The living arts

Press, 23 September 1980, Page 20

The living arts

Piano prize Seven young Christchurch pianists will compete ori Friday and Saturday for a Christchurch Civic Music Council scholarship worth SIOOO. The scholarship is the Ruby Hay award, which is financed from a bequest by Miss Hay. It is made annually to the contestant or contestants judged to be the most worthy in a competitive piano solo recital. Only pupils of members of the Christchurch Society of Registered Music Teachers are eligible for the award, and competitors must be aged

between 17 and 21, and have lived in Christchurch for three years. The judge of this year’s award will be Professor Jean Anderson, of the Royal Academy of Music, London. The contest will take place in the State Trinity Centre. The competitors on Friday evening will be Richard Chandler, Lynley Exton, Graeme Gilling, and Derelie .Mangin, and on Saturday night Conan Fee, Dinah Anderson, and Stephanie O’Flaherty. The winner will be announced at the end of the Saturday programme. Israeli art A collection of prints bv five contemporary Israeli artists will be oh display in the C.S.A. gallery for a week, starting on Friday. There are <3O prints, six by each of the artists, and they will provide a rare glimpse of what is being done in Israel in the field of graphics. The styles of the artists range from figurative to geometric abstracts. Two of the artists. Ziva Lieblich and Michael Gross, are Israeli born. Of the others, Moshe Hoffmann was bom in Hungary, Pinchas F.shet in Romania, and Michael Argov in Vienna. All have exhibited widely in Israel and Europe. Choir concert The annual community choirs concert, sponsored by the Christchurch Civic Music Council, will be presented on Sunday afternoon in the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church. Six of the smaller Christchurch choral groups will rxo rtmim bo

The Addington Workshops W.E.A. choir will be conducted by Allister Graham, the Aeolian Choir by Eric Voyce, the Canter-

bury Singers by Barrie Shakes, the Risingholme Choir by Paul Ellis, the Somerfield Singers by Rosemary Payne, and the South Brighton Choral Society by Alexander Robson. After each choir has presented its own items, the concert will end with a massed performance of a Vernon Griffiths work, Cantate Domino. Goerge Martin will conduct this performance and Paul Ellis will provide organ accompaniment. Coarse play A show full of theatrical surprises, “The Coarse Acting Show,” by Michael Green, will open for a seven-night season in the Repertory Theatre on Saturday. Barry Grant is directing the show for the Canterbury Repertory Theatre Society. Michael Green is the author of “The Art of Coarse Theatre,” a best seller with theatrical misadventure as its theme. “The Coarse Acting Show” is the book’s successor. It parodies four dramaticf styles, and in the performance everything that can go wrong does so. “11 Fornicazione” is a grim tale of operatic adultery, poison, and mayhem; “Streuth” is a crime story which even Agatha Christie would never have written; “A Collier’s Tuesday Tea” combines the kitchen sink with the coalmine and an irreverent glance at D. H. Lawrence; and “All’s Well That Ends As You Like It” (from an idea by William Shakespeare) pushes the genius of the Bard to its limits. The programme was presented at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and was so successful that there is now a Coarse Acting Festival, in which entries have been received from the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Some entrants write their own plays; others perform Coarse versions of standard works. A cast Of 13 performs all the roles in the Repertory version of “The COarse Acting Show.” Those appearing are Helen Coulson, Michele Johnson, Olwyn Loudon, Mary Smith, lan Beswick, Peter Elliott, Mervyn Glue, Eddie Howard, Terry O’Cain, Max Sullivan,

John Vaughan, Joe Waller, and Robert Williams. Dance interludes are presented by Peter Fitzgerald and Marlene le Cren. The wardrobe department, under Madge Rands, had the task oi assembling, or making and sewing, 48 costumes. Tenth concert The Amici Chamber Orchestra will celebrate an anniversary — its tenth concert — on Sunday with a performance at 8.00 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Arts Centre of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor, one of the masterpieces of symphonic literature. Other works in the concert will feature local soloists. The orchestra’s continuo harosichord player, David Vine, will take the limelight in Haydn’s Harpsichord Concerto in D major. David Vine studied harpsichord at the Royal College of Music with Millicent Silver, and came to New Zealand in 1974. After four years as head of music at Gisborne Girls’ School he came to Christchurch, where he has been active as conductor, teacher, and accompanist. He owns two harpsichords; in this concert he will play a 1973 instrument made bj' an English maker, John Feldberg, in the style of Hans Neupart. Jennifer Cooke (trumpet) and Craig Williams (trombone) will be featured in a performance of Dorothy Buchanan’s Duo Concertante for trumpet, trombone and strings. First performed with the Burnside High School Orchestra in this year’s chamber music contest, the piece displays the abilities of the two young players. The programme will be completed by two contrasting sets of dances, Bela Bartok’s Seven Rumanian Dances and Peter Warlock’s Capriol Suite. The former was originally written for piano and later orchestrated by the composer for various wind instruments and strings. The latter is a setting of Renaissance dances characterised by rich harmony and exciting rhythms. Dance in Sydney The impulse Dance Theatre has been invited to present its programme, “True Blue,’’ at the Festival of Sydney in January.

The group will be one of eight dance companies at the festival, and will be there for two weeks. It will take part in the gala opening and will perform at various indoor and outdoor venues. All the other dance companies will be from within Aus ralir Jamie Bull, director of Impulse Dance Theatre, said that “the company is very excited and delighted that the level of dance, and, narticularly, choreography achieved in New Zealand has been recognised in Australia by Impulse’s inclusion in the Festival. “The investment the public of New Zealand have made in the company through grants from the Queen Elizabeth H Arts Council has now paid off.” she said.

"The company has been at international standard for some time and we see this as the start of the regular inclusion of Aus-

tralia in our touring programme. perhaps once every two years.” Quartet returns The Sydney Quartet, which in five years has performed in many major cultural centres of the world, will give a concert in Christchurch on October 1, during its second tour of New Zealand. The concert will be before a Christchurch Chamber Music Society audience in the James Hay Theatre, and the programme will comprise works by Mendelssohn. Janacek, and Bartok.

The group is the quar-tet-in-residence at the Svdney Conservatorium, where it presents recitals and holds workshops and master classes. The group also tours extensively, and this year made its debut in the United States. Next year it. will visit the Soviet Union, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, France, and England. The quartet’s members are two Rumanians and two Australians. Its leader, the violinist, Harry. Curby, studied at the Sydnev Conservatorium, as did the group's cellist, Natham Waks. Harry Curby then played for several years in England with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, while Natham Waks studied and worked in the Soviet Union and France. The violist, Alexandru Todicescu, studied music in Rumania and taught at the conservatorium in Bucharest for five years. He has played in many European orchestras and has taught in several other conservatoria. The other Rumanian, the violinist, Dorel Tincu, has a similar background. The Sydney Quartet has a repertoire of more than 80 works, and has recorded a number of them.