News & Press Releases
COMMONWEALTH GOLD FOR NEW ZEALAND COMPOSER
28 January 2002 - Promethean Editions announced today that composer John Psathas’ new Double Concerto for Piano, Percussion and Orchestra will be premiered during the XVIIth COMMONWEALTH GAMES in Manchester later this year. The work will be performed during the Royal Gala finale concert of the Commonwealth Games music festival, Pulse, at Bridgewater Hall, 26 July, 2002, by world-renowned percussionist Evelyn Glennie, pianist Philip Smith and the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Mark Elder.
"It is a great honour both for John Psathas and for New Zealand that this work should be selected for performance at such a prestigious event, and this performance will add to the rapidly growing profile of the composer on the international stage," Psathas’ manager and publisher Ross Hendy said.
John Psathas is no stranger to overseas premieres and performances of his music. In July 1999 he travelled to Bologna, Italy to attend the premiere of the Saxophone Concerto written for Michael Brecker, and last September he was in Innsbruck, Austria to attend performances of the Percussion Concerto No.1 and Drum Dances at the 2001 Klangspuren-Schwaz New Music Festival.
Scilla Askew, Executive Director of the Centre for New Zealand Music said "it is performances like these that confirm John Psathas as a composer of international significance, and provide further evidence that the work of New Zealand composers is gaining international attention and success."
Another new work by Psathas, a concerto for vibraphone and chamber orchestra entitled Psyzygsm, will have its first performance at the 2002 New Zealand Festival in the concert Velocities at the Wellington Town Hall on March 12, 2002. This work was commissioned for Portuguese marimba player Pedro Carneiro, who will give the European premiere of the work in Portugal in June 2002.
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