DARLINGTON CONCERTS WINTER SERIES 2023

Zak Rowntree, Graeme Gilling, Semra Lee, Jon Tooby and Sally Boud are back for another season of wonderful chamber music; a season that celebrates 20 years of music making in the Darlington Hall, 20 years of gifting our community with world class musicianship and 20 years that have seen them hailed as musicians who inspire students everywhere with their dynamism, energy and superb musicianship.

The core of the Darlington Chamber Music Series is the renowned DARLINGTON ENSEMBLE.

The ensemble comprises Graeme Gilling (piano), Semra Lee (violin 1), Zak Rowntree (violin 2), Sally Boud (viola) and Jon Tooby (cello). The series was formed in 2003 by Jon Tooby who was inspired by childhood experiences of watching the West Australian String Quartet present memorable concerts in the Darlngton Hall. The ensemble’s first incarnation was as a piano trio and, in 2016, the Darlington String Quartet was officially formed, uniting their passion for chamber music with strong friendship. The ensemble regularly plays to soldout audiences and has firmly cemented its place in the classical music landscape of WA.

The ensemble is a strong advocate for new music and has close associations with West Australian composers and musicians who they love to include in the Darlington Chamber Music experience.

The ensemble commissioned James Ledger’s Inscriptions for piano trio in 2006, the third string quartet, Menace and Appeal in 2018 and the string trio Classic Album Covers in 2020, premiering them in 2006, 2018 and 2022 respectively and recording both string works for ABC Classic in 2022. The Darlington Quartet also recorded Bell Birds Suite by Emma Jayakumar in 2020, commissioned by ABC Classic and featured on the soundtrack of the film Breath, based on Tim Winton’s novel.

In 2023 you can look forward to a musical feast: a veritable smorgasbord of music spread before you over five Sunday afternoons. The fifth concert on September 24 2023 will be a gala event, as befits a 20th anniversary, featuring the world renowned mezzo soprano, Caitlin Hulcup... and champagne.

The season begins on Sunday April 30 at 3pm in the Darlington Hall when THE DARLINGTON ENSEMBLE - Graeme Gilling (piano), Semra Lee (violin), Ben Caddy (viola), Jon Tooby (cello) and Mark Tooby (bass) - will play Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A major D.667 Trout followed by Dvorak’s Piano Trio No 4 in E minor Op.90 B.166 Dumky.

The second concert on Sunday June 4 will feature the delectable T RIO T IRAMIS u – comprising Tommaso Pollio on piano, Cathie Travers on piano accordion, and Sophie Curtis on cello. A reviewer from Seesaw Magazine described their contribution to a Freeze Frame Opera production as dynamic enough to rival a full orchestral scoring, interesting enough to fill a program on their own, and at all times wonderfully supportive of the vocal line. The choice of instrumentation was truly inspired; nothing evokes summer in Europe quite like the sound of a piano accordion.

Where can you get tickets? I’m glad you asked ...

Here is a link to the Humanatix website, where you can book tickets this year.

https://humanitix.com/au/search?query=Darlington+Concerts

In February we held our AGM which was a chance to reflect on activities for 2022 and look ahead to plans for 2023. Our new office bearers are:

• President – Kate Herren

• Vice President – Vandra Stenton

• Secretary – Rebecca Waters

• Treasurer – Sally Herzfeld

In 2022 we strengthened our commitments to charity and community through crafts and catering. We forged links with the Darlington Community Garden, Friends of Glen Park and the

Darlington Arts Festival through the provision of refreshments for volunteers. It made my heart sing to see how incredibly grateful the residents of Swan River Lodge were to receive donations of kitchen items and homewares in August.

Its been fantastic to see members driving passion projects within the group, like Julie and Heather running the market stalls so well. Thank you to Lorita for designing and making our wonderful banner - we also added a larger banner to assist our marketing efforts. I think we missed having a big team project to work on like the Crochet Christmas Tree and we’re excited to develop an idea for a new whole community project for 2023.

We plan to make library bags for local children supported by CLAN Midland to receive at the end of the year as they head from playgroup to kindy. A library bag is a vital booklist requirement for all children entering primary school for the first time, and an important way to encourage an early love of reading which is linked to so many positive life outcomes.

If you would like to contribute to this project, we welcome donations of bright children's fabrics (cotton) or Spotlight vouchers to enable us to purchase materials.

Our March meeting will be a sewing bee – new members and visitors all welcome.

Wednesday,15 March - 7pm

Darlington Pavilion

For more information call Kate Herren (President) 0452 644 248.