturday 7 July | 1 – 3pm Gates open: 12noon
Windsong Pavilion, Four Winds Rd, Barragga Bay
9kms south of Bermagui, Far South Coast, NSW 2546

fourwinds.com.au/whats-on

@FourWindsAU

Joyce Yang: irrepressible, unmissable brilliance

Joyce Yang who is one of the leading pianists in the newest generation of virtuosi, is embarking on her first full national tour of Australia from her home in the US. The tour, made possible by Musica Viva, includes a performance in the Four Winds Windsong Pavilion, Barragga Bay, on Saturday 7 July at 1pm.

‘An astonishing virtuoso with tremendous suggestive power.’ – Neue Zürcher Zeitung (New Zürich Newspaper)

The intimacy of the Windsong Pavilion provides the perfect opportunity to hear Joyce’s brilliant interpretation of great masterworks in a program of romantic music that will transport the audience and inspire any pianist in the room. Joyce will be giving a recital of characterful works composed by masters such as Schumann, Chopin, Debussy and Grieg. Joyce is celebrated as a pianist because she not only amazes with her technical brilliance, but also with her ability to convey intense emotion with personality and flair.

Joyce is South Korean born and now based in the United States. She shot to fame as the youngest contestant in the 2005 International Van Cliburn Piano Competition in Texas. She now performs in more than 80 events in any given season and regularly performs concertos with leading orchestras of the world as well as chamber music and solo recitals. She is also a Grammy nominated recording artists and highly sought after as an adjudicator. Her huge repertoire and infectious energy has seen her through a busy touring schedule in the last six months during which she has performed in New Zealand, Hawaii, North America, Germany and Spain, and now Australia and Bermagui.

This is the second concert in James Crabb, Four Winds’ Artistic Director’s, 2018 Windsong Series. These concerts bring leading, international artists to the region to perform in the superb acoustics of the indoor Windsong Pavilion. This concert will also showcase the Four Winds Shigeru-Kawai Concert Grant Piano, purchased in 2017 through the support of individual donors. The piano is used regularly in performances and events at Four Winds, but this is a chance to hear the piano played as a solo instrument by a stunning, internationally acclaimed pianist.

The Windsong Series Concerts will warm your heart and feed your soul during the winter months.

Tickets $80. Children 16 years and under free. For details go to fourwinds.com.au or call 6493 3366.

Over $73,000 raised

David Francis, our Four Winds Executive Director, today presented a cheque to Bega Valley Shire Council Mayor Kristy McBain for the Tathra Fire Fund. The Four Winds community attending the 2018 Four Winds Easter Festival responded to an appeal to donate funds to support those affected by the Tathra Fire, and the total raised has been just over $73,000.

The appeal was underpinned by a match-fund challenge from the Four Winds Foundation, an independent charity which was set up by Barragga Bay resident, the late Neilma Gantner. The Foundation’s Chairman, Neilma’s son Carrillo Gantner launched the appeal at a free community concert on Good Friday and said that the appeal was in the spirit of his mother who would have wanted to have helped the community at such a challenging time.

David Francis said ‘We are so pleased to have had the opportunity to appeal to the Four Winds community to support those affected by the Tathra bushfires. Many of our visitors come from beyond the region but the Sapphire Coast and the communities who live here are dear to their hearts. The generosity of the Four Winds Foundation was a great incentive for people to give over the course of the Easter Weekend and we are delighted that these funds will help our neigbhours in Tathra and surrounds rebuild their lives and homes’.

Windsong Series #1 Concert.

When I think about what we want to bring to our audience I think first and foremost about quality.

For me, quality isn’t about genre or the nature of the experience – you might be an audience member, a participant or a young person in school it is about Four Winds bringing the very best musicianship to the Far South Coast.

Windsong Series #1 performance is no exception.

You will hear a program inspired by a rare recording of Violin Sonatas made by the great Russian composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff, and the Viennese composer and violinist Fritz Kreisler. These two musical icons recorded the works of Beethoven, Grieg and Schubert that you will hear today in 1928 in the USA – the recording is still available for sale and on YouTube!

As far as personalities go, Rachmaninoff and Kreisler could not have been more contrasting in their styles. Rachmaninoff, a cool and collected perfectionist was in stark contrast to Kreisler who was one of the most flamboyant musicians of his day. Yet this unlikely duo struck a friendship and a mutual respect performing and making arrangements of each others compositions. You will hear some of that flamboyance in the performance of Kreisler’s own composition Viennese Rhapsodic Fantasietta which concludes today’s performance.

It’s wonderful to think that 90 years later, here in Barragga Bay we are welcoming two of the finest musicians working in Australia today in a new duo to revisit and celebrate Rachmaninoff and Kreisler’s collaboration, performing works by some of the world’s greatest composers from the 19th and 20th Centuries.
For the next Windsong Series Concert we are welcoming the internationally acclaimed American pianist Joyce Yang, in partnership with Musica Viva. Joyce is touring to Australia and I’m thrilled to be able to showcase her artistry with a fabulous program, so please come and hear her perform on our wonderful piano on Sunday 7 July 2018.

Have a great afternoon and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

Gates open at 1.30pm. Concert starts at 2.30pm. Children under 16 are free.