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Kettering Concerts
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Kettering Concert 2015-04-19
Elanée ensemble and Jennifer Marten-Smith
Jo St. Leon (viola), Stuart Thomson (double bass), Jennifer Marten-Smith (piano)
Trios
Programme:
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Trio elegiaque No. 1 in G minor, Sergei Rachmaninoff
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Romance from the Gadfly, Dmitri Shostakovich
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7 Epigrams, Zoltán Kodaly
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Suite, Reinhold Glière
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Nocturne – Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
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Sunday 19 April 2015, 3pm
Kettering Community Hall
Tickets available at the door
$10
Stay for the post-concert afternoon tea, meet and chat with the musicians.
Stuart Thomson
Born in Edinburgh, Stuart Thomson began playing the double bass at age
nine and later joined the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra, which inspired him
to become a professional musician. He studied with Duncan McTier and Corin
Long at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester and was
awarded the Eugene Cruft Prize for Double Bass. While at the RNCM he began
working professionally with the Hallé, BBC Philharmonic and Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic orchestras.
Subsequent freelance work included engagements with the Scottish Chamber
Orchestra, London Symphony, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Philharmonische
Werkstatt in Switzerland. In 1999 he joined the Hong Kong Philharmonic
Orchestra and in 2001 moved to Australia to play with the Sydney Symphony.
The following year he was appointed Associate Principal of The Queensland
Orchestra and in late 2003 took up the post of Principal Double Bass with the
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO). He has also received invitations to guest as
principal with the Adelaide and West Australian Symphony orchestras. In 2005 he
made his solo debut with the TSO playing alongside Alex Henery in Bottesini's
Passione Amorosa for two double basses. Then again in 2011 with Tubin's
concerto for double bass and in 2015, he performed the Australian premiere of
Tan Dun's Double bass concerto The Wolf. In December this year he will appear
again as soloist with The Wolf and the TSO in Hobart and on the TSO's tour
of China. An active chamber musician, he is a founding member and co-artistic
director of the Elanée Ensemble focusing on music for viola and double
bass. He also teaches at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music.
Jennifer Marten-Smith
Jennifer grew up in Tasmania and at age 12 was invited to study with
Professor Gediga-Glombitza at the Musikhochschule in Cologne. At age 16 she
made her public debut with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra as soloist in
Schumann's A minor Piano Concerto, having previously recorded the
Rimsky-Korsakov Piano Concerto with the TSO. Two years later she performed
the
Rubinstein Piano Concerto No 4 with the TSO and, that same year, was the
youngest graduate of the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music, where she was
awarded a high distinction as a double major in piano performance and
accompaniment. Other concertos in her repertoire include works by
Beethoven,
Brahms, Dohnányi, Mozart, Saint-Saëns and Tchaikovsky, and she has appeared
as soloist with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Niedersächsisches
Staatsorchester Hannover.
In 1989 she began work as a repetiteur with the State Opera of South
Australia
and subsequently joined the Victorian State Opera Young Artist Programme.
Between 1997 and 2001 she was repetiteur at the Staatsoper Hannover and was a
full-time member of the music staff with Opera Australia from 2001 to 2012.
She has more than 90 operas in her repertoire. Jennifer, a member of the
Kettering Piano Quartet, is now living in Hobart, and is in demand as a
soloist, accompanist and vocal coach.
Botaniko – Artist