EMERGING CONCERT ARTIST SERIES is an opportunity to meet and hear exceptional young musicians in our community and to discover new music. Live music is a shared experience between the performer and the audience; the audience's enthusiasm inspires our performers. The performer's dedication and passion offer audiences an uplifting concert and an opportunity to share the musical journey of our next generation of musicians.

Wednesday, Oct 4

'Figures of Love' Character Pieces from the 19th and 20th Centuries

Ariana Ricci, voice| Natalia Ricci, piano

Program

Léo Delibes (1876 - 1883) ‘Ou va la jeune hindoue’ (Air de Clochettes’) — Lakme

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828) Du bist die Ruh (Rückert)

Claude Debussy (1862 -1918) Quatre Chansons de Jeunesse

i. Pantomime (Verlaine) ii. Clair de Lune (Verlaine) iii. Pierrot (Banville) iv. Apparition (Mallarmé)

Hugo Wolf (1860 - 1903) Verschwiegene Liebe (Eichendorff) Der Gärtner (Mörike)

Franz Liszt (1811 -1886) Benedetto sia’l giorno

Soprano Ariana Ricci is in her final year of a Bachelor of Music (Performance) degree at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She is currently studying as a full scholarship student under the Ted and Susan Meller Memorial Scholarship. Ariana's performed operatic roles this year have included Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel (Humperdinck) as well as Le Feu in L'enfant et les sortilèges (Ravel) which she performed in as part of the Royal College of Music Winter School, for which she was awarded a Henderson Traveller's Scholarship to attend. In 2022, she performed as a principal artist at the Albury Chamber Music Festival in their production of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas after performing the same role of First Witch earlier in the year with St Paul's College. This year with St Paul's College, Ariana also performed the roles of Nymph, Spring, First Woman and First Fairy in their production of Purcell's 'The Fairy Queen'.

Concert soloist credits this year have included performing as a soprano soloist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in Ešenvalds' 'Passion and Resurrection' conducted by Stephen Layton MBE in the Sydney Opera House concert hall and in Haydn's 'Nelson' Mass with the Sydney Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra.

Ariana sings regularly with the St James King Street choir and as a choral scholar at the St Paul's College Chapel Choir. She has performed in masterclasses with Prof. Lynne Dawson, Margaret Plummer and Ola Rudner. In 2020, she was awarded first prizes in the Voice - Young Artist categories of both the 2nd Vienna International Music Competition and the Manhattan International Music Competition, and in 2021, she received a slew of first prizes in the Sydney Eisteddfod, including the Intermediate Vocal Award. This year, Ariana has progressed to the Demant Dreikurs Scholarship Competition finals and looks forward to competing in the finals in a few months.

Ariana additionally studied as a violinist at the Conservatorium for her Bachelor's degree and has also performed as a soloist with orchestra on violin many times from a young age. Ariana's teachers have included Assoc. Prof. Goetz Richter AM and Dr Rowena Cowley and is currently studying with Dr. Anke Hoeppner-Ryan.

Natalia Ricci

Australian-born pianist Natalia Ricci enjoys a successful career as chamber musician, soloist and teacher, having performed and recorded internationally over the past 40 years in the USA, Canada, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand and throughout Europe.
Natalia has made many recordings for the BBC, ABC, Canadian, Italian, Norwegian and New Zealand national radios and has also appeared in live concert telecasts in Italy, Norway, Spain and Australia. She has performed in international music festivals such as the Banff Summer Chamber Music Festival, Canada, the International Festival of Spanish Music andDance, 'Encuentros Españoles', the 2021 Sydney Festival , the International Bartok Festival, Hungary, the 'Gradus' International Music Festival, Spain, the London Objective Music Festival, UK, the Deia International Festival, Mallorca and the Sydney Symphony Contemporary Music Festival.

As a collaborative artist, Natalia is especially recognised for her work with string players and has been associate artist to renowned musicians such as Ruggiero Ricci, Leonid Gorokhov, Kolja Blacher and Adelina Oprean.

Natalia holds the position of Senior Lecturer in Piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and is a dedicated and sought-after teacher whose students have been major prize-winners in many prestigious international and national competitions.
She is a renowned specialist in Spanish music and is frequently invited to give masterclasses abroad in South America, Europe and New Zealand and to adjudicate in national and international piano competitions.