Signum Saxophone Quartet & Kristian Winther - QTIX

Classical Music

Musica Viva Australia Signum Saxophone Quartet & Kristian Winther

24 Nov 2022

Conservatorium Theatre, QCGU

Duration TBC

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$80 - $106

Available Discounts

Concession, Youth

more info

Four saxophonists lock eyes, no sheet music to distract them. They bend their knees with the flow of the music, and lift their fingers to snap with the beat.

These players capture the effortless cool of the Jets from West Side Story. And their arrangement of the Bernstein score is just one work from the Signum Saxophone Quartet’s ripper program.

Signum has achieved cult status on instruments scarcely found in the concert hall. The group champions composers living and lost while filling the world’s best venues.

This tour is Signum’s Australian debut, so we’re making a big deal of it. We’ve commissioned Sydney composer Jessica Wells to arrange Kurt Weill’s Violin Concerto – originally for violin and wind orchestra, and one of the more technically difficult works in the repertory – for the quartet and soloist, and we’ve secured Kristian Winther for the hero’s role.

With a meeting of top creative minds in a program spanning Bach to Gershwin, this tour will show you that the saxophone is one of the most surprising instruments in the concert hall.

QTIX is the official ticketing service with selected packages are sold through authorised resellers only. Read more about purchasing tickets online.

Concession

Centrelink issued concession/pension card. Seniors card accepted.

Youth

Aged under 40 years of age at the time of booking, ID required.

Presented by Musica Viva Australia

Musical logic and voice leading dictate who looks at whom and who steps forward when – seemingly without the [Signum] artists having to think about it. They’re like a single large organism.

Hamburger Abendblatt
Winther shines in this piece, displaying a highly expressive tonal range.

The Guardian

Program

BACH Italian Concerto, BWV 971 (1735, transcr. Tochio)
WEILL Violin Concerto, Op. 12 (1924, arr. Wells)*
GERSHWIN Three Preludes (1926, arr. Signum Saxophone Quartet)
BERNSTEIN Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (1960, arr. Dedenon)
COREA Spain (1971, transcr. Leitinger)

*Arrangement commissioned for Musica Viva Australia under the auspices of the Hildegard Project.

Artists

Signum Saxophone Quartet

BLAŽ KEMPERLE Soprano saxophone
JACOPO TADDEI Alto saxophone
ALAN LUŽAR Tenor saxophone
GUERINO BELLAROSA Baritone saxophone
KRISTIAN WINTHER Violin

About the Composer

Jessica Wells

Jessica Wells is a versatile composer, orchestrator and arranger for concerts, films, theatre and album recordings.

Since obtaining her Master of Music in Composition (Sydney Conservatorium) and Master of Arts in Screen Composition (AFTRS), her career has gone from strength to strength. Her business of fifteen years, Jigsaw Music, provides music preparation services for clients all over the country and overseas.

Jessica has orchestrated over seventy films, and wrote the theme music for ABC TV’s Q&A program – which makes her kids think she’s famous.

She was a 2017 Finalist in the APRA Art Music Awards, in the category of Instrumental Work of the Year for her piece Moon Fire for the National Carillon and electronic track.

From 2017–2020 she was the Musical Director of the APRA Screen Music Awards, and she is the current Vice President of the Music Arrangers’ Guild of Australia.

Jessica’s new arrangement of the Weill Violin Concerto will be premiered by Signum Saxophone Quartet and Kristian Winther on their national tour. This arrangement was commissioned for Musica Viva Australia under the auspices of the Hildegard Project.