Bach Unwrapped

CONCERT ARTISTS

• Guest Artist - Courtney Cleary Violin (Southern Cross Soloists, UQ Lecturer, Juilliard School) 
• Artistic Director - Louise King (Cello Dreaming, Muses Trio, Long Listen Festival) 
• Support Acts - Nathan Debbins (age 14) and Charlotte Farrell (age 15) (Cello Dreaming Scholarship recipients 2024 & 2023) 

CONCERT PROGRAM

1. Suite 2 in D minor ‘Prelude’ - Nathan Debbins SUPPORT ACT
2. Suite 1 in G major ‘Prelude’ - Charlotte Farrell SUPPORT ACT
3. G minor solo violin ‘Sonata’ BWV1001 - Courteney Cleary Violin

INTERVAL (bar and light supper refreshments available for purchase) 

1. C major solo suite BWV 1009 - Louise King Cello 
2. Violin & Cello Duet - No1 in C major BWC 772 Two Part Inventions 
3. Bach Community Cello Ensemble - selected works 

ABOUT BACH UNWRAPPED

Esteemed cellist, festival artistic director and concert producer, Louise King invites music lovers to a special Bach Birthday concert at Eudlo Hall, Hinterland Sunshine Coast, Gubbi Gubbi country on Saturday 23 March 2024 at 6pm. 

Join Louise King and special guest Brisbane-based violinist, Courtenay Cleary, for her annual signature concert ‘Bach Unwrapped’ devoted to Bach’s musical legacy.  2024 marks his 339th birthday year.  

Both Courtenay and Louise share a common love of Bach’s music and are chamber music partners. Both artists are internationally trained and in demand as masterclass presenters, Teaching Artists, clinicians, and recording artists, invited to perform at Australia's finest music festivals and concert series. 

Courtenay Cleary is an alumni of The Juilliard School of Music, New York and is a lecturer at UQ School of Music, and performs with Southern Cross Soloists and as a concerto soloist nationally. 

Louise King, is an alumni of Royal College of Music, London and Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester and has worked with Australian Chamber Orchestra, Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra, Opera Australia, Australian Youth Orchestra and is a resident of Eudlo, Hinterland, Gubbi Gubbi country. 

Bach is known as the “grandfather of music”.  Known as the ‘Shakespeare’ of composers, his music has had a profound influence on the trajectory of music over the last three hundred years. His works are of such profound beauty and form that it leaves novices and experts alike stunned and moved.

The concert features exquisite solo works composed for violin and cello; the violin sonata in G minor BWV1001 and the cello suite in C major BWV1009. A ‘two part invention’ originally composed for harpsichord will also feature as an arrangement for the two soloists. Support acts will be local emerging artists, Cello Dreaming scholarship recipients, Nathan Debbins (2024) and Charlotte Farrell (2023). 

This intimate concert promises all the virtuosity and pizazz of a major world recital stage like Carnegie Hall, New York or Wigmore Centre in London, but in the intimacy and accessibility of a regional hinterland small hall.  

ABOUT OUR SOLO ARTISTS

Courtenay Cleary is fast becoming one of Australia’s brightest young soloists, who burst onto the world stage with her solo performance at Westminster Abbey for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, which was broadcast live on BBC television. 

She has appeared as a soloist at other prestigious venues including Wigmore Hall, Buckingham Palace, Colston Hall, The Regent Hall and The Lincoln Centre, New York. 

Courtenay graduated with a Masters of Music from The Juilliard School, New York. She has a Bachelor of Music from the Royal Academy of Music, London. She is violin lecturer at the UQ School of Music and performs as a concerto soloist and is principal artist with Southern Cross Soloists. 

In London Courtenay performed as a soloist at the Wigmore Hall, St James’ Piccadilly and the Regent Hall. She gave the Australian premiere of David Lang’s Mystery Sonatas, and two sold out solo recitals in the Concert Hall, QPAC.

“Louise King exudes a vigorous artistry that surely appeals to a younger generation of music lovers” - The Australian

Louise King is an exciting example of an independent contemporary classical musician. A refined English cellist with extensive international experience and training, she is an inspiring concert artist, teacher, recording artist, adjudicator and event producer.  Louise has won prestigious scholarships, solo prizes and several international chamber music competitions and now performs in Australia’s finest music festivals and classical concert series.  

As Artistic Director of Long Listen Festival and Cello Dreaming she runs a busy private teaching studio, produces and presents community and professional concerts, workshops, collaborative performance projects, mentors emerging young musicians, and coaches for the Australian and Queensland Youth Orchestras.

Louise King moved to Australia in 2003 after working extensively throughout the UK, Europe and Asia with the BBC Philharmonic, the Hallé Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and as a cello, chamber music tutor and conductor of the Royal Northern College of Music Junior Department, Manchester.  

A multi-award and competition-winning graduate of the Royal Colleges of Music in London and Manchester, Louise underwent international masterclass and postgraduate study with Christopher Bunting, William Pleeth at Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies, Anner Bylsma, Karine Georgian, Ralph Kirschbaum and Steven Isserlis at International Musician’s Seminar, Prussia Cove sponsored by the Musician’s Benelovant Fund and chamber music coaching with the Amadeus, Chillingirian, Fitzwilliam, Lindsey and Kronos Quartets.

A MESSAGE FROM LOUISE: 

“International music festivals program Bach as a music centrepiece, as it is a moving and profound listening experience.  In Leipzig, Germany, the chance to hear Bach’s solo works has become a pilgrimage for audiences, a way to pay homage to his genius and to artists who perform his works. Living on the Sunshine Coast for the last twenty years, I have yet to find a venue, community organization or a festival that programs and produces concerts of his music. So, I do and I champion it.”

“I performed the solo cello suites in the Bach Festival, Armidale, NSW and observed how Australian audiences crave this kind of communal reverence while they listen to his music unfold. Bach is a form of musical meditation. Over the last thirty years of practicing it, I have come to adore its familiarity, both comforting and challenging in form, function and design.  As a regional based Teaching Artist, I am required to teach it to the next generation as part of grading examinations, but few have ever heard Bach live in concert in the hands of master artists.  This is the opportunity for aspiring musicians to experience it!”