18th April 2021
Dear Friends and Supporters of the Australia House Ensemble,
The long-awaited return of live music is here, and along with it the resumption of Australia House Ensemble activities. We are emerging cautiously with a series of free online concerts- Reawakening! The concerts will be free but if you feel able to give a donation to help with the ongoing work of the Ensemble please find details on the website – that would be much appreciated.
This series of 3 concerts to be released on the 6th and 27th of May, and on June 17th will feature members of the Ensemble performing as two different string trios and include new member Pei-Jee Ng on cello and guest cellist Brian O’Kane. The first trio (Rebecca Chan, Sascha Bota & Brian O’Kane) features a work by Schubert using historically informed performance practice, and the other two concerts present works by Dohnányi and Mozart (Naoko Keatley, Morgan Goff, & Pei-Jee Ng).
We plan to present a live concert as a quintet in early July 2021. In the meantime, please stay in touch and visit the website to enjoy some of our past work. We are re-running the memorable Anzac Day concert which was part of the High Commission’s Anzac Day programme of recorded events in 2020 early in the pandemic. Or enjoy listening to This House composed by Joe Chindamo for the centenary of Australia House in London in 2018, which featured in the inaugural concert of the Ensemble in November 2019. You can also listen to Australian Percy Grainger’s ‘Handel in the Strand’ with the usual piano part arranged for strings by Peter Tregear OAM, also performed at the inaugural concert of the Australia House Ensemble in the Exhibition Hall at Australia House. This was a first for the Grainger piece and the first event of the Ensemble!
We hope that you can join us for all or some of these events and that you will join us for the return to live performance in July- watch the website and social media for details.
With all good wishes
Dr Margaret Mayston AM, AHE Founder
James Hancock, AHE Operational Manager
Rebecca Chan & Naoko Keatley, AHE Leads, and all the wonderful AHE musicians.
Australia House Ensemble
Australian musicians travel to Australia each year to perform in the Australian World Orchestra (AWO) and the Australian Youth Orchestra (AYO) and highly value and enjoy the opportunity to perform with fellow Australians. This is an opportunity for London/UK based musicians to have a similar experience in the place where they are living and working.
The ensemble aspires to be a world-class ensemble featuring the finest Australian musicians in London, UK and worldwide, named the “Australia House Ensemble. This ensemble will be a flagship for Australian musical excellence of which it is hoped Australia will be proud.
Listen to ‘This House’ recorded at our inaugural concert at Australia House in 2019 click here
