Music and Tea at Wollongong Art Gallery features Australia’s leading young musicians and provides a platform to showcase local talent. The series supports the next generation of musicians' progression path and artistic development.
“Reverberation” launched our 2024 Series; it was a masterful performance by Adrian Whitehall, double bass, and Rachel Lin, piano.
The resonance of the double bass in the BlueScope Gallery was mesmerising and brought tears to more than one eye. The audience expressed joy at discovering the double bass as a solo instrument and hearing the music of less familiar composers, Nino Rota and Vilmos Montag.
Coming up in March, award-winning violinist Beatrice Colombis joins her father, Mauro, in a program celebrating their Italian roots.
Born in Italy, Mauro obtained performance degrees from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the Benedetto Marcello Venice Conservatory. A versatile, classically trained pianist, his speciality is composing and performing piano music for silent films.
Beatrice performed in our first Emerging Artist Concert Series in 2022 and went on to win the National Kendal Violin Competition and the Sydney Conservatorium Concerto Competition for Strings. She is in her second year as an Emerging Artist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
From firey passion to gentle sweetness – enjoy the Italian composers
Beatrice will open with a devilishly tricky caprice by the brilliant violinist Niccolò Paganini, one of the early artists, to captivate audiences not purely through music but through his performance art, which included cultivating a persona of intrigue and drama.
The world premiere of Risonanze della terra by Carlo Corazza will be a highlight.
John Corigliano won an Academy Award for the best original film score for The Red Violin. The caprice Beatrice will perform from the movie pays homage to the boundary-pushing encouraged by Paganini.
The serenity of a nocturne for solo piano by Ottorino Respighi follows before the grand finale: Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's concerto for violin and piano.
In honour of International Women's Day
To honour International Women’s Day on March 8th, Beatrice will pay tribute to Giulia Recli with Tre Tempi for violin and piano (1925).
Recli was the first Italian woman whose orchestral performances reached the world’s foremost musical institutions, such as the Teatro alla Scala and the Augusteo in Italy, the Metropolitan Opera in America, and the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Music and Tea concerts are on the first Thursday of each month, at 11am at Wollongong Art Gallery. Performances are free; donations to the artists appreciated. Bookings via Humanitix
