It’s with great pleasure we welcome the seventh Peninsula Summer Music Festival. If last year was anything to go by attendees are in for incredible performances that  are seductive, joyous, profound, intriguing and transformative. If you haven’t been to a classical performance since your “old school days” this is your chance to rekindle your senses with something special – we’re very luck to have it on the Pen so let’s support it. We believe that the experience might be so profound that you might just “see the light”. What a great way to finish off 2013 and kick start the NY.

Last year we were fortunate to see the renown Acacia Quartet on NYE, Klezmania on NYD for the “Hair of the Dog”  and to top it off Alwan as part of the sassy “After Hours” series at Port Phillip Estate.  The Peninsula Summer Music Festival offers so much to spoil the senses, it’s held over 10 days and it’s in our back yard. The festival will bring timeless favourites and long-lost gems, performed by a superb assembly of Australian and international artists. Highlights this year include –

• Purcell’s masterpiece Dido and Aeneas, featuring beloved mezzo-soprano Fiona Campbell and internationally-renowned conductor Kenneth Weiss
• Australia’s “sorceress of percussion”, Claire Edwardes, at Hummingbird Eco-Retreat
• The perennially-popular Recital Series at St Johns Flinders, where audiences mingle with artists at the Festival Café between performances
• The outstanding Seraphim Trio performing Mozart and Schubert
• 17th century Spanish Fandango at Moorooduc Estate
• Abendmusik – celebrating the splendor of the German Baroque at St Peters Mornington
• Ollie the Elephant – a family-friendly concert for the young – and the young at heart
• Caprice Viennois – music inspired by Vienna at Main Ridge Estate
• After Hours – a relaxed yet sophisticated late-night series at Port Phillip Estate
• New Year’s Day with a difference – Hair of the Dog at Willow Creek Vineyard
• Twilight Jazz on the lawn at Montalto – a sold-out success for 6 years running

We all know that practise makes perfect.. This year we caught up with three of the young guns, “the next gem” of performers including Emma Williams (Baroque Violin), Hannah Lane (Italian Triple Harp) and Arun Patterson (Baroque Violin). The three are part of the Festival Academy – a model based on the great European Summer Schools that provides talented young singers and instrumentalists with the opportunity to work alongside leading Baroque practitioners in rehearsing and performing the greats.

Nothing quite like a “classic coffee” to start the day. Introducing Hannah Lane (Italian Triple Harp) and Arun Patterson (Baroque Violin)

Locals and visitors were treated to a classic jam on the four season deck in Red Hill South.

The grounds of the Hummingbird Retreat are an uplifting space – the trio took time out to connect for a moment. Clare Edwards will be performing One at the Humm!

Introducing Emma Williams on the Baroque Violin – amongst the gums at the Hummingbird Retreat.

Sky rockets in sight…afternoon delight…It’s true to say that the trio worked very hard on the day and were a pleasure to have on the shoot – we all had a cherry ripe time, thank you Emma, Hannah and Arun.

This years Festival Academy is showcasing Dido and Aeneas;  Aeneas, a Trojan prince who had escaped the devastation of his city at the hands of the Greeks, lands in Carthage where Dido is queen. She falls deeply in love with him, but evil forces are at work, bent on her destruction. Aeneas is tricked into abandoning her, and overwhelmed with grief, she dies. Purcell’s masterful setting of Virgil’s epic tale as an intimate human drama stood unchallenged as the finest English opera for more than three centuries.

For more information on the Peninsula Summer music festival or to organise your tickets please visit peninsulafestival.com.au

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Peppers Moonah Links Resort

Firstly to the last afternoon of 2012; here we were, enjoying a glass of the Peninsula’s finest sparkling whilst taking in the simply spectacular views from Peppers Moonah Links Ridge Deck. A perfectly warm summers sunset was on hand to welcome-in the renowned Acacia Quartet including Australian-born violinist Lisa Stewart, French-born violinist Veronique Serret, German-born cellist Stefan Duwe and US-born cellist Anna Martin-Scrase. Together alone would be a fitting visual as they each poured their souls into the performance. There was nothing left to bank as their energy oozed into each note and from there to the spellbound audience.  For this last evening of this last day Acacia handpicked a selection of the worlds finest string quartets including Nocturne from Borodin, plus works from Beethoven, Mozart, Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak and Rachmaninov. LTP thanks you for the divine performance, an inspiring and cleansing way to end our year but begin our night.

Australian-born violinist Lisa Stewart and French-born violinist Veronique Serret

US-born cellist Anna Martin-Scrase and German-born cellist Stefan Duwe

Acacia Quartet

Now to the first day of 2013; a NYD with a difference as we were intoxicated by the schmooze of Klezmania – this has to be Australia’s most spirited and original band. We were carried away by romantic ballads, whirling traditional dance tunes and foot-tapping jazz inspired songs – all performed in the rustic warmth of the wood barrel room at Willow Creek Vineyard.

Barrel Room at Willow Creek Vineyard.

The intimacy of the performance was unmatched and befitting Klezmania’s enticing and infectious repertoire that moved from the diverse cultures of the “Old World” of Romania, Balkans, Turkey and the Ukraine to the USA and finally to Australia. Klezmer music originated about 500 years ago and ranges from heart-rending ballads to exuberant wedding dances all telling a story of their own – usually of struggle but underlying with a ray of hope. LTP thanks Klezmania for kicking off our year with their spirited performance and for the inspirational note they left with us on the day – it’s better to remember the things we have in common rather than the things that keep us apart.

Eugene Belenko and David Krycer

Freydi Mrocki

Lionel Mrocki

Klezmania

That’s all folks, 2013 is about community, about spirit and about spurring on to go one better – Happy New Year from LTP.

For more information about the Peninsula Summer Music Festival please visit peninsulafestival.com.au

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