Kettering Concerts

Kettering Concert 2022-10-23

Jennifer Marten-Smith & Karen Smithies
Jennifer Marten-Smith (piano), Karen Smithies (piano)

Piano 4 hands

REPLACING CONCERT ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED FOR 16 OCTOBER
Jennifer and Karen will present a programme of demanding and fun works for piano duo.

Programme:

Sonata for Piano Four-Hands in B-flat Major K 358 – Wolfgang A. Mozart (1756-1791)
8 Variations on a Theme by Count Waldstein, WoO 67 – Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Primavera, La Chaise à porteurs from 6 Pièces romantiques, Op.55 – Pièces Romantiques – Cécile Louise Chaminade (1857-1944)
Three Hungarian Dances – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Petite Suite, L 65 – Claude-Achille Debussy (1862-1918)
The Perihelion Rag – Stephen Cronin (1960 -)
Sabre Dance – Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978) (arr. Greg Anderson)

Sunday 23 October 2022, 3pm
Kettering Community Hall
Tickets available on-line No door sales
$15 + small booking fee
Stay for the post-concert afternoon tea, meet and chat with the musicians.

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.

Karen Smithies

Karen Smithies moved to Tasmania from the Central Coast of NSW in 1998. She completed her Masters in Music Performance at the University of Tasmania in 2003, studying with Beryl Sedivka and David Bollard. Upon graduating from Sydney Conservatorium with a Bachelor of music in piano performance and accompaniment, Karen was awarded the “Mollie Neal” scholarship for excellence in Accompaniment. She has appeared as soloist and accompanist with regional orchestras and major vocal ensembles across the Central Coast and in Sydney.

Karen has made several national ABC and 3MBS FM broadcasts with artists such as cellist Christian Woijtowicz, violinists Marina Phillips and Romana Zieglerova, baritones Christopher Richardson and Michael Lampard and the TSO Brass and Friends.

Karen is currently lecturer in Accompaniment at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music and has lectured in piano studies at the University of Tasmania since 2000. In that time she has been busy as a repetiteur, and accompanist of undergraduates, postgraduates and visiting artists at the Conservatorium and throughout Tasmania. Karen regularly plays as orchestral and rehearsal pianist for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and repetiteurs for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Chorus. Karen lives in on Hobart’s Eastern shore with her husband Matthew and four children.