Star harpist to perform with QSO
The harp is the star of Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s upcoming Maestro and Morning Masterworks concerts, Romeo and Juliet Marie-Pierre Langlamet (right) one of the world’s leading harpists and the Principal Harpist for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra joins the QSO.
The conductor will be young Venezuelan Diego Matheuz. It will be Queensland Symphony Orchestra debuts for both artists.
Ginastera’s Harp Concerto will be performed by Langlamet. Promising foot-stamping Argentinian dance rhythms and dazzling virtuosic passages, it will be harp as Queensland Symphony Orchestra concert-goers have never seen or heard before. The first and third movements draw from the Argentinian ‘Malambo’, a visceral gaucho dance noted for foot stamping.
The final of the concert is the timeless musical story of young love with Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suite, as musically triumphant as it is theatrically romantic, portraying the star-crossed lovers of Shakespeare’s tragedy.
For those attending the Saturday night concert, Rossini’s William Tell Overture will open proceedings.
Marie-Pierre Langlamet was born in Grenoble, France. She received her first harp instruction at the Nice Conservatory at the age of eight, from Elisabeth Fontan Binoche and has been winning international acclaim since she was 15, when she took the highest prize at the UK’s Maria Korchinska competition. A year later she won first prize at the Cite des Arts Competition in Paris. She was just 17 when she was appointed principal harpist of the Nice Opera Orchestra, a position she held until she left to continue her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
At 20, she was appointed assistant principal harpist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra working under James Levine. During her five years there, she continued to win major awards. She was a first prize winner in New York’s Concert Artists Guild Competition, and in 1992 won first prize at the International Harp competition in Israel, which was widely regarded as the most important for the instrument. She teaches in Berlin at the Karajan Academy and at the Universitat der Kunste.
At the age of 35, Diego Matheuz can already look back on an international career spanning more than a decade. Appointed Principal Conductor of Teatro La Fenice, Diego Matheuz toured Europe as the Principal Guest Conductor of Orchestra Mozart Bologna and has led many of the world’s major ensembles including the Berlin and Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestras, Los Angeles Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Orchestra Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestra Nazionale della Santa Cecilia, and BBC Philharmonic.
He has conducted at some of the most prestigious opera houses in the world, including the Berliner Staatsoper, the Gran Teatr del Liceu, the Teatro Regio Torino, and the Festival Rossiniana in Pesaro. Soloists who have worked under his baton include Nicola Benedetti, Rudolf Buchbinder, Ray Chen, Olga Peretyatko, Pretty Yende, Nikolaj Znaider, and Pinchas Zukerman.
Friday 15 (Morning Masterworks) and Saturday 16 March (Maestro Concert) | Concert Hall, QPAC
Bookings: www.qso.com.au or phone 07 3833 5044