October 21st, 2024Hepburn players prepare for ‘Splendours of the Baroque’

Featuring eleven string players – plus harpsichord – this month’s “Splendours of the Baroque” concert promises to be a memorable experience for music lovers.

Daylesford’s Christ Church Concert series is welcoming back the Hepburn Players for another concert on Saturday, October 26 at Christ Church, Daylesford.

The beautiful Christ Church space with its acoustic qualities is expected to be the ideal setting for this concert of very special concertos and arias.

The concert will include Antonio Vivaldi’s fiery Concerto for Strings in G Minor along with his Ciaccona in C Major.

The composer Georg Muffat, a student of Lully in Paris, will be featured with his most well-known work, the Passacaglia from Sonata No. 5 for strings and continuo.

The tenor aria ‘Erwäge’ from Johann Sebastian Bach’s St John Passion will be one of two vocal works presented by Creswick’s Tim Drylie, who, with more than 35 years of diverse performance experience, charms his audiences.

Tim will also sing an exceptionally moving cantata by Franz Tunder, a German composer and organist of the early Baroque era.

Franz Joseph Haydn’s Harpsichord Concerto in F Major and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Double Violin Concerto in D Minor will be the two major works showcased in this diverse and fine concert. Both are beautiful examples of Baroque music and truly splendours of the period.

Hepburn Players were originally formed by a small group of musicians based in Newlyn. From early appearances playing background music at local art shows, they have grown to sell-out concerts of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and have performed two years in a row at CresFest.

last year at CresFest, the orchestra collaborated with the Grammy-nominated Tibetan singer Tenzin Choegyal, and this year they appeared with local singer/ songwriter Archer when they were directed by violinist Shane Lestideau.

Shane is an Australian violinist with a passion for historical music and instruments. Renowned for her talents as a baroque and classical violinist, she is also in demand as an artistic director, teacher and music researcher.

She is passionate about Australian music, commissioning new works from local composers, as well as playing from 19th- and 20th-century Australian music collections. The orchestra is delighted that Shane will join them again as guest director for this month’s concert in Daylesford.

Andrew Welsh grew up in South Africa playing the piano, though his greatest interest was always in music of the Baroque period so it was inevitable that he would switch to the harpsichord sooner or later.

Once he moved to England, he was able to perform regularly with a wide range of Baroque ensembles and orchestras.

Andrew took up the Baroque cello and co-founded London’s largest amateur period-instrument orchestra, Belsize Baroque, with whom he played in the cello section for the next 14 years.

Belsize Baroque would routinely engage guest directors who are leading figures in the early music world, and it was a great privilege to learn from them in his time in the orchestra.

In Australia since 2016, Andrew has concentrated mostly on harpsichord again, though he is currently enjoying learning the viola da gamba while directing Hepburn Players and playing harpsichord and organ with VOX choral ensemble in Ballarat.

Jason Yong, a soloist in the Muffat Passacaglia and Vivaldi Concerto, is a graduate of the Toronto Royal Conservatory of Music and the director of Progetto Corelli, an early music ensemble that regularly presents inventive programs in Melbourne.

Susan Pierotti will join Shane as a soloist in the Bach Double Violin Concerto. Susan’s career experience as a violinist spans symphony orchestras, opera, ballet, chamber music, teaching, reviewing and adjudicating, and she has been the concertmaster of Zelman Memorial Symphony Orchestra since 2016.

Date: Saturday 26 October 2024
Time: 2.30pm
Venue: Christ Church, Daylesford.
More information: Christ Church Concerts facebook page
Bookings: https://www.trybooking.com/eventlist/christchurchconcerts