Ukaria Cultural Centre, Mt Barker
Program
The program will feature:
J.S. Bach Suite per Violoncello Solo Senza Basso BWV 1008.
Shostakovich Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Minor Op.34
Debussy Images Reflets dans l’eau
Debussy Images Cloches à travers les feuilles
Scriabin 4 Preludes, Op.37
Scriabin Etude Op. 42 no.5
Franck Sonata for Cello and Piano in A Major
Approximate duration 120 minutes (including interval)
About the artists
Simon Cobcroft, cello
Simon Cobcroft is a prolific and versatile performer of solo, orchestral and chamber music in Australia and further afield. Since 2014 he has been Principal Cello with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and has also held the positions of Associate Principal Cello with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (2012-2014), and Sub-Principal Cello with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (2003-2011). He is a founding member of the Lyrebird Trio, winners of the Piano Trio and Audience prizes at the 2013 Asia Pacific Chamber Music Competition, and resident at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music and at the Center for the Arts in Banff, Canada.
Simon is a graduate of the Queensland Conservatorium (2000) and the Australian National Academy of Music (2003). Since that time, he has has been a frequent guest performer with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony, Denmark’s Esbjerg Ensemble, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and as principal with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. He has performed as principal cello and chamber musician at, among others, the Aldeburgh, Pacific and Salzburg Music Festivals.
After featuring with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in Saint-Saëns 1st Cello Concerto in 2015, Simon will perform Elgar’s Cello Concerto in the ASO’s Master Series in 2016. In previous years he has performed as soloist with the Malaysian Philharmonic (Tan Dun, D’Indy), Sydney’s Metropolitan Orchestra (Brahms, Beethoven), Orchestra Victoria (Elgar, Shostakovich no.2) and at the Musici Artis Festival, Brussels (Dvorak).
Simon studied with Matthew Farrell, Janis Laurs, Alexander Baillie, David Strange and Michael Goldschlager. He plays on a beautiful English cello made in 1840 by Thomas Kennedy.
Konstantin Shamray, piano
Konstantin Shamray was born into a musical family in 1985 in Novosibirsk, Russia and at age 6 started formal studies at the Kemerovo Music School with Natalia Knobloch. He later studied in Moscow at the Gnessin Special Music School, and the Russian Gnessin Academy of Music with Professor Tatiana Zelikman, then post-graduate studies with Vladimir Tropp. In 2014, he completed post masters-equivalent advanced courses at Hochschule fuer Musik in Freiburg, Germany with Professor Tibor Szasz. He is currently completing a PhD at the Elder Conservatorium, University of Adelaide.
Konstantin is the first and only competitor to date in the 40 years of the Sydney International Piano Competition to win both First and People’s Choice Prizes, in addition to six other prizes. Immediately following his unprecedented success, he undertook a tour of 27 performances throughout all Australian states and territories. He partnered with the Australian String Quartet for their 13-concert National Subscription Tour of 2009 and recorded CDs for the labels Naxos, ABC Classics and Fonoforum.
He has performed with the Russian National Philharmonic, the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, Orchestre National de Lyon, Prague Philharmonia, Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony among others under the baton of distinguished conductors including Vladimir Spivakov, Dmitry Liss, Tugan Sokhiev, Nicholas Milton and Alexandr Vedernikov.
Konstantin won First Prize at the 2011 Klavier Olympiade in Bad Kissingen, Germany and now performs yearly at the Kissinger Sommer festival. In July 2013, following chamber recitals with Alban Gerhardt and Feng Ning, he was awarded the festival’s coveted Luitpold Prize for “outstanding musical achievements”. He has enjoyed critical acclaim at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, the Bochum Festival in Germany, the Mariinsky International Piano Festival, the White Nights Festival with the Maryinsky Theatre Orchestra in St. Petersburg and the Adelaide Festival.
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