Media release – Van Diemen’s Band, 11 August 2022
LUNCHBOX CONCERTS AT THE HOBART TOWN HALL ARE INFLATION-PROOF
Live music at lunch still only $10 online for the latest series of concerts presented by Van Diemen’s Band and the City of Hobart
Just like 2019 and 2020, a concert of live performance by musicians from all over the globe can still be had at lunchtime once a week over the next month for just a tenner!
Once again, the ‘Baroque super group’ Van Diemen’s Band has partnered with the City of Hobart to present a new series of Tuesday Lunchbox Concerts in the city’s beautiful nineteenth-century Town Hall Ballroom.
VDB Artistic Director Julia Fredersdorff was adamant the concerts this year had a price tag that bucked the inflationary spiral.
‘Lunchbox audiences have been incredibly loyal to our musicians over the two worst years for the arts in living memory,” she says. “They turned out in increasing droves and gave our artists much-needed performance oxygen, plus some cash for their efforts, thanks to the generosity of City of Hobart and the profit-share arrangement we have in place. The more people who come, the better the return for musos in difficult times. We wanted to thank our patrons by keeping the magic $10 price per concert for those who book online – at least for the rest of the year.”
Again, audiences in Hobart get plenty of musical bang for their few bucks: a further four concerts until the first week of September, and then a second five-concert season from 15 November to 13 December.
The next concert in the season (16 August) brings the acclaimed London-based Australian mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean back into town for her single Tasmanian appearance, weeks after her spectacular début at the famous Aldeburgh Festival in the UK. This young star will be partnered by one of the world’s finest harpsichordists, French virtuoso Aline Zylberajch in a programme that includes music by the trailblazing Baroque woman composer Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, a child prodigy at the seventeenth-century court of Versailles who was a favourite of the Sun King, Louis XIV. In Zylberajch’s only Australian appearance she’ll be playing the new Titus Crijnen harpsichord hand-built in Spain especially for Van Diemen’s Band.
Subsequent programs include a Lunchbox return appearance by the Ukrainian piano virtuoso Alexey Yemtsov (who brought the audience to its feet the first time around) leading an ensemble in the world-premiere public performance of a major chamber work by Tasmanian composer Albert Hannemann (23 August), and a wild journey through the music of the Balkans, Macedonia, and Bulgaria with the folk ensemble Xenos (30 August).
The season ends with a Town Hall first; a recital on three keyboards by the extraordinary Chad Kelly (5 September) after a conducting stint with the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. He’ll perform on the Ballroom’s Steinway piano and famous organ, plus the VDB harpsichord. Not at the same time, of course!
Tickets are $10 for an online purchase at https://vandiemensband.com.au/lunchbox-concerts/. If you’re an impulse buyer and decide to front up in person on the day, entry is still only $15. Concerts begin at 1.05PM and run through to approximately 1.50PM
New multi-genre singing star Lotte Betts-Dean and French harpsichordist Aline Zylberajch make their only combined Australian appearance at the Town Hall Ballroom
“Betts-Dean has an excellent voice; she can control her notes beautifully and she sings with joy, warmth, and an open heart.”
— Therese Saba, on Feb 2019 Wigmore Hall Recital, Classical Guitar Magazine
“Betts-Dean gave a mesmerising performance…
— Peter Goodbody on Pierrot Lunaire with Manchester Collective, Getintothis UK
“Her tone was at once pure and thick with power; with expressive gestures flowing from her arms and face, she appeared to place herself entirely and unconditionally into the music.”
— Stephanie Eslake, on Bach at Dark Mofo Festival, Limelight Magazine
Van Diemen’s Band is proud to announce an exclusive Tasmanian appearance by the brilliant young mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean, accompanied by acclaimed French harpsichordist Aline Zylberajch, in recital at the Hobart Town Hall Ballroom as part of the current Lunchbox Concert season presented in partnership with the City of Hobart.
This is Hobart’s only opportunity to hear Betts-Dean on her current Australian visit, after recent spectacular débuts at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall and the UK’s famous Aldeburgh Festival, founded by the late Benjamin Britten.
Berlin-born (her Australian parents are renowned composer and former violist in the Berlin Philharmonic, Brett Dean, and expressionist painter Heather Betts), Lotte now resides in London, from where she regularly broadcasts on BBC Radio 3. She is yet another Australian citizen who is making a worldwide reputation in the performing arts, praised for her expertise in repertoire ranging from contemporary music to cabaret and the Baroque, equally adept in all genres.
It’s the last-named that features in Tuesday’s Town Hall recital. Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre is a still-neglected composer who transitioned from child prodigy performer and royal favourite at Louis XIV’s court at Versailles to one of the most highly-regarded musicians of her time – a major achievement for a woman in the early-seventeenth century. Her vocal music has the mystery and filigree quality of the high Baroque.
In this single recital Betts-Dean is accompanied by renowned French harpsichordist Aline Zylberajch, making her only public appearance on a private Australian visit. Based in Strasbourg, Zylberajch maintains a steady schedule of performances and recordings with some of the world’s finest Baroque ensembles such as Les Musiciens du Louvre, La Parlement de Musique and (closer to home) Van Diemen’s Band, with whom she recorded the Opus 3 Concerti Grossi by Handel for the Swedish BIS label.
There will be a third star in the Ballroom: Van Diemen Band’s new harpsichord, created expressly for VDB in Spain by the master-builder Titus Crijnen and funded by the Band’s donors from around the country. It is still in its infancy, completed only in June, but already the survivor of a State-wide tour that featured concertos by J.S. Bach.
More incredibly, the ticket price is at the Lunchbox Series standard of just $10 if booked online; $15 cash at the door on the day.
