Horns a plenty in Orchestra’s 90th Anniversary Season Winter Treat!
Double Horn Concerto & Brahms Symphony for June 17 Concert at MLC, Kew
Zelman Symphony Orchestra returns to the concert stage in its 90th anniversary year with a spectacular double concerto for horns by popular young Melbourne composer May Lyon, another Australian work plus an epic, romantic favourite in the shape of Brahms Symphony no.1
And it all takes place on Saturday 17 June 7.30pm at Methodist Ladies’ College, Kew.
Lyon’s Concerto for Two Horns and Orchestra “Opal” features two outstanding musicians, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra principal hornist Nicholas Fleury and his MSO colleague Rachel Shaw.
Also on the program is Haunted Hills (1950) by another of Australia’s best loved composers, Margaret Sutherland.
Dr Jillian Graham, author of Inner Song: A Biography of Margaret Sutherland, will present a pre-concert talk about the composer and her composition.
The book (pictured below and attached) will be available for purchase at intervals.
Hailing from Melbourne’s leafy outer east, May Lyon composes music that explores a range of themes, from deep human emotions, representations of nature to the lighter side of life.
Stylistically eclectic, Lyon’s work moves from dramatic and intense to quirky.
She is currently studying for her Doctorate at the University of Sydney. Upcoming performances include a Musica Viva national tour with a newly commissioned violin and piano duet, the staging of her opera “Pieces of Margery” by More Than Opera and a new commission as Ensemble Offspring’s Noisy Women 2023 recipient.
She has worked recently with The Australian Ballet, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
May was the Zelman Symphony / Melbourne University Composer of the Year in 2016.
Brahms Symphony no. 1 in C minor – with its lyricism and thematic unity – is widely regarded as one of the greatest symphonies of the European Romantic tradition.
Nearly 20 years in the making, it takes listeners on a beautiful, passionate journey through night to bright dawn. There is drama, tragedy and finally light.
Beethoven’s Fidelio Overture represents the climax of the classical era; and finally, Sutherland’s symphonic poem Haunted Hills is a musical portrait in contemplation of the first people who roamed the hills, their bewilderment and their betrayal, their frenzied dance and seeming gaiety born of despair.
Join the Zelman Orchestra for this quirky, colourful, passionate and sweeping concert at MLC, Kew!
ZELMAN MEMORIAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Rick Prakhoff , conductor: “Horns a Plenty”
Beethoven: Fidelio Overture | Margaret Sutherland: Haunted Hills
May Lyon: Opal: Double concerto for 2 horns & orchestra
Nicolas Fleury, Principal Horn MSO; Rachel Shaw, Horn MSO
Brahms: Symphony No 1
Saturday 17th June 7:30 pm Methodist Ladies’ College, Kew.
Tickets: Adult $46 |Seniors, Pensioners $40 |Youth 18-24 $29 | Under 18 $15
Bookings: www.zelmansymphony.org.au
Celebrating its 90th year in 2023, the Zelman Memorial Symphony Orchestra is the predecessor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
and is recognised as one of Australia’s finest not-for-profit community orchestras.
