Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Event Details

Stephen Varcoe (baritone)
Jenna Roubos (soprano)
Colin Milner (tenor)
with the Marlborough Singers & guest artists: Lara Bourdeaux (soprano), Mark Bowler (guitar), Guy Passey (flute, clarinet, oboe)

Known internationally as a concert pianist, Penelope Thwaites has written music all her life. From an early age she worked with choirs and upon graduating with honours in Music from Melbourne University, she found herself embarking on a number of assignments as musical director for various shows. She continued to write for this medium for several years before postgraduate piano studies in London with Albert Ferber launched her career as a concert pianist.

She has played in over thirty-five countries, and with some of the world’s leading orchestras, and has a large recording catalogue.  A strand of her work – for which she received the Order of Australia in 2001 – is her promotion of Australian composers, and particularly the music of Percy Grainger.  

Throughout her career she has continued to write, usually for specific occasions and performers. A number of her works are published by Bardic Edition and available from Schott Music, including her song cycle A Lambeth Garland – commissioned for the Lambeth Palace garden  renovation in 1987. Last year her commissioned Missa Brevis was performed at the Church of St John the Baptist in Canberra. Her music has been performed around the world, and here in London’s West End (Ride!Ride! – subsequently having more than forty productions world-wide) on the BBC (My Music, In Tune) at Lambeth Palace, the Wigmore Hall, Southbank, Kings Place, St John’s Smith Square, and many other venues.

Penelope will introduce the programme and is delighted to welcome friends old and new. Drinks and canapes at 6:30pm

Further information for this event is available by phone on (44-20) 7534 0710

Featured artists

• Music of Penelope Thwaites