Customer Service Advice: Sunday, 30 April, 12 noon: Auckland Youth Orchestra, Great Hall, Auckland Town Hall
Due to today's MetService weather forecast, we recommend allowing extra time to travel into the show this evening.
Experience the thrill of 75 talented young musicians (ages 16-26) performing together with energy, precision and passion!
Featuring Shangrong Feng (piano) and Shiddharth Chand (tenor)
The Auckland Youth Orchestra presents an exciting symphony concert. On the programme:
Cowdell: A Place of Quiet
Written in 1987 by NZ composer Alexander Cowdell, this short composition is a setting of a poem by the Australian philosopher, poet and musician Melvyn Cann. A tenor soloist sings first of a spiritual journey through suffering to transcendence and peace, while the second part describes a state of consciousness where both thought and time cease and only feeling remains. Prepare to be transported!
Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No.2 in F major, Op.102
A cheerful, graceful and undeniably charming work composed in 1957 and premiered by Shostakovich’s son. The work’s strong appeal to audiences and pianists alike has endured, and it remains one of Shostakovich’s more popular works.
Dvorak: Symphony No.7 in D minor, Op.70
Written in a time of dark personal circumstances, Dvorak produced this symphony which cemented his international reputation as a composer. It is sometimes called “The Tragic”, and it presents melodies in turn foreboding, lyrical, dance-like and stormily grief-laden. A masterpiece of tragedy and considered by many to be Dvorak’s finest symphony.
PIANIST Shangrong Feng is currently studying with Prof. Stephanie McCallum. She has won international prizes and awards and has established Asilence + Co Music Media Ltd.
TENOR Shiddharth (Sid) Chand is an NZ-born, Fijian-Indian tenor who has recently completed a Master of Music in Classical Performance with First Class honours. He was a semi-finalist in the 2022 Lexus Song Quest and was twice runner-up in the U21 section of the NZ Aria competition in Rotorua.
MUSIC DIRECTOR Antun Poljanich studied piano in Dubrovnik and conducting at the University of Ljubljana. Following post-graduate studies in Austria, he won a scholarship which took him to Leningrad for a three-year Master's Course in Conducting at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory. Antun has since worked with prominent orchestras in Russia and Europe.
If your party includes a pre-schooler, we request that you sit at the rear of the stalls, under the Circle, to minimise disturbance to performers and other audience members.
If this will be your first time attending a symphony concert, check out this link on concert etiquette – we want you to LOVE this experience!
