Australian Music in Cambridge

CAM is back with a fantastic concert in Cambridge on 3 April for the unusual combination of violin and harp.

Sunday 3 April 2022 1.15pm
All Saints, 46 Jesus Lane, Cambridge CB5 8BW

Programme to include…

Nigel Westlake (b.1958) 
Beneath the midnight sun (UK premiere)
Wendy Hiscocks (b.1963)
Caprice for solo violin
Eric Gross (1926 – 2011)
Rondino pastorale (UK premiere)
Camille Saint-Saens (1835 – 1921)
Fantasie

Meet the performers

Philippa Mo violin studied at the Royal Academy of Music and at the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing. She performs extensively as a chamber musician and has given performances and live broadcasts worldwide. 
 
A champion of contemporary music, Philippa has worked closely with many leading British composers. Releasing critically acclaimed recordings for the NMC, Dutton and Nimbus labels, she is Senior Lecturer in Violin at Leeds College of Music.

Gabriella Dall-Olio harp was born in Bologna and is now based in London from where she follows an international and high profile career performing and teaching the harp.

Captivating audiences around the globe, her critically acclaimed recordings span solo, chamber and orchestral works. Gabriella has worked with conductors including Simon Rattle, Seiji Osawa and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

After the initial challenge of finding Australian repertoire for these instruments, it was a great discovery to find music by Nigel Westlake and Eric Gross in the Australian Music Centre catalogue.

About the music

Nigel’s 2007 arrangement Beneath the midnight sun originates from his film score for Antarctica, and evokes a serene, icy landscape, while the Viennese born Eric Gross delivers a well crafted and attractive Rondino Pastorale with a clear sense of structure. To the best of CAM’s knowledge, both works will be receiving their UK premiere.

‘I had the privilege of meeting both composers in Sydney many years ago. Nigel and I were much younger composers at that time, with the former labelled by the celebrated Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe as the Pacific Minimalist who was ‘going places’. Eric was my first kind and patient composition teacher at Sydney University. To this day, I can still hear the sound of his voice with its thick Viennese accent and the smell of his pipe tobacco.’

Wendy Hiscocks, CAM Director,

The venue for this CAM recital is especially interesting. Referred to as the ‘painted church’, All Saints’ decorations and fittings boast designs by Bodley and Morley, and there are stencilled patterns, exotic floral friezes and window designs by William Morris to admire.