From London to Vienna to land of Oud

Returning to Australian shores for one concert only at the Woodend Winter Arts Festival in 2019 is Australian-born but now London-based pianist Piers Lane, who will perform an Hommage à Chopin in a Festival program packed with world-class musical talent.

Four concerts will be presented – each featuring world-class performances of music from across the globe.

Lane’s concert will include Chopin’s Nocturnes and Rachmaninov’s rarely-performed Variations on a Theme of Chopin, while visiting Austrian string quartet (sponsored by the Austrian Government) from the Concilium musicum Wien will present a single performance of Mozart, Haydn, Hoffmann, Albrechtsberger and Schubert.

Back after sell-out performances last year, award-winning musician and composer Joseph Tawadros will perform The Art of the Oud – an uplifting concert which smashes the conventional genre boundaries, while the Oud will again feature in the separate concert performed by the Alwan Trio – whose music was featured in the award-winning 2016 movie Ali’s Wedding. In Sketches of Mesopotamia, musicians Yuval Ashkar, Phil Carrol and Matt Stonehouse combine Ney, quartertone accordion, Oud, vocals and percussion in a showcase of Turkish, Arabic, Persian and Sephardic music.

The Woodend Winter Arts Festival is held over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend 7 – 10 June, with free Fireworks on opening night (7 June) at Buffalo Stadium in Woodend. Full details of the Festival program, and ticket purchases are available atwww.woodendwinterartsfestival.org.au

/Public Release.