AN innovative series of classical music concerts is being presented at the Kendall School of Arts.
The Kendall PhiloMusica concerts explore important connections between music and philosophy which have impacted significantly on the history of Western Art Music.
The performances will be held on four Sunday afternoons, starting at 2pm. They will be preceded in the morning by an hour long pre-concert talk and discussion in which the relevant topic from the philosophy of art and music will be discussed.
The series features musicians from Live Music Sydney and the Novalis Ensemble, including many international musicians well known to Camden Haven audiences from the Camden Haven Music Festival and the Kendall National Violin Competition.
Kendall PhiloMusica is an initiative by violinist Dr Goetz Richter and pianist Jeanell Carrigan, who are enthusiastic about presenting live musical performance in an engaged and inspiring way to regional audiences.
Dr Richter, a violinist and Associate Professor at the Sydney University’s Conservatorium of Music, who also lectures and publishes on the philosophy of music, emphasises the excitement and enrichment audiences experience when connecting their philosophical reflection and interest with the experience of music.
“Music was never really meant to be isolated as a separate practice and entertainment,” he said.
“The Greeks thought of all culture as musical.
“In the more recent past, important thinkers have been very interested in music and some of them have even been excellent musicians – Nietzsche was a fine pianist and Wittgenstein played the clarinet.
“Music and philosophy belong quite naturally together. They come to us from a very similar source and they enrich and inform each other. I am very excited to share this inspiration with listeners in Kendall.”
The first concert of the Kendall PhiloMusica series will take on Sunday 25 May at 2pm at the Kendall School of Arts. It will feature works by the 19th century philosopher and musician Friedrich Nietzsche, Richard Wagner, Robert Schumann and Gustav Mahler.
The concert is preceded by an hour long pre-concert talk and discussion at 11.30am about Nietzsche’s importance for music and the philosopher’s complex relationship with the composer Richard Wagner.
Other dates are 27 July (How Romanticism inspired musicians), 16 November (Beethoven and the Absolute) and 12-14 December (Kendall Schubertiade).
Tickets for each event are $30 (including pre-concert talk) and all profits will go towards staging the Kendall National Violin Competition.
For more information visit www.livemusicsydney.net. Bookings at pentimento@livemusicsydney.net or through Mavis Barnes at the Kendall National Violin Competition, on 6559 4339.
All profits from Kendall PhiloMusica 2014 will be donated to the Kendall National Violin Competition.
