Opus Now
(presented by CP PRODUCTIONS and Alpha Gallery)

A concert series exploring relationships between the music of today and Beethoven's sixteen String Quartets

Concert Series 10

Programme

Heather Lee and Kim Cunio - Hildegard of Bingen madrigals

Butcherbird Quartet - Ludwig van Beethoven
String Quartet No. 10 in E b major, Opus 74 "The Harp"

Kim Myhr and Jim Denley- duo project with improvisations

***** Starring *****

Heather Lee (soprano), Kim Cunio (hurdy gurdy), Babu (tabla), Chris Pidcock (baroque cello) 

Butcherbird Quartet - Seamus MacNamara and Victoria Bihun (violins), Henry Justo (viola), James Morley (cello)

Kim Myhr (guitar) Jim Denely (flute, saxaphone) 


Tickets online at www.opusnow10.eventbrite.com.au from $15 , $30 at the door. Beer and Wine available between sets for cash purchase ($5)


Two of Australia's most gifted musical talents, Kim Cunio and Heather Lee, are a professional and a personal partnership, who specialise in bringing sacred music to the stage and developing new forms for interfaith settings. Their marriage is a celebration of religious diversity including Jewish, Christian and Hindu traditions. With their adopted Indian son Babu, they are a model of interfaith marriage.

Sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBREYbOYLZE

Jim Denley, one of Australia’s foremost improvisers and innovative young guitarist Kim Myhr (Norway) met in Sydney in early 2007 and recorded an impressive CD of experimental duo music for acoustic guitar and alto-saxophone/flute – Systems Realignment – six months later. Since then the duo has done numerous concerts in Europe and Australia. Their music is not only a completely new take on guitar/saxophone combinations, but an attempt to rethink their fundamental musical methodology, embracing elements from a vast range of sources ranging form traditional to contemporary and electronic music. The result is a lush and surprising flurry of acoustic, electronic and mechanical gestures.

With a career spanning over three decades, Jim Denley is renowned for spontaneity, site-specific work and collaboration as instrumentalist, improviser and composer. He was recently awarded a Fellowship by the Australia Council for 2006 + 07 and is currently working towards a paradigm shift in the notion and perception of the saxophone.

Kim Myhr has a vivid and fresh approach to acoustic guitar, with an emphasis on a wide range of percussive, harmonic and timbral effects. He has embarked on an international career with performances throughout Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and Japan, working on a range of projects and collaborations.
Sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWzzKJdpBtA

Featured Musician from Butcherbird Quartet

Victoria Bihun grew up in Benalla, Victoria and started playing violin when she was five. From nine years old, she was making the 400km round trip to Melbourne every Saturday morning to participate in Melbourne Youth Music programs. She continued to do this for the next 11 years.

Victoria completed her Bachelor of Music at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and was concertmaster of the Melbourne Youth Orchestra and Melbourne Conservatorium of Music Symphony Orchestra, as well as appearing as guest concertmaster with the Victorian Opera. She won the Margaret Sutherland Bursary Scholarship, Corinna D’Hage Mayer String Scholarship, W Bardsley Award, and Melbourne Conservatorium of Music Chamber Music Competition with her quartet, the PMCA Quartet.

In 2012, Victoria was awarded the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra String Scholarship, becoming a regular guest musician with the orchestra. In the same year, she won the D&MV McDonald Travelling Scholarship. Victoria has won the Hobart Eisteddfod Chamber Music Competition and the Nelle Ashdown and Jan Sedivka Memorial Awards. She has appeared as soloist with the Hobart Chamber Orchestra and performed in various chamber ensembles with Virtuosi Tasmania. At the end of Victoria’s time in Hobart, she was concertmaster of the Australian International Symphony Orchestra Institute for their performance of Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben.

In 2015, Victoria moved to Sydney after being awarded a Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellowship. She recently passed a trial period with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and is now a permanent member of the second violin section.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/events/232969414122720/