BENJAMIN NORTHEY RETURNS TO SYO

***

Sydney Youth Orchestra

Conducted by Limelight magazine’s 2019 Australian Artist of the Year, Benjamin Northey

BEETHOVEN Egmont Overture

PROKOFIEV Peter and the Wolf

GERSHWIN American in Paris &

-

SYO Philharmonic

Conductor, Brian Buggy OAM

KOEHNE Powerhouse (performed by SYO Philharmonic Orchestra)

***

Benjamin Northey, winner of Limelight magazine’s Australian Artist of the Year award in 2018, makes a long-overdue return to the SYO podium for a celebration of youth, dance and jazz rhythms – plus a celebration of a very special birthday.

It’s a happy 250th to Ludwig van Beethoven in December 2020 and at the tail end and pinnacle of a musical year - destined to be dominated by worldwide Beethoven symphony cycles. Having played the 5th symphony in 2019, we’ll once again dip our collective lid to Van the Man with his dramatic Egmont Overture. Then, with imminent Christmas school holidays in mind and the prospect of SYO playing for a new young audience, actor and satirist Jonathan Biggins delivers an idiosyncratic version of Prokofiev’s kids’ classic Peter and the Wolf.

SYO Philharmonic and Brian Buggy OAM throw the switch to ‘dynamic’ in the concert’s second half with Australian composer Graeme Koehne’s 1993 orchestral rhumba Powerhouse. This is proudly the second major Australian modern work to feature in our season.

With the finale of Gershwin’s An American in Paris – this 1928 jazz-infused masterpiece inspired by the City of Light and composed (unlike his earlier Rhapsody in Blue) directly for symphony orchestra (with some saxophones and car horns thrown in!) is played by Benjamin Northey and the SYO to bring the concert and our year to a dazzling close. We look forward to seeing you in our audience.

**

Additional Information:

Young children are welcome at Sydney Youth Orchestra concerts. For all performances, children two years of age or older must have a ticket (even if the accompanying adult intends to sit the child on his/her knees).

Doors will open 30 minutes prior to the start of the event.

Please bring your ticket to display at the door and gain entry to the venue.

Concert programs are available for a gold coin donation.