Welcome to the Festive Season edition of the WPO E-news


Join the Woollahra Philharmonic Orchestra this Sunday 6 December for its lively Season Finale for 2009, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Bang! Bang! with special guests the Waverley Bondi Beach Band and piano soloist Cho Ki Wong.

Come along to The Scots College Auditorium, Victoria Road, Bellevue Hill at 2.30pm. Tickets will be available at the door for $20 Adult/$12 Pensioner/Student.
 
The Woollahra Philharmonic Orchestra would like to thank Woollahra Council for its ongoing support of the Orchestra.
 
About the Program
In our final concert of the year, the Orchestra will join forces with the Waverley Bondi Beach Band for a performance of the traditional concert-finale blockbuster Tchaikovsky\'s 1812 Overture, one of the most popular and dramatic pieces in the repertory. Be assured however that no canons will be fired in the auditorium!
And by way of complete contrast, the orchestra will join forces with brilliant young Sydney-based pianist Cho Ki Wong in a performance of Variations on a Nursery Theme by the great early twentieth century Hungarian composer Erno Dohnanyi.  This is a great showpiece for the soloist and orchestra alike - a sparkling, fun-filled set of variations based on the simplest nursery rhyme tune of all, Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star. 
The concert will also include Schubert\'s light and charming Symphony No.3 and Music from the Elizabethan Court, a suite for brass band by the English twentieth century composer Elgar Howarth. A concert of beguiling variety - what a great way to end the musical year!
 
About the Soloist\"Jacky
Cho Ki (Jacky) Wong is currently a student in Masters degree at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, studying piano performance under Mr. Gerard Willems and orchestral conducting under Professor Imre Pallo. The master degree is supported by a full scholarship – the Molly McAulay Memorial Scholarship 2009– given by the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, where he studied as visiting student after graduated from the Hong KongBaptist University in 2008. His piano teachers included Prof. Gabriel Kwok, Mr. Cui Shi-guang and Mr. You Da-chun.
 
Wong was appointed as the principal conductor of the Hong Kong Grandmaster Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and the Kwai Tsing Youth Orchestra in between the seasons of 2007 – 2009. Under his leadership, the two orchestras gave successful concerts such as “Musica con brio” and “Somewhere in Music”. Last year, he was invited to conduct the première performance of a musical, “Unfinished love song”, written by Hong Kong composer Slash Leung. Most recently, he participated the Conductors Retreat at Medomak 2009 and studied with Kenneth Keisler.
 
As a pianist, Wong awarded the LRSM in piano performance with distinction at the age of 16. One year later, he obtained the first prize in the Bach Advanced Group and the second prize in Chopin Ballade/Scherzo Group of the HK (Asia) Piano Open Competition. In 2004 and 2006, he was invited by the Youth Musician Philharmonic Orchestra to perform Mozart Piano Concerto no. 23 in A and Beethoven Piano Concerto no. 5 in Eb. In 2007, he appeared in a live interview on RTHK Radio 4 with Nancy Loo. In 2008, he performed Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto no. 3 with the Baptist University Symphony Orchestra.
 
In August 2009, Wong successfully organized a charity concert in Verbrugghen Hall. The fund raising concert, held by the Hong Kong Baptist University, was aimed for post-earthquake reconstruction in Sichuan, China. He acted as conductor as well as soloist in the performance.
 
The Waverley Bondi Beach Band
 
The WPO is pleased to welcome the Waverley Bondi Beach Band as its special guests this Sunday. 
The Waverley Bondi Beach Band was established in 1959 by Cliff Goodchild while he was principal tuba player with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The WBBB is supported by Waverley Council and still performs in the historic Bondi Beach Pavillion for annual events including the Festival of the Winds and Carols-by-the-Sea.
The Band has regularly performed at various metropolitan venues around Sydney, including Government House and Observatory Hill, as well as fulfilling our annual Australia Day and Anzac Day obligations with Waverley Council. Each year the Band travels to picturesque Dangar Island on the Hawkesbury River for a carols festival with the local community.
The WBBB boasts a proud history of nurturing the careers of many of Australia’s leading brass players. Our current Musical Director, Paul Goodchild (Associate Principal Trumpet, Sydney Symphony/Director, Sydney Brass) and Tom Burge (Charlotte Symphony) are two players with distinguished professional careers both in Australia and overseas who spent their younger days playing in the band.
As part of its ongoing commitment to fostering music in Sydney, the WBBB organises the Annual NSW School Band Festival, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2011. The Festival attracts over 200 school concert and brass bands from NSW, interstate and overseas and is one of the largest of its kind.
The WBBB draws its repertoire from the broad range of music available for brass bands, from the renaissance dances of Tilman Susato to the music of modern Australian composers such as George Dreyfus, David Stanhope and Barry McKimm. In between there are selections from movies and musical comedies, folk songs, classical and romantic symphonies, pop tunes and of course traditional brass band marches.
There are currently over 30 members of the WBBB of various ages from a variety of professions and the WBBB is always looking for new players. Visit www.bondibrass.org.au for more information.
 
Woollahra Philharmonic Orchestra AGM
The Annual General Meeting was held on Monday 9 November and a new Committee was elected as follows: Nigel Price, President, Tom Beale, Secretary, Stephanie Whitmont, Treasurer. David Loonam (Violin), Sally Simpson (Violin) and Yuzuru Miyachi (Cello) were elected as Ordinary Committee Members. The Orchestra thanks outgoing committee members Les Apolony, Eve Salinas and Lauren McIver for their contribution to the Orchestra over the past year and is looking forward to another successful year.
 
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