By Cameron Lucadou-Wells
Some of the state’s premier young musicians will be performing piano in the finale of the South Eastern Arts Festival at The Drum theatre tonight (Monday).
The pianists were selected from almost 400 competitors at this month’s festival at St Margaret’s School, Berwick. The finale is a homecoming for the festival, which was once staged in Dandenong.
Festival secretary Angela Patti says that pianists had competed on a “Rolls-Royce” of grand pianos – a top-of-the-range Schimmel.
She says one player, who had competed in eisteddfods across the state, said he’d never played such a piano.
Tonight’s piano concert will be followed by an operatic aria by seven prospective Opera Australia singers chosen by festival adjudicator and opera singer Roxane Hislop.
Last weekend, the festival featured a piano concerto and competition between 15 of the state’s top pianists, a ‘strings all day’ concert and a ‘voices of the future’ performance.
The concerts at the Drum Theatre, Dandenong are free. The piano finale starts at 5.30pm and the operatic aria at 7.45pm.
