The beautiful sounds of Pastance will bring the Tyalgum Hall alive on Saturday September 8 from 1.30pm
The group are Alex Cronin – lute, harp, Megan Cronin – soprano, recorders, shawm, James Gastineau-Hills – violin, viola and Sophia Mitchell – mezzo-soprano and the music they play steps you back in time.
The Tyalgum concert will take the audience on a musical journey from some of the earliest notated Western music, through the beginnings of polyphony, to the Renaissance and early Baroque. Scattered along the way will be unique arrangements of folk music from down the ages to the present time, particularly featuring the lilting beauty of the Scottish fiddle, as well as original tunes composed by James and Alex. Here is a chance to here the songs of John Dowland (brought to a new audience by Sting), traditional Scottish tunes (revived by Eddi Reader) and a whole slew of other amazing music.
Multi-instrumentalist Alex Cronin trained at the NSW State Conservatorium (Bachelor of Music) and with the help of a Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee Award and an Australia Council International Fellowship furthered his study at Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam (Diploma of Music). As a lutenist and guitarist he has performed with many orchestras including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Brandenburg Orchestra, Opera Australia and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Alex formed Pastance in 1991.
Megan Cronin received her earliest musical training singing with Judith Clingan’s Canberra Children’s Choir, playing oboe in the Canberra Youth Orchestra and at the Canberra School of Music. She has sung with some of Australia’s finest vocal ensembles, including the Australian Chamber Singers, Sydney Chamber Choir and ACO Voices at the Sydney Festival. Apart from her busy life as a mother of three and member of Pastance, Megan is also an experienced soloist. She has sung a number of dramatic roles, including filia in Carissimi’s oratorio Jephte, lead roles in three music theatre works by Canberra composer Judith Clingan and in 1993 the leading role in the early Mozart opera, Lo Sposo Deluso for the Mostly Mozart festival at the Sydney Opera House.
James Gastineau-Hills has wide musical interests and a passion for, and expertise in, Scottish fiddle. Trained first as a classical violist, he learnt the style from Australia’s foremost Scottish fiddler Chris Duncan, before immersing himself in the tradition while living in Scotland for five years. His recordings include Burns with a Fiddle, an album of Robert Burns’ poetry set to Scottish fiddle, with reciter Neil Morison, an album with Scottish group Luce Women, and with Pastance.
Mezzo-soprano Sophia Mitchell studied the violin and viola before commencing training in classical singing. She joined the Sydney Philharmonia Symphonic and Motet Choirs as their youngest member at the age of 18, performing in Sydney and Melbourne, touring the UK and participating in a number of recordings. Since graduating from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with a Bachelor of Music in voice (2006) and a Postgraduate Diploma in vocal pedagogy (2008), Sophia has been regularly engaged as a soloist for various opera companies, music clubs, festivals and corporate events.
TYALGUM FESTIVAL OF CLASSICAL MUSIC
Dates: Friday, September 7 to Sunday, September 9, 2012
Location: Tyalgum (25 mins from Murwillumbah), Tweed Valley, northern NSW
Website: www.tyalgumfestival.com.au
Bookings: Online at www.tyalgumfestival.com.au or phone 02-6679 2244
